Dietary Transition in India: Temporal and Regional Trends, 1993 to 2012.

BACKGROUND: Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and globalization have resulted in dietary transformation in India. Triple burden of malnutrition remains a significant concern, with high prevalence of undernutrition, widespread micronutrient deficiencies, and rising obesity. OBJECTIVE: This article reviews the dietary transition in India by analyzing trends in food consumption across time and space. METHODS: Household consumption survey data from 1993 to 2012 are analyzed to examine both national- and state-level trends to investigate how diets have changed and vary across the country. Typical Indian diets are characterized using k-mean cluster analysis and associated with socioeconomic and geographical aspects. RESULTS: The article finds that on average Indian household diets have diversified slowly but steadily since the 90s. Indians diets have shifted away from cereals to higher consumption of milk. However, progress on micronutrient-rich food groups such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and egg has been worryingly slow. Even by 2012, about a fifth of rural Indian households did not consume fruits or milk, while more than half of both urban and rural households did not consume any meat, fish, or eggs. Five predominant dietary types are identified. Sections of the Indian households do consume reasonably balanced diets, but large percentages consume cereal-focused, dairy-focused, or processed food heavy diets with high processed food content. CONCLUSIONS: Diets in India have not transformed sufficiently to overcome major gaps in intakes of micronutrient-rich foods. Large regional heterogeneities in diets call for regionally differentiated strategies to improve diets

Identifying economic and financial drivers of industrial livestock production - the case of the global chicken industry

This report articulates the asymmetries of power and policies that give rise to corporate concentration in livestock industries, in particular poultry.Another aim of this report is to provide an analytical framework on how to research economic and global finance drivers of corporate expansion and concentration of industrialized livestock production systems in low- and middle-income countries. It explains how to map the economic organization of livestock industries from the local to global level. For example: What are the spheres of influence? How is market power concentrated in corporations? What are the firm ownership structures? What are the investment portfolios of public development banks?The framework is followed by an analysis of the economic organization of the global poultry genetics industry. Lastly, the report presents a case of how global finance and corporate consolidation is linked to the Indian poultry industry, examining how corporate concentration and public policies have shaped the Indian poultry industry into vertically integrated broiler production systems.This report helps front-line persons and policy-makers understand the pathways and power-sharing practices between international and domestic private and public capital that support industrial livestock production systems and their negative externalities. It provides evidence that they can use to identify and address power imbalance in a financialized livestock industry, characterized by spheres of influences and political clientelism between IFIs, LMICs governments, multinational firms and domestic agribusinesses.

Who is responsible for fixing the food system? A framing analysis of media reactions to the UK's National Food Strategy

Purpose – High levels of child obesity alongside rising stunting and the absence of a coherent food policy have deemed UK’s food system to be broken. The National Food Strategy (NFS) was debated intensely in media, with discussions on how and who should fix the food system.Design/methodology/approach – Using a mixed methods approach, the authors conduct framing analysis on traditional media and sentiment analysis of twitter reactions to the NFS to identify frames used to shape food system policy interventions.Findings – The study finds evidence that the media coverage of the NFS often utilised the tropes of “culture wars” shaping the debate of who is responsible to fix the food system – the government, the public or the industry. NFS recommendations were portrayed as issues of free choice to shift the debate away from government action correcting for market failure. In contrast, the industry was showcased as equipped to intervene on its own accord. Dietary recommendations made by the NFS were depicted as hurting the poor, painting a picture of helplessness and loss of control, while their voices were omitted and not represented in traditional media.Social implications – British media’s alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system. Media firms should move beyond tropes of culture wars to discuss interventions that reform the structural causes of the UK’s broken food systems.Originality/value – As traditional media coverage struggles to capture the diversity of public perception; the authors supplement framing analysis with sentiment analysis of Twitter data. To the best of our knowledge, no such media (and social media) analysis of the NFS has been conducted. The paper is also original as it extends our understanding of how media alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system

Conceptualising Disruptions in British Beef and Sheep Supply Chains during the COVID-19 Crisis

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This paper explores the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis as a disruptor to Britain’s beef and sheep supply chains. The assessment of COVID-19 impacts is based on the triangulation of farming and industry news reports, submissions to a government COVID-19 enquiry and interviews with industry experts. We find that livestock farming and farm services were least affected compared to processing, retailing, foodservice, or consumers. Primary and secondary processors continued to operate during the first COVID-19 lockdown but had to quickly become ‘COVID secure’. The most dramatic effect was the overnight closure of hospitality and catering and the redirection of supplies to the retail sector. This picture of a resilient British beef and sheep industry may also be conceptualised as relatively locked in and resistant to change. Red meat production is tied to the land it farms on and operates on 12−36-month production cycles, making it difficult to change trajectory if disruptions do not directly affect farming. Emerging changes in agricultural payments, trade post-Brexit, and societal and environmental pressures may well be the disruptors that have far-reaching impacts on the beef and sheep supply chains.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Processed foods purchase profiles in urban India in 2013 and 2016: a cluster and multivariate analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Sales of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) and beverages are rising in low-income and middle-income countries. Such foods are often linked with weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension-diseases that are on the rise in India. This paper analysed patterns in purchases of processed and UPF by urban Indian households. SETTING: Panel data from Kantar -Worldpanel Division, India for 2013 and 2016. PARTICIPANTS: 58 878 urban Indian households. METHODS: We used K-mean partition clustering and multivariate regression to analyse patterns in processed food (PF) and UPF purchase for urban India. RESULTS: Three-quarters of urban Indian households purchased over ten PF groups. Mean per person annual PF purchase was 150 kg. UPF purchase was low at 6.4 kg in 2016 but had grown by 6% since 2013. Cluster analysis identified three patterns of consumption, characterised by low (54% of the households in 2016), medium (36%) and high (10%) PF purchase quantities. High cluster households purchased over three times as much PFs and UPF as the low cluster households. Notably, salt purchases were persistently high across clusters in both years (>3.3 kg), while sweet snack and ready-to-eat food purchases grew consistently in all clusters between 2013 and 2016. A positive and significant association was found between household purchases of UPF and their socioeconomic status as well as ownership of durables, such as refrigerator, colour television and washing machine (all p<0.001). Spatial characteristics including size of town (p<0.05) in which the household is located were also positively associated with the purchase of UPF. CONCLUSION: Results suggest the need for tailored regional and city level interventions to curb the low but growing purchase of UPF. New data on obesity and rise of non-communicable diseases, the results are concerning given the links between lifestyle changes and the speed of urbanisation in Indian cities

