Food security - a matter of life and death

Johann Antoine & Leslie Hoo Fung, Guest Columnists

The recent reports of suspected ackee poisoning, accompanied by many deaths, emphasise yet again the importance of food security and food safety. This sort of scenario is not limited to Jamaica, as even in recent years, there has been the discovery of melamine in baby formula and milk products from China, lead has been found in candies from Mexico, and cadmium in pineapples from South Africa and in potatoes from Montenegro.

A first priority of food security is ensuring enough to eat, but it entails much more than that: food must also be nutritious and safe for consumption. This applies to both local and imported products, as even with maximising local sustainable agriculture of productive soils, significant imports will be necessary to maintain the food supply. This is especially true in a world threatened by factors such as climate change and fluctuating fuel prices, to which small developing states such as Jamaica are likely to be particularly susceptible.

There are numerous chemical risks to food safety. Agrochemicals such as pesticide residue on food crops, persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins, animal drugs, and toxic elements such as mercury are just some of the contaminants that humans may be exposed to via food. Microbial risks are just as evident in the periodic outbreaks occurring in many countries with cholera being topical at this time in our region.

The risk of elevated levels of radioactivity in foods has lessened with reductions in global nuclear testing and improved reactor safety, but in the past, milk powder, wine, cheese, and other imported goods, for example, have shown levels of radioactive contamination and radionuclides.

There is good cause to maintain such monitoring at an appropriate level. In addition to public-health reasons, there may also be international trade issues, as we have seen more than once with examples of ackee shipments being rejected because of elevated levels of hypoglycin.

Nutrition value

Typically, when discussing nutrition, energy requirements come to the fore: fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Vitamins are also emphasised, but the role of trace elements in nutrition is usually less pronounced in Jamaica. Yet, by some estimates, the source of most food insecurity is related to micronutrient deficiency. The World Health Organisation lists zinc and iron deficiencies among the leading causes of illness and disease in low-income countries. Children and women of child-bearing age are so susceptible to iron deficiency and the resultant anaemia that even if caloric fat and protein intake are sufficient, there is 'hidden hunger'. Nutrient-deficient soils on which many crops are cultivated and on which livestock feed are the source of these deficiencies, which can so affect public health.

Clearly, there is little value to having food in abundance that is nutritionally inadequate for our needs, or of unacceptable safety and quality. While there is some level of monitoring that takes place, and there has been some analysis of trace elements, by and large, one must rely on the external knowledge for this data; local resources are limited and this, in turn, limits the amount of data that have been generated locally.

The capacity to routinely monitor and regulate what we grow and what we import is an important aspect of our agricultural development. With a familiar locally grown food, our national fruit no less, seemingly the cause of dozens of poisonings and deaths, and with potentially toxic elements in some of our productive agricultural soils, we need to know what is in the food that we grow and eat. Can we afford to be any less cognisant of what is in our foods from far outside our borders?

Leslie Hoo Fung and Johann Antoine are senior scientific officers at the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com, leslie.hoofung@uwimona.edu.jm and johann.antoine@uwimona.edu.jm.

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