EDITORIAL
Broadening in fl uence on the food supply and environmental sustainability
Dietitians have long recognised the potential of food reformulation to improve the health of the general popula- tion, even without changes in consumer behaviour.1 How- ever, increasingly, we are realising that food choices cannot be judged solely in terms of nutritional outcomes; environ- mental impacts must also be considered. This year, the American Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior has released a position paper declaring that‘environmental sus- tainability should be inherent in dietary guidance, whether working with individuals, or groups about dietary choices, or in setting national dietary guidance’.2At the same time, a Lancet Commission has just produced a landmark report that integrates, with the quantification of universal healthy diets, global targets for sustainable food systems.3 We are now at a global climate tipping point and being challenged to consider the very basis of how to develop advice about healthy eating.
The Food and Agriculture Organization defines sustain- able diets as those that are protective and respectful of bio- diversity and ecosystems, nutritionally adequate, safe, healthy, culturally acceptable and economically affordable while optimising natural and human resources.4 Sustain- ability can also been seen as a key component in any assess- ment of food security.5 Calls for dietary guidelines to include sustainability began more than 35 ago,6and a num- ber of international dietary guidelines panels have consid- ered the sustainability of the food system when producing recommendations.7Nonetheless, there is a wide disparity in the carbon emissions intensity of the healthy diets rec- ommended in different countries, ranging from 687 kg CO2 equivalents per capita per year in India to 1579 kg in the United States of America.8
Today, global climate change is recognised as an urgent problem, with other pressing environmental issues, includ- ing loss of biodiversity, land degradation, fresh water short- ages and water pollution.9 The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report assessed energy, land and ecosystems, infrastructure and industry to see how they would need to be transformed to limit global warming to 1.5C. It concluded that among the actions needed is changing food systems and promoting diet changes away from land-intensive animal products.10
Global agriculture and food production release more than 25% of all greenhouse gases (GHG).11Emissions vary widely between foods; ruminant meats such as beef and lamb can have emissions per gram of protein 250 times that of legumes, while eggs, seafood, poultry and pork have much lower emissions than ruminant meat. How a given food is produced also affects emissions. When sustainably
grazed on lands unsuitable for cropping, dairy and red meat production can increase food security, dietary quality and provide environmental benefits via nutrient cycling.12 Nonetheless, while producers have some limited ability to reduce the environmental impacts of food production, die- tary change will remain the most effective mechanism to deliver environmental benefits.13 Using global life cycle analysis of emission data, it has been calculated that a move to a Mediterranean, pescatarian or vegetarian diet could reduce GHG emissions from food production by 30–55%.11
The literature on sustainable diets has grown substan- tially in the last decade.14–16 A recent study examined 66 different dietary studies that enabled comparison of their nutritional quality and carbon footprints.17 The authors found that the Mediterranean diet and the Atlantic dietary pattern (common in northern Portugal and Galicia), as well as those in India and Peru, had much lower carbon foot- print scores than the diets of northern or western Europe and concluded that a shift to a diet rich in vegetables and lower in animal protein would be healthier and more envi- ronmentally friendly. Other studies have also concluded that reductions in meat consumption would lead to reduc- tions in GHG emissions as those of meat and dairy con- sumers are about twice those of vegans.18–21
This issue ofNutrition & Dieteticsincludes a collection of articles that relate to nutritional improvements in the food supply, including recipe modifications to reduce sodium content,22implementation of healthy food policies in health services,23 the development of national meal guidelines for Meals on Wheels programs24and the impact of health star labelling on the reformulation of packaged foods.25As more and more people consume food prepared by others, such approaches will continue to be important for the work of dietitians. Nonetheless, dietitians will also need to consider how to embed environmental concerns in national dietary policies in the future.
In the current Australian dietary guidelines, published in 2013, the topic of environmental sustainability is only briefly mentioned in afive-page appendix, and its key mes- sages focus on issues of food waste, healthy food choices and buying locally grown food rather than any recommen- dations to change food patterns substantially.26There have been attempts to describe what a healthy and sustainable diet could look like in Australia,27but in general, the topic does not get the attention it deserves at the level of govern- ment policy-making28 and intersectoral action has been hampered by disparate definitions, a perceived lack of
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robust evidence and divergent views about the role of gov- ernment in environmental policy and food regulation.29
It seems clear that moving to a diet based on more whole and plant-based foods is going to be one of the most important dietary strategies at a global level both for the planet and for human health. However, the dietary choices that an individual makes are influenced by culture, price, availability, taste and convenience, as well as nutritional knowledge. If we are going to encourage the move to a food system that is more environmentally sustainable, nutrition- ists and dietitians will need to educate consumers on how to do this30 and help develop food policy, dietary guide- lines and labelling regulations that articulate the changes needed. There is already a high level of community concern in Australia about the environmental impact of the food supply.31We may discover that many individualsfind con- cerns about environmental impact more motivating than concerns about health when considering whether to make a dietary change.
Funding source
The author received no funding to write this editorial.
Con fl ict of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Authorship
PW is the sole author of this manuscript.
Peter Williams, BSc(Hons), DipNutrDiet, MHP, PhD, FDAA Honorary Professorial Fellow, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong
References
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22 Reynoso-Marreros IA, Piñarreta-Cornejo PK, Mayta-Tristán P, Bernabé-Ortiz A. Effect of a salt-reduction strategy on blood pressure and acceptability among customers of a food conces- sionaire in Lima, Peru.Nutr Diet2019;76: 250–6.
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