Assessing the impact of the food system on poverty, nutrition and health, and environmental sustainability in urban Ethiopia

粮食系统对人类健康和福祉以及地球健康有着巨大的影响。它们涉及从农场到餐桌的一系列复杂因素。有必要更好地了解粮食系统对营养、健康、贫困和环境的影响，以便为开发能够改善人类营养和健康、促进可持续环境和支持生计的最佳粮食系统提供信息。在粮食安全在减贫、社会凝聚力和国家安全方面发挥重要作用的脆弱国家，这些领域的交叉尤为重要。了解如何优化粮食系统以改善粮食安全、营养和生计，可能对转型国家和人口走向更大的稳定具有重要意义。我们建议在快速城市化和脆弱治理结构的背景下，对发展中国家的粮食系统及其对营养、健康和环境的影响进行评估。粮食安全，包括饮食的数量和质量，是贫困和经济发展的重要决定因素。虽然粮食安全一直是许多发展中国家的优先事项，但旨在提高作物产量的政策很少与营养和健康需求保持一致。营养不良是造成近一半儿童死亡的原因。与此同时，肥胖和心脏病、糖尿病和癌症等非传染性疾病正在增加，而且往往发生在营养不良仍然普遍存在的社区。在撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区，营养不良的双重负担正在加剧，而快速城市化又加剧了这一负担。粮食系统既受到自然环境的影响，也是自然环境退化的原因之一。农业生产在努力跟上人口增长和变化的步伐时，给环境带来了越来越大的压力。当前不可持续的资源消耗趋势正在损害地球健康，威胁粮食安全，影响我们的福祉。几乎没有证据表明粮食系统、贫困、人类健康和自然环境之间存在联系。这些问题的复杂性阻碍了这一领域的研究，现有的饮食数据并没有全面地捕捉到相关的食物系统因素。拟议的研究将着眼于蛋白质来源食品的生产、获取和消费，包括动物来源和植物来源。蛋白质对人类健康至关重要，不同的来源提供不同的营养和健康益处。这些食品的生产也对环境产生了巨大的影响，如温室气体排放和水污染。我们提出了混合方法，包括定量家庭调查和定性价值链分析，以评估埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴城市人口中蛋白质来源食品的食品系统。对系统评价和荟萃分析的回顾（并在必要时进行更新）将用于估计对健康和环境结果的病因效应大小。结果将用于开发一个概念模型，使我们能够测试实现最佳地球健康的干预措施。最后，我们将为埃塞俄比亚和其他撒哈拉以南非洲国家的广泛利益攸关方提出立即行动和未来研究的建议。撒哈拉以南非洲的粮食系统、环境和健康之间的关系极其复杂，尚未得到详细研究。对这些动态的清晰理解将使我们能够开发出具有突破性的长期解决方案。对于全球人口来说，最紧迫的问题可能是建立有抵御力的粮食系统，促进健康、营养和可持续环境。

Food systems have enormous implications for human health and wellbeing and planetary health. They involve a complex set of factors from farm to table. A greater understanding of the effects of food systems on nutrition, health, poverty, and the environment is necessary to inform the development of optimal food systems that can improve human nutrition and health, promote sustainable environments, and support livelihoods. The intersection of these areas is particularly crucial in fragile states where food security plays an important role in poverty alleviation, social cohesion, and national security. Understanding how food systems can be optimized to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods may have important implications for transitioning countries and populations toward greater stability.We propose to conduct an assessment of a developing country food system and its effects on nutrition, health, and the environment, in the context of rapid urbanization and fragile governance structures. Food security, including both quantity and quality of diets, is an important determinant of poverty and economic development. While food security has been a priority for many developing countries, policies aimed at increasing crop yields have rarely been aligned with nutritional and health needs. Malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all child deaths. At the same time, obesity and noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, are increasing-often in the same communities where undernutrition remains prevalent. This double burden of malnutrition is increasing in much of sub-Saharan Africa and is exacerbated by rapid rates of urbanization.Food systems are both impacted by the natural environment and also a cause of its degradation. Agricultural production is placing increased pressure on the environment as it struggles to keep pace with population growth and shifts. Current trends of unsustainable resource consumption are harming our planetary health, threatening food security, and impacting our wellbeing.There is little evidence connecting food systems, poverty, human health, and the natural environment. The complexity of these issues has hindered research in this area and existing dietary data does not comprehensively capture relevant food system factors.The proposed study will look at production, access, and consumption of protein source foods, including both animal-source and plant-based sources. Protein is essential for human health, and different sources offer varying nutritional and health benefits. The production of these foods also has enormous impacts on the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.We propose mixed methods including a quantitative household survey and qualitative value chain analysis to assess the food system for protein source foods among an urban population in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Review (and updating where necessary) of systematic reviews and meta-analyses will be used to estimate etiological effect sizes on health and environmental outcomes. Results will be used to develop a conceptual model that will allow us to test interventions toward optimal planetary health. Ultimately, we will form recommendations for immediate action and future research that will be of relevance for a wide range of stakeholders in Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan African countries.The relationships between food systems, the environment, and health in sub-Saharan Africa are exceedingly complex and have not been studied in detail. A clear understanding of these dynamics will allow us to develop potentially groundbreaking, long term solutions. There is perhaps no issue more pressing for global populations than the establishment of resilient food systems that promote health, nutrition and sustainable environments.