The impact of agricultural input subsidies on food and nutrition security: a systematic review

Agricultural input subsidies, a form of social protection, are often considered an important means of improving agricultural productivity in low- and middle-income countries. However, their effectiveness and efficiency remains contentious with respect to productivity, economic and consumer welfare measures, as well as food and nutrition security. This is exacerbated by a weak evidence base, including no review focused on the impact of agricultural input subsidies on food security and nutrition. Further, where studies have considered nutritional outcomes of agricultural input subsidy interventions, this has often been in regard to changes in consumption of the targeted staple food, measured in terms of calorie consumption or a similar measure of changes in energy availability, ignoring other aspects of malnutrition, including impacts from dietary diversity. This wider consideration of impacts from dietary diversity is important, given the increasing recognition in nutrition policy of its importance. We address this gap in the literature with a review of the evidence on the impact of agricultural input subsidy programmes on nutrition and nutrition-related health in low- and middle-income countries, mapping this evidence against a conceptual framework of the mediating pathways

What underlies inadequate and unequal fruit and vegetable consumption in India? An exploratory analysis

Adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables is key to improved diet-related health in India. We analyse fruit and vegetable consumption in the Indian population using National Sample Survey data. A series of regressions is estimated to characterise the distribution of household fruit and vegetable consumption and explore key socio-economic and food system drivers of consumption. Household income and price are important correlates, but consumption is also higher where households are headed by females, are rural, or involve agricultural livelihoods. Caste is an important source of inequality, particularly amongst those with low consumption, with Scheduled Tribes consuming less F&V than others. We also find preliminary evidence that formal agricultural market infrastructure is positively associated with fruit and vegetable consumption in India

Exploring why animal health practices are (not) adopted among smallholders in low and middle-income countries: a realist framework and scoping review protocol

BackgroundImproving livestock health is considered critical to address poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Modifications of livestock management practices is also increasingly recognized as an important strategy to mitigate global threats such as climate change and novel disease emergence. Smallholders are, however, under various constraints which prohibit them from altering health practices for livestock and little is known about how the adoption of these practices may be promoted. The proposed scoping review aims to systematically map evidence around “what practices are (not) adopted by smallholders under what circumstances, how and why?.”Method and analysisWe conducted initial scoping searches to broadly define types of animal health practices relevant for smallholders in LMICs and formulated search terms. A scoping review protocol was designed and registered. A systematic literature search will be conducted using electronic databases including CAB Abstract, Scopus, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science Core Collection. Gray literature will be searched from AGRIS and Standards for Supporting Agricultural Livelihoods in Emergencies. Articles in English, pertaining to the animal health practices considered highly relevant will be considered eligible for inclusion. Articles will be screened at two stages by two independent reviewers; screening of titles, abstracts, and keywords, followed by full-article screening. The first reviewer will review 100% of the articles at both stages. The second reviewer will review a random sample of 20% of the articles at both stages. Any disagreements will be resolved using inputs from the third reviewer. A thematic analysis will be conducted to catalog contexts and mechanisms for adoption and discussed under a realist framework.DiscussionUnderstanding of the mechanisms underlying the adoption of animal health practices by livestock smallholders in LMICs is crucial for successful implementation of interventions including those which are based on a One Health approach. This review will identify the extent of this knowledge across disciplines and inform future research priorities for the design of effective and feasible interventions which can contribute toward Sustainable Development Goal 2.RegistrationThis protocol is registered within the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FUQAX)

Comparison of food consumption in Indian adults between national and sub-national dietary data sources

Accurate data on dietary intake are important for public health, nutrition and agricultural policy. The National Sample Survey is widely used by policymakers in India to estimate nutritional outcomes in the country, but has not been compared with other dietary data sources. To assess relative differences across available Indian dietary data sources, we compare intake of food groups across six national and sub-national surveys between 2004 and 2012, representing various dietary intake estimation methodologies, including Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES), FFQ, food balance sheets (FBS), and 24-h recall (24HR) surveys. We matched data for relevant years, regions and economic groups, for ages 16–59. One set of national HCES and the 24HR showed a decline in food intake in India between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012, whereas another HCES and FBS showed an increase. Differences in intake were smallest between the two HCES (1 % relative difference). Relative to these, FFQ and FBS had higher intake (13 and 35 %), and the 24HR lower intake (−9 %). Cereal consumption had high agreement across comparisons (average 5 % difference), whereas fruit and nuts, eggs, meat and fish and sugar had the least (120, 119, 56 and 50 % average differences, respectively). Spearman’s coefficients showed high correlation of ranked food group intake across surveys. The underlying methods of the compared data highlight possible sources of under- or over-estimation, and influence their relevance for addressing various research questions and programmatic needs