Anna W. Herforth

Until the last few years, we did not have data to know:

• (1) whether people can afford healthy diets, or
• (2) whether people are eating healthy diets.

It was widely assumed that many people were not able to consume healthy diets, but lack of data rendered the problem largely invisible to policymakers.

To fill these data gaps:

• (1) I developed the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet indicators, revealing that nearly 1 in 3 people cannot afford a healthy diet. These statistics are now reported annually by the United Nations since 2020.
• (2) I led the first global survey on what people eat. These data, representing 85% of the global population, led to global adoption of an indicator of healthy diets in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2025.

This new information helps focus attention and action on affordability and consumption of adequate nourishing food. To support this aim:

• (1) I am acting as a senior adviser to UN agencies to help countries monitor these indicators and use them in policymaking.
• (2) I am creating a World Food Map to highlight locally available, accepted, and underutilized foods in each country that could be scaled up to improve access and consumption of healthy diets.

This body of work responds to the consensus voiced by the Ag2Nut Community of Practice that I co-founded in 2010, that diversification of food production and measurement aligned with dietary needs are Key Recommendations for Improving Nutrition through Agriculture and Food Systems.