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Sustainable diet: for whom?
By Santi SerratPosted in We Are Water
Do we eat sustainably? The meaning of the question is not the same for a inhabitant of New York that of Dhaka, or for a farmer of French Burgundy that of Anantapur in India or the African Sahel. Neither does the validity of the answers allow us to draw global conclusions. The food challenge facing humanity is enormous: the need for water and soil must be added to the carbon footprint. The climate crisis is present in the diet of those who have the privilege of having breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. And in the rest?
The climate crisis has come to diet. At COP 25 in Madrid, the IPCC presented its special report on climate change and land published last August. It has been one of the documents that has had the most repercussion in the media, probably because it affects the way we live in a very direct way.
The IPCC enters fully into the relationship between human nutrition and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and adds this factor to those of land and water use, until now the two elements with which it was generally used. assess food sustainability. In addition to increasing food productivity and reducing waste, the IPCC advocates a “balanced diet” at a global level, to mitigate atmospheric warming; the objective is to reduce the carbon footprint of food production and trade, and to gain land for other non-food uses.
The document estimates that by 2050, appropriate dietary changes could reduce GHGs each year by 0.7 - 8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2eq), which is the sum of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, the gases that cause global warming. According to the IPCC, by that date, the adoption of these eating habits could also free up several million km2 of land, favor a more sustainable management of land use, save water and combat desertification, while improving public health. Both FAO and WHO endorse the IPCC conclusions as key factors in achieving the SDGs in 2030, in the face of rapid population growth and the threat of climate uncertainty.
The IPCC enters fully into the relationship between human nutrition and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and adds this factor to those of land and water use, until now the two elements with which it was generally used. assess food sustainability. In addition to increasing food productivity and reducing waste, the IPCC advocates a “balanced diet” at a global level, to mitigate atmospheric warming; the objective is to reduce the carbon footprint of food production and trade, and to gain land for other non-food uses.
The document estimates that by 2050, appropriate dietary changes could reduce GHGs each year by 0.7 - 8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2eq), which is the sum of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, the gases that cause global warming. According to the IPCC, by that date, the adoption of these eating habits could also free up several million km2 of land, favor a more sustainable management of land use, save water and combat desertification, while improving public health. Both FAO and WHO endorse the IPCC conclusions as key factors in achieving the SDGs in 2030, in the face of rapid population growth and the threat of climate uncertainty.
These proposed dietary changes are based on promoting the consumption of products of plant origin, and reducing those of animal origin, which must also be produced with low emission methods. In the industrialized world, the report comes at a time when the gastronomic and ethical aspects of food have achieved media stardom. Concepts such as organoleptic and respect for animals coexist with a growing concern for health in broad sectors of the population, which has produced a notable increase in veganism and other diets that exclude non-organically grown or processed foods.
The world food problem is complex. This video by Carlos Mario Gómez (@camagogo), professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis and Environmental Economics at the University of Alcalá and an IMDEA Water researcher in the EU, summarizes it and places us before the inevitable challenge we have to face the future:
The relationship between the population's food needs and the use of land and water resources has been in crisis for decades. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the world population, currently about 7.7 billion, will approach 9 billion by 2030. The UN has marked for that date the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and food security, contemplated in SDG 2, goes hand in hand with the achievement of access to water, which is SDG 6.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been warning for decades that the uneven distribution of productivity, excess consumption in industrialized countries and food waste are the main causes of inadequate nutrition. to all.
Currently, agricultural and livestock production to feed human beings in the world already occupies 43% of the available land, not including deserts and frozen soils. Every day these lands produce 23.7 million tons of food that, quantitatively, would be enough to guarantee food for the world's population. This vital activity for humanity consumes 70% of the planet's fresh water.
But this land and water are still not capable of feeding everyone: in its 2017 report, The Future of Food and Agriculture, FAO estimates that nearly 795 million people are hungry, and more than 2 billion are without food. the basic micronutrients in their diet, or they suffer from disorders such as overeating; In other words, they feed in an inappropriate way for their health, either by excess or by default. In this same report, it is warned that global food security is threatened by pressure on natural resources such as water, pressure that climate change will worsen in areas where there is already a shortage of water.
