scholarly journals Sustainable Diets: How Ecological Nutrition Can Transform Consumption and the Food System by Pamela Mason and Tim Lang

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-66
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Sustainable Diets

Book Review

scholarly journals Nutrition from a climate change perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. I. Macdiarmid ◽  
S. Whybrow
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Food And Nutrition Security ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Nutrient Density ◽  
Food And Nutrition

Climate change is threatening future global food and nutrition security. Limiting the increase in global temperature to 1·5 °C set out in The Paris Agreement (2015) while achieving nutrient security means overhauling the current food system to create one that can deliver healthy and sustainable diets. To attain this, it is critical to understand the implications for nutrition of actions to mitigate climate change as well as the impacts of climate change on food production and the nutrient composition of foods. It is widely recognised that livestock production has a much greater environmental burden than crop production, and therefore advice is to reduce meat consumption. This has triggered concern in some sectors about a lack of protein in diets, which hence is driving efforts to find protein replacements. However, in most high- and middle-income countries, protein intakes far exceed dietary requirements and it would even if all meat were removed from diets. Reduction in micronutrients should be given more attention when reducing meat. Simply eating less meat does not guarantee healthier or more sustainable diets. Climate change will also affect the type, amount and nutrient quality of food that can be produced. Studies have shown that increased temperature and elevated CO2 levels can reduce the nutrient density of some staple crops, which is of particular concern in low-income countries. Nutrition from a climate change perspective means considering the potential consequences of any climate action on food and nutrition security. In this paper, we discuss these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.

scholarly journals Sustainable diet policy development: implications of multi-criteria and other approaches, 2008–2017

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lang ◽  
Pamela Mason
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Sustainable Diet ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Uk

The objective of the present paper is to draw lessons from policy development on sustainable diets. It considers the emergence of sustainable diets as a policy issue and reviews the environmental challenge to nutrition science as to what a ‘good’ diet is for contemporary policy. It explores the variations in how sustainable diets have been approached by policy-makers. The paper considers how international United Nations and European Union (EU) policy engagement now centres on the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Change Accord, which require changes across food systems. The paper outlines national sustainable diet policy in various countries: Australia, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Qatar, Sweden, UK and USA. While no overarching common framework for sustainable diets has appeared, a policy typology of lessons for sustainable diets is proposed, differentiating (a) orientation and focus, (b) engagement styles and (c) modes of leadership. The paper considers the particularly tortuous rise and fall of UK governmental interest in sustainable diet advice. Initial engagement in the 2000s turned to disengagement in the 2010s, yet some advice has emerged. The 2016 referendum to leave the EU has created a new period of policy uncertainty for the UK food system. This might marginalise attempts to generate sustainable diet advice, but could also be an opportunity for sustainable diets to be a goal for a sustainable UK food system. The role of nutritionists and other food science professions will be significant in this period of policy flux.

scholarly journals UN Food System Summit Fails to Address Real Healthy and Sustainable Diets Challenges

Development ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Giuberti Coutinho ◽  
Ana Paula Bortoletto Martins ◽  
Potira V. Preiss ◽  
Lorenza Longhi ◽  
Elisabetta Recine
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Sustainable Diets

scholarly journals Sustainable diets: definition, state of the art and perspectives for a new research agenda in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1833-1846
Author(s):  
Rozane Márcia Triches
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
New Research

Abstract It is an integrative literature review to discuss the emergence and construction of the definition of sustainable diets, to bring the current panorama of what has been studied about it and to point to a new research agenda in Brazil. The searches conducted between April and July 2018, were carried out in the databases Science Direct, Pubmed, Periódicos Capes, Google Academic, Banco de Teses, in addition to the use of the method snowball, reaching 365 articles analyzed. The concern with sustainable diets is related to the redirection of the dominant food system in the achievement of environmental and health goals, considering the culture and the economy. The main focus of the articles were: theoretical efforts to conceptualize what are sustainable diets; analysis of different types of diets; factors involved in consumers' choices/behaviors; size of food production; of health; of the economy; culture and society; policies and governance; and discussion on the methodologies used to measure and analyze the different aspects of sustainable diets. In Brazil, only 19 papers were found, which points to the gap in this area of research and the need to create this agenda of studies in the country, given its importance for public and environmental health.

