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Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income Peopleslivestock-feeding practices, and crop systems diversity. Together, they impact on dietthrough food availability, price, and nutrient quality, and thus the choices available toconsumers. These policies and practices could be utilised to promote affordable healthydiets. Traditionally, agricultural policies and production practices are considered from atrade and agriculture perspective; however, to adequately consider cost and nutritionalvalue of food, a health and equity ‘lens’ should be applied. 18Intervening at the primary production stage has potential to lead to significantimprovements in healthiness of the food supply, and some examples are provided in theliterature. In the UK, work has been undertaken looking at improving the fatty acidprofile of meat and increasing the phytochemical content of fruit. 19 Altering the fatty acidprofile of cow’s milk has been achieved through methods such as feeding cows wholecracked rapeseeds, changing the variety of grass cows eat, and providing biodiverse19 20grass pastures. Another example has been producer and government supportedresearch to reduce the fat content of pork and improve meat quality in the US. 21In New Zealand, a ‘calculator’ for potato growers to optimise fertiliser and water use hasrecently been developed 22 by scientists at Plant & Food Research. It is saving famershundreds of thousands of dollars each year, as well as benefitting the environment.Innovations such as these have potential to help reduce the cost of food for consumers,if savings are passed on through reduced prices.In contrast to the prior examples, factors impacting on primary production can also havea negative impact on healthiness and price of the food supply. In Canada the price ofmilk for processors is based on its end use, and fluid milk prices are higher than pricesfor milk used for other dairy products. This has meant butterfat is more price-competitivethan milk solids, and consumers’ purchases are shifted towards higher-fat milk productssuch as ice cream. 23 There are also restrictions on the blending of dairy and non-dairyproducts, which restricts use of butter blend margarines which are lower in saturated fat.Thus, agricultural policy made in the absence of health considerations can adverselyimpact nutrition-related health outcomes, creating price incentives for less healthyproducts.Traill 19 has noted that changes in primary production are more likely to be acceptable toconsumers if they are achieved through traditional animal husbandry or agriculturetechniques rather than genetic modification or novel food processing techniques. It isnoted that it may require a substantial shift in primary production focus to consider healthand nutrition alongside yield. Globally, this is most likely to happen in parallel with thegrowing focus on climate change and sustainable agricultural practices. Thus, initiativesto influence nutritional value and cost of food at primary production level stand mostchance of success if they are pitched as natural partners to these other initiatives thathave substantial public and political support.Making changes to improve the food supply at the primary production level requiressignificant investment in research and development. While traditionally research focuseson economic, production or efficiency factors, health also needs to be a consideration.Such research needs to be targeted at factors that would provide the most healthbenefits to the New Zealand population, such as reducing saturated fat and increasingfruit and vegetable intake (eg, by developing vegetable varieties that appeal to children,are more cost-effective to produce, or which overcome some of the barriers toconsumption). A key priority would be that any changes made in primary production do107
Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income Peoplesnot create a price premium, but rather ensure that healthier options are accessible to allconsumers. The government currently invests ~$134 million/year in food research. 24This research investment is primarily driven by economic motives, recognising theimportance of the food industry to the New Zealand economy - over 50 percent of NewZealand’s exports are food and beverages. 25 Only five percent of the current researchinvestment is directly targeted at achieving health outcomes. 24 25 The Ministry ofResearch, Science and Technology is currently developing a roadmap for future foodresearch. 26 The roadmap notes that this government research investment has a widerrole to play in supporting public health policy and decision-making. Integrating primarysector food research with a health research agenda should see more funding focused onnutrition-related health outcomes.A report for the Australian government on price determination in the food industryidentified five key determinants of the price of food. 27 These are supply and demandconditions, trade, integration between producer and consumer throughout the foodchain, use of technology and innovation, and product competition. It is noted that thecost of services such as transport, storage, distribution and retailing (which include ahigh labour input) make a greater contribution to the increasing cost of core groceryfoods than the raw commodity. The cost of raw goods, however, usually benefits to agreater extent from improvements in technology than does the cost of services. 27 Thesetechnologies are often rapidly taken up by competitors and eventually lower the cost ofgoods. Whilst improving the cost of food, the introduction of new technologies couldpotentially have an unintended impact on food security if they result in job loss.The impact of international trade on the cost of food is also important. Trade can impacton three areas: prices on overseas markets of products which are predominantlyexported determine the price on domestic markets and returns to producers; the priceand market penetration of imported products determine the price that domestic productscan achieve; and world commodity prices for non-food items (such as commodities used27 18in packaging and transport) influences prices on the domestic market. Free tradecan increase the local year-round availability of food and exports create income whichcan positively impact on food security. 28 Thus international trade can have both positiveand negative effects on food cost.In summary, innovation at the primary production level can lead to improvements in thehealthiness of the food supply. Reorienting agricultural and food research funding toalso consider health implications and affordability would guide new development andinitiatives towards those that provide benefits not just for industry, but for the consumerand society as a whole. There is definite potential for improvements in the cost andavailability of healthy food through upstream initiatives. However, an importantconsideration when making changes at the primary production level is that the changesshould not lead to healthier foods only being available at a price premium.Midstream: Food processing and manufacturingThere are various factors that impact on type and composition of manufacturedproducts. 21 These include consumer demand, input and processing costs, commoditysupport programmes/tariff policy, food safety requirements, government policy, andnutrition education and information policy. An example is the commodity supportprogramme in the US which pays a minimum price for certain crops. 29 Commoditysupport for corn led to oversupply and increased the use of corn oil and high fructosecorn syrup as cheap forms of fat and sugar in food manufacturing.108
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