Rethinking Food

Food System Transformation: Science Calls For Action On Diets And Food Production

Scientific research supports the call for urgent fundamental changes in the way we produce and consume food for the sake of our own health, the climate and the environment. We must transform our food system if we are to address the multi-dimensional challenges of producing sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all within the safe operating space of all nine planetary boundaries.²

As of 2023, six of the nine planetary boundaries – climate change, land-system change, freshwater change, biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss), novel entities (artificial toxic and long-lived substances), and biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen particularly from industrial agriculture) – have already been crossed as a result of human activity.

Without a new food system, we will not be able to address the global health crisis, meet the targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity whilst also meeting the needs of a rising population projected to be around 10 billion by 2050.

A clear majority of credible scientific papers – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science Platform on Biodiversity (IPBES), and the EAT-Lancet Commission – conclude that meat and dairy must begin to play a much smaller role in our daily diets.

Our Failing Food System: Hunger, Waste And Unsustainable Practices

Despite years of increased investment, research and development and technological advancement, there remain significant failings in our food system.

Right now, more than 1.3 billion people do not have enough to eat, whilst according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) the world wastes approximately 2.5 billion tonnes of edible food every year (FAO, 2016).⁴

At the same time two billion men, women and children are overweight or obese⁷, with poor diets being responsible for more deaths than any other risk factor⁸. The overconsumption of meat, dairy and eggs in developed regions exceeds both dietary guidelines and new planetary diet guidelines.

The United Nations in 2016, reported that food production, when not sustainably managed, is a major driver of biodiversity loss and polluter of air, fresh water and oceans, as well as a leading source of soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.⁹ The way we produce food also contributes to antimicrobial resistance¹⁰ and non-communicable diseases, as well as emerging and foodborne diseases, and provides poor conditions for workers and vulnerability to price squeeze from input suppliers, processors and retailers. It also delivers poor animal welfare.

The impact of intensive animal farming

The climate, nature and health emergency we face is undoubtedly caused by multiple factors, a major one of which is intensive animal farming.

Issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and public health can be collectively addressed through the elimination of factory farming and the move towards high welfare regenerative farming systems.

Despite the compelling evidence from multiple sectors, there has been limited action to begin to deliver a healthy and sustainable food system. Intensive animal farming continues to consume vast resources, including cereals and soy, to produce animal feed. Forests are destroyed and re-purposed into farmland and the intensification of crop production which, with its use of monocultures and agro-chemicals, has led to overuse and pollution of ground- and surface-water²⁰, soil degradation^{21, 22}, biodiversity loss²³, and air pollution²⁴. Policy makers may recognise the serious environmental crises we face but many are reluctant to acknowledge the part played by intensive animal production in generating these crises.

To address this, we need to RETHINK our food system and work collectively and creatively on the transition that will move us all towards a more humane, resilient, and sustainable food system.

Planetary Health Diet: Science-Backed Solution for Food & Climate

The EAT-Lancet Commission report (2019) on ‘Food, Planet, Health’, provided the first full scientific review for a healthy and sustainable diet and detailed the changes necessary to create a sustainable food future. The Commission’s reference diet or planetary health diet, provides a science-based framework for a flexible solution to stay within planetary boundaries, that will feed up to 10 billion people by 2050, limit a global temperature rise to less than two degrees and ensure optimal human health and nutritional guidelines. It also allows for adaptation to dietary needs, personal preferences and cultural traditions.

The planetary health diet is a global reference diet for adults that is symbolically represented by half a plate of fruits and vegetables. The other half consists of primarily whole grains, plant proteins (beans, lentils, pulses, nuts), unsaturated plant oils, modest amounts of meat and dairy, and some added sugars and starchy vegetables.

EAT forum.org²⁵

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