Nutrition and sustainability: an emerging food policy discourse

Abstract

It is well known that food has a considerable environmental impact. Less attention has been given to mapping and analysing the emergence of policy responses. This paper contributes to that process. It summarises emerging policy development on nutrition and sustainability, and explores difficulties in their integration. The paper describes some policy thinking at national, European and international levels of governance. It points to the existence of particular policy hotspots such as meat and dairy, sustainable diets and waste. Understanding the environmental impact of food systems challenges nutrition science to draw upon traditions of thinking which have recently been fragmented. These perspectives (life sciences, social and environmental) are all required if policy engagement and clarification is to occur. Sustainability issues offer opportunities for nutrition science and scientists to play a more central role in the policy analysis of future food systems. The task of revising current nutrition policy advice to become sustainable diet advice needs to begin at national and international levels.

Sustainability and meat consumption: is reduction realistic?

“…Of course, there are credible and urgent arguments that moderate or mainstream approaches to reducing meat consumption are not sufficient to attain a sustainable food system that respects our planet's ecological limits (see e.g., Roberts, 2009;Tukker et al 2011;Vinnari & Tapio, 2012;Schösler et al 2012;Lang & Barling, 2013). From this perspective, the mitigation of meat consumption may not be a sufficient solution but it would be a major step forward if policy makers were to embrace cautious initiatives regarding the unsustainability of present meat-consumption patterns.…”

“…With respect to meat consumption-which is not Livestock's Long Shadow's primary focus-there is a strong scholarly consensus that plant-based foods are much better from both environmental and energyefficiency perspectives than animal-based foods (e.g., Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003;2008;Duchin, 2005;Baroni et al 2007;McMichael et al 2007;Marlow et al 2009;Tukker et al 2011). Therefore, reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products (we will not focus on the latter here) is crucial for making our diets more sustainable and reducing the ecological footprint of food systems (Lang & Barling, 2013). As Peter Dauvergne (2008) notes, "Consuming so much meat is casting ecological shadows over rural ecosystems, global water and food supplies, tropical rainforests, and the earth's climate."…”

Greenhouse gas emission of diets in the Netherlands and associations with food, energy and macronutrient intakes

“…The rising concern about global food security and climate change has led to an increased interest in sustainable and healthy diets (1)(2)(3)(4) . Typically, food drives 20-30 % of the life-cycle environmental impacts of final household consumption (5) .…”

Sustainability in the Qatar national dietary guidelines, among the first to incorporate sustainability principles

“…However, this is an emerging and complex area of research. Quantification of the impacts of different foods on various aspects of the food supply chain under different conditions and countries of production continues to evolve (3,(5)(6)(7)(8) . None the less, beginning to integrate emerging sustainability principles into dietary guidelines can start to address and raise awareness about the links between consumption and environmental concerns.…”

“…Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing natural and human resources' (9) . Academics have been promoting sustainability in dietary guidelines since the 1980s (10) to the present day (5,6) . Further, as early as 1996, the joint FAO/WHO publication Preparation and Use of Food Based Dietary Guidelines suggested that the question of 'are the guidelines environmentally sustainable?'…”