Nutrition

For the three-year IAP project 'food and nutrition security and agriculture', four parallel regional academy network working groups were constituted: in Africa (the Network of African Science Academies, NASAC), Asia (the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia, AASSA), the Americas (the Inter-American Network of Academies of Science, IANAS) and Europe (the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council, EASAC).

Food, Inc. is a powerful documentary deconstructing the corporate food industry in America. Aided by expert commentators such as Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, the film poses questions such as: Where has my food come from, and who has processed it? What are the giant agribusinesses and what stake do they have in maintaining the status quo of food production and consumption?

In this discussion paper, we undertook an analysis guided by three questions relevant to food and nutritional security for the project site of Sixaola on the Costa Rica – Panama border.

The compendium shows how the scope of research has evolved at IFPRI, as well as in the wider development community. It covers a host of topics that bear on food and nutrition security, including development strategies, markets and trade, technologies for agricultural production, natural resource management, conflicts and natural disasters, subsidies and safety nets, gender roles, and health. Research on each topic is set into context to show how thinking has progressed over time.