There are no healthy people on a ravaged planet
If there’s an overarching theme to the healthy eating landscape this year, it’s the convergence of health and sustainability. Where these used to be two separate conversations relating to food, now they are one and the same. The health of the planet and the health of the people on it are being considered together.
This is really good news. There are no healthy people on a ravaged planet. As a report in The Lancet earlier this year pointed out, we can’t consider the issues of obesity, undernutrition and climate change separately any more, since they each impact on each other. We are in the midst of what the authors called a “global syndemic”, and to tackle it we need to think of these issues as one whole picture.
This was echoed by the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Land is a critical resource, it said, increasingly under pressure from climate change. And, of course, the use of land to grow food is a contributor to climate change as well.
This report, as with the others, emphasises the need to change both what we eat and how we produce our food on a global scale. If we don’t, comes the warning: we might not be able to feed everyone. The way we produce our food matters, says the IPCC, and dietary choices can help reduce emissions and pressure on land.
By that they mean a shift to plant-based diets: less meat; more grains, pulses, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Again, they’re talking globally here. How New Zealand fits into this picture is up for discussion. Another of the themes of the IPCC report is that better land management can have a big impact on the problem, and here, we are potentially in better shape than other countries. Our agricultural sector is focused on this already; no one who works on the land can be otherwise, as climate change is a threat not only to farms but also to farmers. Sustainability isn’t just about emissions. It’s about livelihoods.
What does this all mean for us when we’re trying to decide on dinner?
It’s probably going to mean we will have to become a bit more discerning when we’re choosing our food. We’ll want more information on where and how our food is produced, and we’ll have to make calls on which options are better not just for us, but also for the planet.
It’s not easy. For example, is a plantbased, processed meat substitute imported from Denmark, better for the environment than single-ingredient, whole-food, New Zealand-grown meat?
Whatever the answer, we have to start acting on it if we want our children’s children to have healthy food — any food — in 50 years.
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