Healthy foods must be nutritious, safe and fair–But what is good for the rich may be bad for the poor

Pork joints in Uganda (photo credit: ILRI/Martin Heilmann, Freie Universitaet Berlin).

The following excerpts are taken from a guest commentary, Healthy foods must be nutritious, safe and fair, published on the Global Food for Thought blog of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on 10 Apr 2015. The authors are John McDermott, of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and director of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), and Delia Grace, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), where she leads a program on Food Safety and Zoonoses and the  ‘Agriculture Associated Diseases’ flagship of A4NH.

‘Food safety is a growing concern locally and globally. High-profile food scares in recent years, in rich and emerging countries, have raised awareness that healthy eating must be safe eating.

‘Unfortunately, the most nutritious foods are often the least safe. Vegetables and fruits are often…