A/HRC/19/59 impacts should be allowed to continue unimpeded: these products reduce the life expectancy, in particular, of the poorest segment of the population, who are also the least nutritionally literate, and to protect children only would be like reducing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to its article 16, which deals with sales of tobacco products to minors. In addition, an international framework, in the form of an international code of conduct regulating marketing food and beverages in support of national efforts, might be desirable in order to take into account the international nature of commercial promotion of energy-dense, micronutrient-poor food and beverages. 2. The transition to sustainable diets 43. While the agrifood industry is encouraged to produce and develop more healthy foods, very little is said about the need to develop more healthy food systems that can deliver sustainable diets in the holistic sense referred to above. But it is high time to recognize the real tension that exists between a strategy that promotes processed foods, enriched with nutrients to the point that diets become medicalized, and a strategy that promotes local and regional food systems, as well as a shift towards foods that are less heavily processed and thus more nutritious. 72 For reasons of logistics and seasonality, as well as the urbanization of lifestyles, these two strategies must sometimes be combined, as not all foods can be sourced locally or bought in farmers‘ markets. But priorities must nevertheless be set in public policies. The market for food products cannot expand infinitely, and choices must be made as to which food system to promote. 44. As noted by WHO, local food systems to improve urban consumers‘ access to fresh and nutritious foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, has a key role to play in making a shift towards healthier diets (A/66/83, para. 60). This begins by improving the links between local farmers and the urban consumers, although urban and peri-urban agriculture can also make a significant contribution. The urban and rural agendas both can gain by rebuilding local food systems that provide healthy and sustainable diets at affordable prices for consumers. Such diets also can be more easily achieved by shorter supply chains, because such chains are not controlled by large retailers or food processing companies and do not have to depend on national policies that respond to broader economic interests.73 In addition, shorter food chains can improve access to markets and incomes for small-scale local farmers, both in low-income and higher-income countries.74 They encourage the enhancement of agrobiodiversity because local food crops can expand, rather than being crowded out by homogenized commodities for the global markets. And they reduce the dependency of food systems on the considerable amounts of energy required for the packaging, processing and transport of food. 45. This shift can be brought about by adequate infrastructure investments—roads and transport facilities linking local food producers to urban consumers—and support for farmers‘ markets, but also by local sourcing of healthy foods for public institutions such as schools. In 2003, African Governments endorsed the Home Grown School Feeding component of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, and the 72 73 74 See Lang and Heasman, Food Wars. Food, Agriculture and Cities: Challenges of food and nutrition security, agriculture and ecosystem management in an urbanizing world, FAO Food for the Cities multi-disciplinary initiative position paper, 2011, pp. 29 and 41. See University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition, ―How farmers markets can promote access to healthy food‖, Public Health Research Brief, August 2010; M. Ostrom and others, Engines of The New Farm Economy: Assessing and Enhancing the Benefits of Farmers Markets for Small and Mid-sized Farms and Communities, Agriculture Food Research Initiative of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture. 19