A/HRC/19/59 types of cancer and obesity.46 This trend is particularly noticeable in emerging economies, 47 and the Special Rapporteur studied the mechanisms at work closely in his missions to Brazil,48 China,49 South Africa50 and Mexico.51 Nutrition transition is accelerated by the expansion of trade in food commodities and by the acceleration of vertical integration in food chains, both of which increase the availability of processed foods. 34. While the globalization of food chains has meant that a diversity of foods are available year-round to certain consumers, it has had negative impacts on local food systems and increased the ecological footprint of food systems. It has also led many consumers to shift towards an increased consumption of staple grains, meat and dairy products, vegetable oil, salt and sugar, and a lower intake of dietary fibre. For instance, the rapid increase in vegetable oil consumption (and thus of fats in diets) can be explained largely by the sudden availability of vegetable oil (particularly soybean oil) at low prices on the world market.52 Increased foreign direct investment in the processing industry and supermarket expansions have made processed foods, including in particular soft drinks, accessible to a larger range of consumers (albeit not to the poorest among them). For instance, following the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement, United States companies massively increased investments in the Mexican food processing industry (from $210 million in 1987 to $5.3 billion in 1999) and sales of processed foods in Mexico soared at an annual rate of 5 to 10 per cent in the period from 1995 to 2003.53 The resulting rise in soft drink and snack consumption by Mexican children is at the source of the very high rates of child obesity in the country. 35. The impacts of increasingly globalized food chains and the uniformization of diets across the globe have disparate impacts across population groups. As a country transitions towards higher income levels, the burden of overweight and obesity shifts. The poorest segment of the population is at low risk of obesity in poor countries, 54 but in upper-middle income developing economies (with a gross national product per capita of over about US$ 2,500) and in high-income countries, it is the poorest who are most negatively affected.55 In high-income countries, while the poor bear a disproportionate burden of 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 C. Gopalan, Nutrition in Developmental Transition in South-East Asia, SEARO Regional Health Paper No. 21 (New Delhi, World Health Organization, 1992). B.M. Popkin and P. Gordon-Larsen, ―The nutrition transition: worldwide obesity dynamics and their determinants‖, International Journal of Obesity, vol. 28 (2004), pp. S2-S9; A.M. Thow, ―Trade liberalisation and the nutrition transition: mapping the pathways for public health nutritionists,‖ Public Health Nutrition, vol. 12 (2009), p. 2150. A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, paras. 5-7. A/HRC/19/59/Add.1, paras. 20-21. A/HRC/19/59/Add.3, paras. 55-56. A/HRC/19/59/Add.2, paras. 48-50. C. Hawkes, ―Uneven dietary development: linking the policies and processes of globalization with the nutrition transition, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases‖, Globalization and Health, vol. 2, No. 4 (2006). Ibid. (noting that consumption of Coca-Cola drinks increased from 275 8oz servings per person per year in 1992 to 487 in 2002, which is higher even than in the United States), seventh page. See also A. Jiménez-Cruz and others, ―Consumption of fruit, vegetables, soft drinks, and high-fat-containing snacks among Mexican children,‖ Archives of Medical Research, vol. 33, No. 1 (2002), pp. 74-80; T.L. Leatherman and A. Goodman, ―Coca-Colonization of diets in the Yucatan,‖ Social Science and Medicine, vol. 61, No. 4 (2005), pp. 833-846. For the case of Brazil, see R.B. Levy-Costa and others, ―Household food availability in Brazil: distribution and trends (1974-2003),‖ Revista de Saúde Pública, vol. 39, No. 4, (2005), pp. 530-540 (noting that the class with incomes above five minimum wages per capita shows a strong increase in the consumption of fats and a decrease in carbohydrate content). Popkin and Gordon-Larsen, ―The nutrition transition‖, p. S6. 15