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Public health experts called for a global treaty to promote healthy diets and environmentally friendly agriculture in order to limit the political influence of large agribusinesses.
The Commission on Obesity Lancet, an international panel convened by the London-based medical journal, proposes a Framework Convention on Food Systems, inspired by the UN Conventions on Tobacco and Climate Change. This would commit countries to fight both obesity and undernutrition.
"Until now, undernutrition and obesity were perceived as polar opposites consisting of too few or too many calories," said Professor Boyd Swinburn of the co-chair of the Commission for Health. University of Auckland.
"In reality, they are both inspired by the same unhealthy and inequitable food systems, supported by the same political economy focused on economic growth and ignoring negative health and equity outcomes."
The panel is interested in what Richard Horton, Lancet's editor, has called "the dominant business model of large international food and beverage companies focused on maximizing short-term profits."
The approach, he said, leads to "over-consumption of nutrient-poor foods and beverages in high-income countries and increasingly in low- and middle-income countries" .
advisable
The Mexican sweet beverage tax is cited as an example by other countries. Despite the beverage industry's attempts to soften the measures, Mexico added 10% tax to sugary drinks in 2014. In two years, the consumption of sugary drinks has been reduced by 7.6%.
The Commission is calling for the creation of a $ 1 billion global fund "to help 100 more countries apply the Mexican approach to implementing their food and nutrition policies".
The authors anticipate strong resistance from the food and beverage industry. They quote a study done by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, which concluded that in 2016-2017, the sugar beverage sector had spent $ 50 million in the US to lobby against local initiatives to reduce sodium consumption.
The report follows the publication, on January 17, of the related EAT-Lancet commission, which provided scientific goals for a healthy diet, beneficial to both the individual and the planet, including a controversial reduction of six times the consumption of meat by the inhabitants of the industrialized west.
"EAT said what needed to be done, we explained how that could be accomplished," said Professor William Dietz of George Washington University in Washington DC, co-chair of the Obesity Commission, which included 43 experts from 14 countries.
advisable
The authors say that $ 500 billion a year in government-provided agricultural subsidies, which now support production of beef, dairy products, sugar, corn, rice and wheat, should be progressively reoriented "towards agriculture sustainable for healthy foods. At the same time, $ 5 billion a year in fossil fuel subsidies should instead support renewable energy and public transit.
Red meat consumption could be reduced by redirecting subsidies, taxes, health and environmental labels and "social marketing". According to the report, the result would be less cancer and obesity – and a victory for the fight against climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (methane and carbon dioxide) from animal production.
The proposed Framework Convention on Food Systems would explicitly exclude the food industry from policy development, in the same way that the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control excludes cigarette manufacturers. The Commission avoids naming individual companies but qualifies the entire Big Food multinational food and beverage industry.
The global industry is dominated by multinationals such as PepsiCo, Nestle and Tyson Foods.
"Although food clearly differs from tobacco because it is necessary to preserve human life, unhealthy foods and beverages are not," said Professor Dietz. "The similarities with Big Tobacco lie in the damage they cause and in the behaviors of the companies that benefit from it."
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