The way we produce and consume food affects the global climate in one way or the other. Agriculture is estimated to be responsible for approximately 30% of anthropogenic emissions (Tubiello et al., 2013). Yet, it is approximated that one-third of the global food is wasted (about 1.3 billion tonnes per year) (Gustavsson et al., 2011) when an approximated 690 million people worldwide go to bed hungry each night. This makes the agricultural sector one of the most critical areas of focus in the plans to reduce greenhouse gasses (GHG) while targeting food security for all.
However, efforts cannot only be centered around production and distribution to offset the adverse effects of losses and waste within the food system. The consumption aspect is equally of primary importance. Diet shifts in the developed worlds where overconsumption is rampant while most parts of the world are food insecure, malnourished, and of poor health should be curbed through policies and regulations at different platforms. Our choices in food have an influence on the progress to attain a net-zero carbon. The saying “you are what you eat” still holds even more in the wake of climate change. Diets affect our health and well-being as much as the ecological system, and biodiversity. Choosing a diet with a low carbon footprint means reducing global GHG emissions while contributing to people’s global health.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defined sustainable diets as “diets with low environmental impacts that contribute to food and nutritional security and to healthy lives for present and future generations”. In addition, “Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable, are nutritionally adequate, safe, and healthy, and optimize natural and human resources” (Guillaumie et al., 2020).
Attaining the pledged GHG emissions reductions under the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels through mitigation in the agricultural sector will be critical. However, this can also arise from “small yet significant changes,” such as choosing what we eat. This is also aligned with contributing to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Figure 1 below shows the amount of GHG emissions associated with different foods per serving.
Fig. 1 Carbon dioxide emissions from different foods in our diets. Source: Heller and Keoleian, 2015
It is interesting also to note how the subject of gender fits into almost any discussion at present. Attaining sustainable development goals (SDGs) calls for leaving no one behind. That means that marginalized groups, for example, women who are arguably responsible for meal preparation and looking after the welfare of households have little to no access to information on food and nutrition. Increasing access to information on sustainable diets can go along with the ongoing food systems transformation plans and strategies like climate-smart agriculture, and ensure inclusiveness at all levels of implementation. Increasing production of nutritious low-carbon foods can aid in alleviating hunger and malnutrition in the developing worlds, while the developed worlds can reduce overconsumption of exceptionally high-carbon-emitting foods such as beef thereby moving towards meeting some of the SDGs on global like climate change, and sustainable consumption and production.
Bibliography
State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World 2020 online summary, http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/
Heller, M. C. and Keoleian, G. A. (2015) ‘Greenhouse gas emission estimates of US dietary choices and food loss’, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 19(3), pp. 391-401.
Gustavsson, J., Cederberg, C., Sonesson, U., Van Otterdijk, R. and Meybeck, A. 2011. Global food losses and food waste. FAO Rome.
Tubiello, F. N., Salvatore, M., Rossi, S., Ferrara, A., Fitton, N. and Smith, P. (2013) ‘The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture’, Environmental Research Letters, 8(1), pp. 015009.