FAO head blames cheap food for obesity in the region

Dr Jose Graziano da Silva, the director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has named conflicts, climate change, and economic slowdown as contributory to the increase of hunger in the Latin America and Caribbean region and has added that the importation of cheap foods is responsible for the increase in malnutrition and obesity in the region.

Speaking at the closing press conference of the 35th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, which concluded at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James on Thursday, Graziano da Silva posited the view that it might be necessary for governments of the region to legislate against cheap food imports, which are loaded with salts, fats, and sugar.

RECORD ATTENDANCE

With part of the agenda of the four-day conference focusing on increase in hunger and obesity in the region and how to combat the phenomenon, the director general commended the record attendance at and participation in the conference, which had representatives from all 33 member countries in the region for the first time.

"Obesity or malnutrition is something new that we are now starting to look more deeply into ... there is a tendency for the islands, especially the smaller islands, to have a high level of obesity," noted Graziano da Silva. He added that statistics are showing that whereas in some islands up to 50 per cent of the population is obese, the incidence rises to 65 per cent of the population in some instances.

Graziano da Silva went on to blame the problem of obesity on the fact that because of budgetary restrictions in some of those islands, they tend to seek the cheapest foods to import.

"The cheapest foods are those that are intense in fats, sugar, and salt - the three main causes of overweight and obesity," said Graziano da Silva.

"We have, in some sense, outsourced the responsibility of feeding ourselves. We need to recover the responsibility for feeding our people. This is a question for the governments as well. We need policies from them. It is not a private issue. This is an epidemic issue.

"We need a complete review of the role of the governments, of the consumers, and of the families, on this nutrition issue. We need to think about it in a responsible way and implement policies that we know are efficient," declared Graziano da Silva.