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Latest newsNews searchHealthFinanceFoodCareer newsContent seriesTry Devex Pro
    • Career
    • Food Secured

    Want to fix the food system? Consider these 4 career paths

    There’s a growing need for more professionals that can address food insecurity. These experts with unique food sector jobs tell Devex what their roles entail.

    By Natalie Donback // 27 June 2023
    More than 345 million people are facing severe food insecurity — more than double the number in 2020 — making it more urgent than ever to find new solutions to a broken food system and tackle the root causes of hunger globally. With needs increasing as a result of climate change, conflict, and rising costs, international aid agencies and NGOs are working hard to deliver solutions from school feeding programs to innovations that can reduce food waste. But in order to ensure food security and improve access to healthy diets in the long term — while also safeguarding the environment — the Food and Agriculture Organization calls for an urgent transformation of the food system. This will require addressing the growing need for more professionals that can bridge the gap between disciplines and sectors to come up with new and effective solutions in deeply different contexts ranging from Yemen and Somalia to Haiti and Sri Lanka. Devex spoke to four specialists working to improve food systems in different ways about what goes into their work and the skills needed to address increasingly complex challenges. 1. School feeding expert Almost 420 million children worldwide receive school meals, according to the latest State of School Feeding Worldwide report from the World Food Programme. Although most school meal programs came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, school feeding is now once again one of the largest social safety nets in the world, the report said. As the head of school feeding for WFP in Sudan, Edna Kalaluka is constantly looking at numbers, she said. “How many children are we feeding, how much food is required, and how much does it cost?” Looking for money is a big part of the job too and you constantly have to be talking to donors and convince them to support the programs and write funding proposals, she added. It’s also a coordination role, where you have to talk to everyone, from food producers to people marketing or selling the food to other WFP teams including procurement and logistics, she said. Kalaluka is also a so-called home-grown school feeding expert, focusing on connecting programs with local smallholder farmers to boost their livelihoods. “You use the predictable nature of school demand to promote local agriculture,” said Kalaluka. This way, Kalaluka continued, “the money you’re spending on buying the food for the children goes back into the community and helps catalyze the rural economy” by not only improving the income of local farmers but also encouraging other jobs around things like packaging and processing. Another project involved linking school feeding programs with a program to support pregnant and breastfeeding mothers who had malnourished children at home. The women were given seeds and other support to grow food to feed their children, and any surplus they generated was sold to the schools in order to diversify the menu. 2. Food scientist and technologist It’s estimated that a third of all food produced is lost or wasted globally and in many low- and middle-income countries 40% of losses occur at the post-harvest and processing level, as opposed to at the retail and consumer stage in high-come countries. Food loss is one of the many issues food scientists and technologists are working to solve. along with developing products that can address multiple nutrition- and hunger-related issues. Their work can range from developing new ready-to-use therapeutic foods, or RUTFs, to improving the nutritional value of local, indigenous crops such as cassava, explained Toyin Oluwole, a food scientist and technologist at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research in Lagos, Nigeria. Food scientists and technologists also play a key role in guaranteeing food security in a country by finding new methods for supplementing and maintaining the national food supply. Oluwole’s day-to-day includes studying processes “from the farm gates, as soon as agricultural produce is harvested until it gets to the table of the ultimate consumer in the most nutritious and safe form possible.” She coordinates the work of 60 research scientists, covering everything from developing value-added products from indigenous food crops for food and nutrition security to upgrading indigenous food processing technologies to make them more efficient and nutritious. “We look at the best processing methods that will retain the nutrients as much as possible.” Some of the food products she has worked on developing include high-quality cassava flour and high-nutrient biscuits for school children. For Oluwole, food scientists play a vital role in addressing food security and hunger in Nigeria. Without this work, “we will continue to have the problem of food insecurity and continue to import food,“ she said. 3. Fishery officer The role of fisheries and aquaculture in providing food, nutrition, and employment is growing. In 2020, its production reached an all-time high of 214 million metric tons, making it necessary to start prioritizing and better integrating fisheries and aquaculture products in global, regional, and national food system strategies and policies, according to FAO. That’s where professionals such as fishery officers come in. Fisheries are almost entirely reliant on wild fish stocks, “that means we really have to be very careful in how those fish stocks are accessed and the amount of fish that's removed to make sure they can be sustainably fished in the future,” said Kim Friedman, a senior fishery resources officer at FAO. Part of their mandate is to ensure questions concerning all 196 member countries can be dealt with on an international stage and to track national reporting on issues such as the status of fish stocks, Friedman told Devex. They also draft agreements around how countries manage this common resource, which is “transboundary and highly migratory.” When it comes to ensuring sustainable fish stocks, fishery officers are key in building those agreements — whether it’s to try and make trade more transparent or make the assessment of fish stocks clearer using technology. Another part of the job is to understand the issues facing people whose livelihoods depend on the sea, and trying to find solutions that can help them generate an income while preserving the sustainability of these fragile ecosystems. One of the projects Friedman said he is most proud of involved pearl oyster farming in the Pacific islands, where juvenile oysters were captured and grown in midwater in a way that allowed local communities to harvest pearls to earn an income. 4. Livestock specialist The livestock sector is a key part of the global food system and contributes to poverty reduction, food security, and agricultural development supporting the livelihoods of about 1.3 billion people. Yet, it’s also a big driver of climate change, responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities. Livestock is an integral part of the household economy and contributes to family subsistence, income, and well-being, said Ana Cristina Canales Gomez, an independent livestock specialist and consultant for international development organizations. “They’re a very rapid and stable source of food, they also help in labor, in cultivating land, and in transport for both people and goods,” she said. “They can be a strong source of income by sale or even by hire. Animals serve as collateral so they basically mean credit or insurance.” Her day-to-day consists of translating her knowledge as a veterinarian into policies and national strategies for countries that want to develop their livestock sector in a responsible and sustainable way. She also has “a mandate to put animal welfare and health front and center,” she said. The role of livestock specialists is also increasingly about finding innovative solutions to rising and emerging issues such as climate change mitigation and integrating one health approaches that consider both the health of humans, animals, and the planet, she explained. “Livestock is critical in delivering food security and it’s critical for constructing resilient food systems. We will not do any of these things, we will not have food-secure populations, if livestock is not in the equation,” she said. Visit Food Secured — a series that explores how to save the food system and where experts share groundbreaking solutions for a sustainable and resilient future. This is an editorially independent piece produced as part of our Food Secured series, which is funded by partners. To learn more about this series and our partners, click here.

    More than 345 million people are facing severe food insecurity — more than double the number in 2020 — making it more urgent than ever to find new solutions to a broken food system and tackle the root causes of hunger globally.

    With needs increasing as a result of climate change, conflict, and rising costs, international aid agencies and NGOs are working hard to deliver solutions from school feeding programs to innovations that can reduce food waste.

    But in order to ensure food security and improve access to healthy diets in the long term — while also safeguarding the environment — the Food and Agriculture Organization calls for an urgent transformation of the food system.

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    More reading:

    ► How to build career expertise in food systems

    ► Devex jobs: Career advice from a sustainable food scientist

    ► How to build career expertise in agriculture

    • Agriculture & Rural Development
    • Careers & Education
    • Social/Inclusive Development
    • Environment & Natural Resources
    • Global Health
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    About the author

    • Natalie Donback

      Natalie Donback

      Natalie Donback is a freelance journalist and editor based in Barcelona, where she covers climate change, global health, and the impact of technology on communities. Previously, she was an editor and reporter at Devex, covering aid and the humanitarian sector. She holds a bachelor’s degree in development studies from Lund University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Barcelona and Columbia Journalism School.

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