Vietnam's next food challenge is in the shopping basket

I grew up in northern India, in a cluster of small quarters for railway workers. My father worked for the railways on a modest salary and money always had to stretch. I remember my mother at the vegetable stall. She would ask the price, count what she had, and decide.

Some days she bought fewer vegetables than she wanted. Other days she left them out altogether and made only dal, a simple lentil soup.

Fruit was rare. We had guavas and mangoes in season, when prices fell. Apples or grapes were out of the question.

As a child tagging along to the market, I was impatient to go home and could not see why she took so long. Only much later did I understand what she was doing: feeding a family as well as she could with what she had. Knowing what to eat and being able to afford it are different things.

Every morning, the same choices are made at markets in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Parents check the price of pork, fish, eggs or a bunch of morning glory, and decide what goes on the table tonight.

Vietnam has made remarkable progress in feeding its people and has become a major food exporter. That is a great achievement. Yet experience from many countries shows that it is not the whole story. A country can produce plenty of food while some families still struggle to eat well. A meal can fill the stomach without giving a child what is needed to grow.

FAO estimates that around 9 million people in Vietnam, nearly one in ten, cannot afford a healthy diet. For low-income families, the picture is much starker. A study of Vietnamese food prices from 2016 to 2020, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, found that a healthy diet was out of reach for roughly seven in ten of them.

This year's World Food Day theme is "Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow." For most families, the useful question is simpler: what would make a healthy meal cheaper, safer and easier to buy?

Start with a bunch of vegetables on its way from a farm in Moc Chau or Da Lat to a city market. Some of it wilts or is crushed on the way. Everyone along the chain loses something. The farmer is paid less for produce that gets damaged, the vendor has less to sell, and shoppers end up paying higher prices to cover what was thrown away. At the same time, the farmer often receives only a small share of the price a city family pays at the market.

Innovation here does not need to be expensive. Sturdy crates, shade and cool storage near the farm, and orders agreed in advance between cooperatives and buyers can keep more food fresh and get it to market faster. When less is lost along the way, farmers can earn more and families can pay less. A cheap meal that leaves the farmer without a decent living is not a good bargain for anyone.

Safety is the other worry. Many parents worry about vegetables contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals they cannot see. They think about the meals their children eat at school. A shopper should not need to become a food safety specialist to buy dinner or pay extra for premium packaging to feel confident.

QR codes and labels such as VietGAP are a welcome step. A code can show where a product came from. But a label is only as reliable as the work behind it: good practices on farms, clean water, proper storage and regular checks. That is what builds trust over time.

Some of the most useful improvements can happen in familiar places: clean water, drainage and shade at the local neighborhood market, simple support such as cool boxes that help vendors keep food fresh and safe, and careful kitchens in the schools that feed children every day. Innovation should improve the places where people already shop and eat.

Healthy eating also has to fit a busy day. Millions of workers eat cheap rice or noodle dishes near the office or by the roadside. A healthy option that is slow or hard to find will lose to a convenient one. Food stalls and small businesses that offer affordable meals with more vegetables, tofu, eggs or fish, without a costly "health food" label, are innovating in a way that matters.

Families already do what they can, and many are really good at managing within a tight food budget. The rest must come from those who shape the food around them: local authorities who manage markets and food safety checks, schools that feed children every day, cooperatives and businesses that move food from farm to city, and partners such as FAO that support them. Better choices become possible when that food is affordable, safe and easy to find.

My mother's choices at the vegetable stall were a private household matter. The conditions behind them were much larger than our family.

The same is true in Vietnam today. For the next parent at the market, the test of innovation is simple. Can I afford enough vegetables, and some fruit, for my children? Can I trust that this food is safe? Will the farmer who grew it earn a fair living? When every family can answer yes, we will truly be nourishing tomorrow.