UN Special Rapporteur Urges Regulation, Taxation to Abate “Nutritional Crisis”

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter recently presented a report before the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling for governments to enact five priority actions to curb malnourishment, micronutrient deficiency and obesity in populations worldwide. In particular, De Schutter has urged policy makers to consider (i) “taxing unhealthy products”; (ii) “regulating foods high in saturated fats, salt and sugar”; (iii) “cracking down on junk food advertising”; (iv) “overhauling misguided agricultural subsidies that can make certain ingredients cheaper than others”; and (v) “supporting local food production so that consumers have access to healthy, fresh and nutritious foods.”

According to a March 6, 2012, press release, the independent expert told the
council that in 2010 “U.S. companies spent $8.5 billion advertising food, candy
and non-alcoholic beverages, while $44 million was budgeted for the U.S.
government’s primary standing healthy eating program.” He also reportedly
pointed to “the abundance of processed food as a major threat to improving
nutrition,” with developed countries “now exporting diabetes and heart
disease to developing countries.”

“We have deferred to food companies the responsibility for ensuring that a good nutritional balance emerges. Voluntary guidelines and piecemeal nutrition initiatives have failed to create a system with the right signals, and the odds remain stacked against the achievement of a healthy, balanced diet,” De Schutter was quoted as saying. “Heavily processed foods lead to diets richer in saturated and trans-fatty acids, salt and sugars. Children become hooked on the junk foods targeted at them. In better-off countries, the poorest population groups are most affected because foods high in fats, sugar and salt are often cheaper than healthy diets as a result of misguided subsidies whose health impacts have been wholly ignored.”