From production to impacts on health and the environment: an analysis of food systems in Brazil, Colombia and Panama

The scope of this article is to describe the main components of the food systems of Bra-zil, Colombia and Panama. It involved a narra -tive review of the literature from 2000 to 2022, based on the concept of food systems proposed by the Committee on World Food Security. A system of agro-industrial production, monoculture, use of pesticides and exploitation of natural resources predominates in all three countries, and the area occupied by family farmers is reduced. Multi-national supermarket chains dominate food dis-tribution, essentially in large urban centers, de-spite the increasing search for alternative models. Advances have been made in food labeling regu-lation (Colombia and Brazil) and in the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages (Panama). The pre-dominant food systems in these countries generate a significant and negative environmental impact, favor the consumption of ultra-processed foods, high prevalence of obesity and chronic non-trans-missible diseases and increase in hunger, violating the human right to adequate food.