“I’ll have what they’re having” – A universal diet to save the planet
On January 16, 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission unveiled a comprehensive report advocating for the ‘planetary health diet’, a universal diet that it believes can significantly improve global health and ignite an agricultural revolution. The Commissioners, a group of 37 experts from 16 countries working in a diverse set of industries, suggest that how food is produced and consumed today poses one of the most palpable threats to the health of the planet in the future. They urge that a “Great Food Transformation” is needed. Transitioning to healthier diets worldwide would not only benefit human health but it would also reduce the environmental costs of food production. It does this by encouraging producers to intensify their output of healthful, plant-based foodstuffs, whose cultivation practices tend to be less problematic for the environment than those associated with meat or dairy production.
The planetary health diet consists primarily of plant-based foods like nuts, fruits and vegetables, however, it does allow for low quantities of animal by-products. The experts are keen to reassure consumers that they are not prescribing how or what to eat, but hope the diet will be used as a reference point that can easily be adapted to reflect geographic, cultural, or demographic particularities. Nevertheless, the diet demands decisive changes to consumption patterns around the world. It requires that the global average consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts doubles, while the consumption of red meat reduces by 50 per cent. For places like Europe and North America, where relatively high per capita wealth has allowed meat and dairy to be a mainstay of everyday consumption habits, people will be forced to radically alter where they get the bulk of their protein. According to the EAT-Lancet experts, the benefits of this food transformation will be profound. They believe that global adoption of the planetary health diet could prevent approximately 19 to 24 per cent of total deaths among adults by orienting consumption habits around healthy choices in lieu of foods which contribute to serious health complications.
Moreover, the planet’s health is also expected to improve. Today, “global food production constitutes the single largest driver of environmental degradation and transgression of planetary boundaries”, according to one EAT-Lancet author. Farming animals has extraordinary consequences on freshwater and land usage, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. Overhauling these industries, in accordance with the planetary health diet, has the potential to halt these phenomena before they cause catastrophic shifts in the Earth’s ecology and climate. The Report also poses additional recommendations including halving global food waste and intensifying agricultural innovation.
While its targets are supported by substantial scientific evidence and academic and field expertise, the planetary health diet’s goals appear to be overly ambitious. For example, agricultural activities, specifically those in livestock production, often form the backbone of many local and national economies. Reorienting the sector towards plant-based food production will not only require incredible coordination between the private and public sectors, strict governance, and sustained corporate will, but could also bring serious economic repercussions. Further, the Report stipulates that the efficacy of the planetary health diet will not be harnessed by choosing certain recommendations over others or through patchwork implementation. In order to ensure a prosperous future for humanity, the experts believe action must be taken simultaneously and universally, engaging food production methods as well as consumer preferences.
Perhaps then, the promise of the planetary health diet does not lie in its practicality. Like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the planetary health diet represents a global call to action rather than a sweeping global solution. The urgency of its findings can motivate the international community to unite in solidarity to confront the growing fissures in food systems and improve their resiliency in the face of future challenges.
Another crucial takeaway from the Report is its recognition that healthy diets and sustainable food production practices will look radically different from place to place. The world is comprised of countless distinct food industries whose functioning facilitates unique livelihoods and allows traditions and customs to persist. Tinkering with people’s food is, in essence, altering people’s customary practices, which may produce unintended and irreversible consequences. Food systems can also experience their own sets of challenges. For example, in the Global North, industrial and commercial interests are able to manipulate the food industry for their own gain, leading to unhealthy diets, a culture of overconsumption, and ultimately contributing to an array of health crises. Conversely, widespread micronutrient deficiencies in Sub-Saharan Africa are driven by climatic pressures, protracted crises, and displacement, which significantly hampers peoples’ ability to diversify their diets.
Cities, nations, and the international community as a whole would be well advised to use the planetary health diet as a guide rather than a prescription allowing it to inform rather than dictate contextually sensitive interventions. Its overarching goals should spark the global community into action to confront an issue which until now remained relatively dormant in global affairs. Food is an inextricable component to the optimization of human life and an undeniable factor when considering humanity’s future on this planet. The defining success of the planetary health diet will be its capacity to leverage this critical ingredient in order to establish cooperative links between local and global, and business and health for the promotion and protection of the sustainable vitality of humankind.