A climate-friendly basket
IT’S possible to address both world hunger and hidden hunger while reducing agricultural greenhouse emissions.
And we can do it without having to double food production or radically changing our diets to keep up with a growing global population.
Those are the surprising findings from a new study by researchers from Deakin University’s School of Environmental Science.
“We can address hunger, that’s insufficient caloric intake, and hidden hunger – vitamin and/or mineral deficiency – for a growing global population in 2030 and still comply with the greenhouse gas emissions budget required under the Paris Agreement,” postdoctoral researcher Ozge Geyik said.
Dr Geyik, along with senior lecturer in environmental science Dr Michalis Hadjikakou, and Alfred Deakin professor of global change, environment, and society Brett Bryan, investigated how to minimise greenhouse gas emissions while meeting the world’s nutritional requirements in 2030.
They examined several scenarios relating to agricultural productivity, food loss and waste, and international trade. That approach led to “optimal food baskets”, as Dr Geyik describes it, containing climatefriendly and nutritious food sources of which the world needs to produce more.
What’s in those baskets? According to the findings, foods providing the nutrients needed with the least emissions possible are vegetables, orange or red-fleshed roots and tubers, fruits and eggs.
“Our plates need to look different than they do today,” Dr Geyik said.
“Global production of cereals doubled between 1990 and 2020.
“While this helped eradicate hunger, we need to shift the focus away from micronutrient-poor cereals.
“What we need, instead, is to produce larger quantities of fruits and vegetables.”
Dr Geyik said there was a growing interest in sustainable food systems as the effects of war, droughts, heatwaves and floods increasingly affected food prices and availability in Australia and overseas.
Some research and advocacy groups have suggested a wholesale dietary shift, such as flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan diets, as the answer. Dr Geyik argued this might not necessarily be the case, especially when it came to addressing hunger and hidden hunger.
“Radical change in human diets – that have been shaped over millennia – may be incompatible with the urgency of addressing zero hunger and climate action,” Dr Geyik said.
“Our findings offer alternative ways to achieve sustainable food systems, ones with a focus on food as an essential need and an indispensable part of cultures.
“They show that we need to be multi-tasking along the way and address agricultural productivity and food loss and waste at the same time as developing innovative policies targeted towards sustainable nutrition.”
Policies and research needed to prioritise producing the foods that could provide missing nutrients with the least greenhouse gas emissions possible to complement efforts for improving agricultural productivity and reducing food loss and waste, Dr Geyik said.
“It’s a win-win for both the environment and the growing world population,” she said.