Nutrition in the trade and food security nexus

Goal 2 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 is end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, with Target 2.2 being to “end all forms of malnutrition.” The World Health Organization also has adopted voluntary global targets on nutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Though progress towards meeting these targets is being made, malnutrition remains prevalent (IFPRI, 2015). A total of 161 million children under age 5 are too short for their age (stunted), and 51 million don’t weigh enough for their height (wasted) (UNICEF/ WHO/World Bank, 2015). Millions of women have diets that are insufficient in Vitamin A, iron, iodine and zinc. Forty-two million children under 5 and 1.9 billion adults are overweight (WHO, 2015a). In 2010, it was estimated that over 12 million global deaths resulted from NCDs linked with unhealthy diets and inadequate physical activity (Lim et al., 2013).