Reclaiming traditional, plant-based, climate-resilient food systems in small islands

Abstract

Small island developing states face challenges in cultivating healthy food systems and are currently bearing substantial burdens of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Local food production-rooted in collective local and Indigenous traditions, self-sufficiency, and climate-adaptive agricultural practices-has long emphasised a fibre-rich, plant-based diet; however, common histories of dietary colonialism have replaced local, small-scale farming and fisheries with non-nutritive cash crops, intensive livestock operations, and high-quality food exportation. Along with declines in traditional food availability, the resulting food import dependence has fostered a diabetogenic ecosystem composed of energy-dense cereal products, animal-based fats, and processed foods. The destabilisation of local food sectors undermines small island social and cultural systems, contributes to impoverishment and food insecurity during natural disasters, and, ultimately, can reduce diet quality and increase type 2 diabetes risk. Despite ongoing marginalisation of traditional local food systems, locally produced foods such as starchy roots, legumes, fruits, and seafood persist as nutritious and ecologically relevant cornerstones of self-determined local economic productivity and dietary health. Findings from community and epidemiological work suggest that local food production-bolstered by local and Indigenous agroecological knowledge, cultural preservation, and collective agency-can aid in reclaiming healthy and climate-resilient small island food systems.

Figure 1:. Age-adjusted diabetes prevalence in adults (20–79 years) in small island developing states in 2019

The dashed line indicates the worldwide age-adjusted diabetes prevalence in adults. Data from the International Diabetes Federation.

Figure 2:. Proportion of energy available from various food groups in SIDS and the USA

Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, 2013. Cereals include wheat, rice, barley, maize, rye, oats, millet, and sorghum products; sugars and sweeteners include sugar, honey, and other sweeteners; starchy roots include cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yam products. Meat includes bovine, mutton, poultry, and pork products; seafood includes crustaceans, cephalopods, molluscs, and freshwater, demersal, and pelagic fish; fruits and vegetables include tomatoes, onions, citrus, grapefruit, bananas, plantains, apples, pineapples, dates, and grapes; nuts and legumes include beans, peas, other pulses, and nut products; animal fats include raw animal fats, butter, cream, and fish oil; and vegetable oils include soybean, groundnut, sunflower seed, rapeseed, cottonseed, palm, coconut, sesame seed, olive, and maize oils. SIDS=small island developing states.

Figure 3:. Import quantities of various food groups in SIDS from 1961 to 2017

Data available from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Cereals include barley, buckwheat, canary seed, flour, fonio, maize, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat; total meat includes pork, beef, poultry, and mutton products; animal and vegetable oils include beeswax, raw animal fats, coconut, castor bean, cottonseed, groundnut, linseed, maize, olive, palm, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, soybean, and sunflower oil; legumes, bananas and plantains, and cassava includes Bambara beans, broad beans, chickpeas, lentils peas, bananas, plantains, cassava, and cassava flour. SIDS=small island developing states.

Figure 4:. Association between age-adjusted diabetes prevalence and 10 year food production index in SIDS

Data available from the International Diabetes Federation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.^, Estimates for age-adjusted diabetes prevalence are from 2019 and only include adults aged 20 to 79 years. The 10 year food production index estimates are from 2016 and use 2004–06 as the base period, in which the base period index score is 100 (values below 100 indicate a decline in local food production from the base period and values above 100 indicate an increase). The index includes food crops and livestock products originating in each country that are considered edible and that contain nutrients; coffee and tea are excluded because they have no nutritive value. The grey line indicates the correlation between age-adjusted diabetes prevalence and 10 year net food production index across all SIDS (r= −0·203). SIDS=small island developing states.