Water footprint and carbon footprint: vegetables versus meat
Awareness about the water footprint of food has also reached haute cuisine. In this video, Josep Roca, from Celler de Can Roca, in an interview with the We Are Water Foundation, exposes it clearly:
The IPCC report adds gas emission data to define the sustainability goals of the current global food system: agriculture and land use account for more than 25% of annual GHG emissions into the atmosphere between 2007 and 2016. But if emissions associated with the food industry are added, that proportion can reach 37%.
The most worrying thing is that between 25% and 30% of the total food produced in the world is wasted, a waste that can reach 1,600 million tons of food per year. The IPCC report adds that this loss is responsible for between 8 and 10% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity (3,300 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year) and represents the annual waste of 250 km3 of water, the equivalent of three times the volume of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Thus, the problem of GHGs is added to that of water: the equation of planetary sustainability in pursuit of the SDGs must precisely link the concepts of the carbon footprint and the water footprint. In this sense, meat consumption, questioned for decades due to its high water footprint, acquires with the carbon footprint more data to question its sustainability. FAO data, endorsed by the IPCC, indicate that livestock is responsible for 14.5% of GHGs; In other words, it is the sector that emits the most greenhouse gases after transport (which represents 22%). It also generates 92% of the emissions of ammonia, a compound that reduces the quality of the soil by acidifying it.
The relationship between the population's food needs and the use of land and water resources has been in crisis for decades. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the world population, currently about 7.7 billion, will approach 9 billion by 2030. The UN has marked for that date the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and food security, contemplated in SDG 2, goes hand in hand with the achievement of access to water, which is SDG 6.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been warning for decades that the uneven distribution of productivity, excess consumption in industrialized countries and food waste are the main causes of inadequate nutrition. to all.
Currently, agricultural and livestock production to feed human beings in the world already occupies 43% of the available land, not including deserts and frozen soils. Every day these lands produce 23.7 million tons of food that, quantitatively, would be enough to guarantee food for the world's population. This vital activity for humanity consumes 70% of the planet's fresh water.
But this land and water are still not capable of feeding everyone: in its 2017 report, The Future of Food and Agriculture, FAO estimates that nearly 795 million people are hungry, and more than 2 billion are without food. the basic micronutrients in their diet, or they suffer from disorders such as overeating; In other words, they feed in an inappropriate way for their health, either by excess or by default. In this same report, it is warned that global food security is threatened by pressure on natural resources such as water, pressure that climate change will worsen in areas where there is already a shortage of water.
Water footprint and carbon footprint: vegetables versus meat
Awareness about the water footprint of food has also reached haute cuisine. In this video, Josep Roca, from Celler de Can Roca, in an interview with the We Are Water Foundation, exposes it clearly:
The IPCC report adds gas emission data to define the sustainability goals of the current global food system: agriculture and land use account for more than 25% of annual GHG emissions into the atmosphere between 2007 and 2016. But if emissions associated with the food industry are added, that proportion can reach 37%.
The most worrying thing is that between 25% and 30% of the total food produced in the world is wasted, a waste that can reach 1,600 million tons of food per year. The IPCC report adds that this loss is responsible for between 8 and 10% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity (3,300 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year) and represents the annual waste of 250 km3 of water, the equivalent of three times the volume of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Thus, the problem of GHGs is added to that of water: the equation of planetary sustainability in pursuit of the SDGs must precisely link the concepts of the carbon footprint and the water footprint. In this sense, meat consumption, questioned for decades due to its high water footprint, acquires with the carbon footprint more data to question its sustainability. FAO data, endorsed by the IPCC, indicate that livestock is responsible for 14.5% of GHGs; In other words, it is the sector that emits the most greenhouse gases after transport (which represents 22%). It also generates 92% of the emissions of ammonia, a compound that reduces the quality of the soil by acidifying it.