Sustainably Sourced Junk Food? Big Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Diets

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Scott
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Food System ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Sustainability Strategy ◽  
Negative Health Outcomes ◽  
Sustainable Sourcing

Sustainable diets are an increasingly debated policy concept to address many of the environmental, social, and economic issues in the food system. The role of ultraprocessed foods in sustainable diets has received less attention than meat, dairy, and eggs but is deserving of examination given the high environmental impacts and negative health outcomes resulting from consumption of these foods. Big Food companies that make ultraprocessed foods have focused their attention on sustainable sourcing as a significant sustainability strategy. This article argues that sustainable sourcing as a central strategy for Big Food firms has implications for the achievement of sustainable diets. First, sustainable sourcing lends legitimacy to specific discourses of sustainability that align with a growth imperative. Second, it perpetuates weak and fragmented governance, which can enhance the legitimacy of Big Food when participating in coordination efforts. These dynamics of sustainable sourcing are important for consideration given the legitimacy claims of these companies, which situate them as a key part of the solution in working toward food security and sustainability.

scholarly journals Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 2333-2340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Lawrence ◽  
Sharon Friel ◽  
Kate Wingrove ◽  
Sarah W James ◽  
Seona Candy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Public Health Nutrition ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Political Realities

AbstractObjectiveTo develop a policy formulation tool for strategically informing food and nutrition policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (HSD).DesignA policy formulation tool consisting of two complementary components was developed. First, a conceptual framework of the environment–public health nutrition relationship was constructed to characterise and conceptualise the food system problem. Second, an ‘Orders of Food Systems Change’ schema drawing on systems dynamics thinking was developed to identify, assess and propose policy options to redesign food systems.SettingFood and nutrition policy activities to promote HSD have been politicised, fragmented and lacking a coherent conceptual and strategic focus to tackle complex food system challenges.ResultsThe tool’s conceptual framework component comprises three integrated dimensions: (i) a structure built around the environment and public health nutrition relationship that is mediated via the food system; (ii) internal mechanisms that operate through system dynamics; and (iii) external interactions that frame its nature and a scope within ecological parameters. The accompanying schema is structured around three orders of change distinguished by contrasting ideological perspectives on the type and extent of change needed to ‘solve’ the HSD problem.ConclusionsThe conceptual framework’s systems analysis of the environment–public health nutrition relationship sets out the food system challenges for HSD. The schema helps account for political realities in policy making and is a key link to operationalise the framework’s concepts to actions aimed at redesigning food systems. In combination they provide a policy formulation tool to strategically inform policy activities to redesign food systems and promote HSD.

scholarly journals Employment and income implications of transitions towards more sustainable global diets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam M. Komarek ◽  
Nicola Cenacchi ◽  
Shahnila Dunston ◽  
Timothy B Sulser ◽  
Keith Wiebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Food System ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Sustainable Diets ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Diet Shifts

The effect of global diet shifts on human health, the natural environment, and the financial cost of obtaining food has been extensively quantified. The current study complements these quantifications by examining the economy-wide consequences of global diet shifts. We used a computable general equilibrium model to quantify the changes in employment and income in all geographic regions of the globe in the year 2050 under a global shift towards more sustainable human diets. These more sustainable diets are lower in livestock-derived foods, higher in fruit and vegetables, and lower in refined sugar than diets under the current trajectory for food demand out to the year 2050. Our results show that transitioning towards more sustainable diets at the global scale in sub-Saharan Africa will decrease employment in the livestock sector and increase employment in the crop sector, with an overall reallocation of labor from the industry and services sectors to the agriculture sector. West Africa was the region of the globe that encountered the greatest decline in income of 14% as a result of the global diet shift, driven by the reallocation of labor into the lower value-added agriculture sector and driven by West Africa’s high share of total household expenditure spent on food. These findings have important implications for understanding trade-offs and developing strategies to equitably improve livelihoods within the broader context of food system transformation.

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