enhancing food security and physical activity for maori, pacific and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income Peoplesstrongly influences food choice. 3 4 Research in Australia has found that the difference infood purchasing by household income, where low-income households purchase lesshealthy diets, was related in part to concerns about food cost. 5 The findings suggestedthat concern about cost of food is one of the main factors contributing to the relationshipbetween low socio-economic status and less healthy diets.As well as the actual cost of food, the relative cost of healthy compared with less healthyfood is important. It is the greater expense of healthy food that acts as a barrier to itspurchase compared with cheaper less healthy food. There have been various estimatesof the price differential between healthy and less healthy foods. In the US, high energydensity foods have been found to be the least expensive source of energy. 6 Healthierfoods in the lowest quintile of energy density, such as fruit and vegetables, costUS$18.16 per 1,000kCal compared with US$1.76 per 1,000kCal for those in the highestquintile of energy density, such as butter or margarine, oils, chocolate, cookies andchips. Over a two-year period from 2004 to 2006, the least energy dense foodsincreased in price by 19.5 percent, whereas the high energy density foods decreased inprice by 1.8 percent. 6 Looking at the US consumer price index over a longer time periodprovides even starker comparisons. Between 1989 and 2005, the real price of fruit andvegetables rose 74.6 percent while fats and oils fell 26.5 percent and sugars and sweetsfell 33.1 percent. 7In 2007, New Zealanders spent an average 16 percent of their weekly householdexpenditure on food. 8 Since then, food prices have continued to increase. According tothe Food Price Index, food prices increased 9.5 percent from January 2008 toJanuary 2009. 9 For the year to January 2009, fruit and vegetable prices increased13.4 percent, bread increased 20.8 percent, and the price for meat/poultry/fish increased11.8 percent. This was substantially greater than the general Consumer Price Index,which rose 3.4 percent over the year to December 2008. 10 This rapid rise in food priceshas been associated with reports of increasing numbers of whānau/families seeking11 12emergency food supplies from food banks, indicating that this is contributing toworsening food security in New Zealand.The variation in price by food type seen in the US is reflected in a New Zealand study ofthe comparative cost of healthier and less healthy foods. 13 Analysis of the cost of ahealthier versus less healthy food basket found that certain food categories showedgreater variation in cost between the healthier and less healthy options, namely meatand poultry (healthier options 27 percent more expensive), butter and margarine(44 percent), and cheese (19 percent). Overall, the healthier basket cost 7 percent moreper week (excluding fruit and vegetables).The cost of healthy food is therefore an important issue for low-income households. Thischapter explores the potential role of the food industry in relation to reducing the cost ofhealthy food. Key players in the food industry in New Zealand have indicated awillingness to promote health by becoming signatories of the Food Industry Accord, andthe subsequent development of the Food Industry Group. 14 This arose from anacknowledgement that obesity is an issue in New Zealand, and the mission of the FoodIndustry Group was to encourage the creation of commercially successful products andservices that contribute to health. While the Food Industry Accord does not focus onfood security, food insecurity has been linked to obesity, and it sets a precedent for therole of the industry in an issue of public health significance.105
Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income PeoplesMethodsA literature search was conducted in February 2009 of the Scopus, Medline, Embase,International Biography of the Social Sciences, and Food Science and TechnologyAbstracts databases using the following search terms:1. Food industry/ OR food industry.mp2. Food pric$ or food cost.mp3. Food policy OR public policy4. 2 OR 35. 1 AND 46. Supermarket7. 2 AND 68. 5 OR 79. “Price of food”.mp10. “Cost of food”.mp11. “Food cost” or “food price”.mp12. 9 OR 10 OR 1113. 8 OR 12Seven key informant interviews were also conducted with representatives of the foodindustry (n=2), government (n=1), academics (n=3), and non-government organisations(n=1) experienced in working with the food industry. All academic informants werebased in Australia. Interviews were conducted by the same researcher over thetelephone, using an interview guide. Written informed consent was obtained. Writtennotes of the interviews were taken and forwarded to the key informant for approval. Thefindings were analysed according to the research questions and the issues that emergedfrom the data.Results – literature reviewThe World Health Organization (WHO) in its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activityand Health challenged the food industry to play a role in improving health, andhighlighted their role in ensuring public health. 15 It recommended that the food industryintroduce and report upon health-related performance including promoting healthy diets,reformulating products to enhance health, providing affordable and healthy choices toconsumers, providing better information to consumers including labelling, usingresponsible marketing practices, and providing information on food composition toresponsible authorities.WHO also recommended that working with the food industry should involve acting in allareas of the food supply chain. The food supply chain can be broadly divided into threeareas: upstream, which is primary food production and first stage processing; midstreamor second stage processing and food manufacture; and downstream, which is the foodretailers. 16 This chapter therefore looks at the role of the food industry within these threelevels of the food supply chain.Upstream: Primary productionAgricultural policies and agricultural production practices influence what the food farmerschoose to grow. 17 Agricultural policies include input, production, and trade policies.Agricultural production practices include crop breeding, crop fertilisation practices,106
Page 1 and 2:
ENHANCING FOOD SECURITYAND PHYSICAL
Page 3:
Enhancing Food Security and Physica
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59: Enhancing Food Security and Physica
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218 and 219:
Page 220 and 221:
Page 222 and 223:
Page 224 and 225:
Page 226 and 227:
show all

enhancing food security and physical activity for maori, pacific and ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?