The transition from childhood to adulthood can be difficult. It’s even more difficult for today’s adolescents, who are still feeling the consequences of the COVID-induced lockdowns that interrupted their schooling and their social development. Some of them are also suffering from the impacts of conflicts around the world. And there are the ongoing concerns about the climate crisis: What future are we giving them?
We do not have all the answers to the three Cs of COVID, conflict, and climate. But at least we’re talking about them. What remains unspoken and not widely recognized is that almost every country in the world is going through a food crisis among adolescents.
There has been no change in the prevalence of underweight among adolescent girls since 2000, according to UNICEF. It’s incredible that we’ve had 23 years without visible progress. There is also, paradoxically, rising obesity among young people, risking a range of non-communicable diseases. And many adolescent diets are also lacking the micronutrients they need. Each of these is a crisis, yet in many countries all three are happening at the same time. Large food companies are looping us into a junk food cycle that is difficult to break free from.
As if that is not enough, increasing food prices are compounding these crises. Young people simply cannot afford to buy the right food, even if they know what to buy. There is great social economic inequality in all forms of malnutrition: it’s harder to eat a healthier diet if you are already disadvantaged.
We cannot watch this happen. Today’s youth are our future workforce, leaders, and parents. We talk a lot about addressing climate change to secure our children’s future. We have a duty to future generations to have parallel, and even interlinking, conversations about food and nutrition. We cannot leave them with the current situation. What is the vision of the world we want to leave our children?
Increasing youth participation
The good news is that there is some positive activity. We see that Gen Z is a vocal generation. They are prepared to be bold in making a stand about important topics and are prepared to take action to address them.
Act4Food Act4Change is a good example. It is a youth-led movement calling on governments across the world to take the necessary actions to fix our food systems. A key point they are making is that young people cannot be excluded from decision-making because they are the ones who will live with the consequences of current decision-making the longest.
The World Health Organization launched its Youth Council earlier this year, with the aim of using the voices, experiences and energy of young people to develop new ideas to promote public health. The Global Youth Mobilization is addressing the negative impacts of COVID and the lockdowns, and to support young people to take action to tackle local and global issues. GYM makes an excellent point: young people are an essential part of the solution. And there was also significant inclusion of young people at the U.N. Food Systems Summit in 2021, contributing to the wider discussion about the way the world produces and consumes food.
This is a good start, but we need to do more. As we mark two years since the Summit with the stocktaking in July, we need to ensure young people continue to be involved, playing a role in how we shape our future food systems.
The next step
We need to begin by recognizing the burden we are placing on today’s youth, in particular their ability to access healthier diets and the complex food legacy we are leaving them. We need to place food firmly at the center of the health agenda, in large part because diet-related diseases are the biggest contributor to loss of disability-adjusted life years.
To do this we need to join forces across multiple sectors and countries. Agriculturalists, nutritionists, food producers, health workers, educators, youth movements: food is something that touches all of us and we all have a responsibility for improving adolescents’ nutrition.
The issues around nutrition are a worldwide problem. We cannot see this as an isolated issue in isolated countries. That is why we have to find ways to engage with such a wide range of people.
It’s clear that we need to listen to youth. It’s easy to talk about bringing them to a conference or to give a presentation. But are we really listening to them? Do we understand that their experiences are different from ours? Are we prepared to see them as active participants in our pursuit for solutions, and as important consumers? We must be able to answer yes to those questions if we are serious about finding and making the changes we need.
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Photo courtesy of GreenForce, Unsplash
