// SUSTAINABILITY: FOOD SECURITY
Fixing the food system for global nutrition security
S ince World War Two, the global food system has been optimised to prevent shortages – a goal it has overwhelmingly achieved. Today’s famines are rarely the result of crop failures or inadequate food production; instead, they stem primarily from political instability and conflict. However, this relentless drive for efficiency and higher yields has created new challenges. The world now heavily depends on a limited selection of crops, cultivated ever more industrially through sustained research, development and subsidies. This narrow focus has made the food system one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions – especially from fossil fuel–based inputs and livestock, which contributes methane and requires vast areas for grazing and feed. At the same time, diet-related risk factors such as low consumption of fruit and vegetables or high consumption of sugar, driven by the globalised food supply, have become dominant contributors to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, which now top the charts in the global burden of disease.
THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION SECURITY Our global food system is now characterised by a few major global food companies generating vast profits and becoming increasingly financialised, shifting from a focus on producing food that nourishes us to maximising short-term stock prices and dividends, extracting value from the food system rather than investing in improving its outcomes. This means the global policy discourse should be as much about nutrition security as it is about food security. Access to affordable nutritious food has become a major problem in all countries of the world, including high-income countries, as food environments are increasingly flooded with cheap, health-harming ultra-processed food. This is creating a catastrophic burden of diet-related ill health that health systems cannot deal with. Moreover, this burden is now becoming a significant drag on major economies, as people drop out of work due to sickness. Reshaping the food system so that it supports greater consumption of
As the world faces famine, inequity and poor nutrition, to achieve true food security, global leaders must rewire the system, shifting from yield and efficiency to nourishment, resilience and public health
Anna Taylor, executive director, The Food Foundation
124 // G20 SOUTH AFRICA: THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT 2025
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