In this Perspective article in the journal Science, the FCRN’s Tara Garnett articulates the need for a strong policy focus on sustainable healthy diets, and assesses the current state of research and understanding on the relationship between health and sustainability.
In this Perspective article in the journal Science, the FCRN’s Tara Garnett articulates the need for a strong policy focus on sustainable healthy diets, and assesses the current state of research and understanding on the relationship between health and sustainability.
Existing studies highlight the high environmental impacts and damaging health effects of typical Western diets, that are increasingly consumed around the world. They also show that synergies between diets that are healthier than the current norm and lower in greenhouse gas emissions are possible, even if this alignment is not automatic. Less understood is the relationship between health and a broader range of sustainability concerns - that is, non-climate-related environmental aspects such as biodiversity, as well as socio-economic and cultural dimensions. A major gap in our knowledge is on how to effect shifts in consumption patterns. Finally, she points out that values frame and inform which issues or options are considered or ignored as matters of concern, which sustainability dimensions prioritised, which interventions considered researchable and fundable, and whose voice counts. To be successful policies must take account of the values that not only shape diets but also underlie research and advocacy.
Citation
Garnett, T., (2016), Plating up solutions, Science, 16 Sep 2016: Vol. 353, Issue 6305, pp. 1202-1204, DOI: 10.1126/science.aah4765
