What is a sustainable diet

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• What is a sustainable diet
• for planet earth?
• Tim Lang
• Centre for Food Policy
• City University London
• t.lang_at_city.ac.uk
• 44th Otago Foreign Policy School, Otago, New
  Zealand
• June 28, 2009

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Summary

• A new era for food is unfolding
• As 60 years (successful) consumerist model of
  capitalism is in trouble
• A new policy process is emerging posing
  challenges to Government, institutions, civil
  society, business
• Many current solutions offered are partial /
  thin
• Food illustrates and is part of this process
• C21st food policy will be shaped by responses to
  New Fundamentals (not just climate change)
• Much depends on our getting it right
• Govts need to learn and share, not compete

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1. The New Fundamentals
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New Fundamentals

• Climate change
• Fuel / oil / energy
• Water
• Land use
• Biodiversity
• Labour

• Population (9bn 2050)
• Urbanisation
• Affluence (BRICs )
• Inequality
• Nutrition transition
• Healthcare costs

• See
• Chatham House Food Project 2009 report
  http//www.chathamhouse.org.uk/research/food/
• IAASTD (2008) report. http//www.agassessment.org/
  
• Millstone Lang (2008) Atlas of Food (2nd
  edition) http//www.earthscan.co.uk

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These raise complexity of functions e.g. what is
land for?

• Amenity (health)
• Buildings (property)
• Food (consumption)
• Fuel (biofuel)
• Fibre (biomass)

• Carbon sinks (climate)
• Culture (identity)
• Water (aquifers)
• Transport (roads)
• Biodiversity (life)

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Foods impact on environment

• Food consumption accounts for 31 of all
  consumption related GHG emissions
• source EC (2005) life cycle environmental
  impact of products EIPRO
• Waste from UK homes c.30 wasted
• 40 cannot be recycled
• 5.2 million tonnes of food-related packaging
• 6.7 million tonnes of food waste
• source WRAP 2007
• Food is heavy water user
• UK agriculture uses 742 million m3 of water
• Food drink industry 155 million m3 used
• source Defra (2007) Water use in the supply
  chain

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Products virtual water content (litres)

• 1 potato (100g) 25
• 1 bag of potato crisps (200g) 185
• 1 egg (40g) 135
• 1 hamburger (150g) 2400
• 1 cotton T-shirt (medium, 500g) 4100
• 1 sheet A4 paper (80g/m20) 10
• 1 pair of shoes (bovine leather) 8000
• 1 microchip (2g) 32

• glass beer (250ml) 75
• glass milk (200ml) 200
• glass wine (125ml) 120
• glass apple juice (125ml) 190
• cup coffee (125ml) 140
• cup of tea (125ml) 35
• slice of bread (30g) 40
• slice of bread (30g) with cheese (10g) 90

Source WWF (2006) Rich Countries, Poor Water.
www.panda.org/freshwater
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New narrative emerging eg. H2O per calorie
(health)
source Joanne Zygmunt / Waterwise 2007
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2. The global situation
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The long debate with Malthus
Rev. Thomas Malthus (1966-1834)An Essay on the
Principle of Population (1798)
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source http//www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/en/
(accessed June 26 2009
Pricesup and down and rising again? 2005-09
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Optimists argue prices fall (except in wars)
Source USDA
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World population and agricultural production
1961-2005source FAO / Defra FdSec Dec 2006 fig
5.1
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Meat fish how much more?

• Source FAO/Worldwatch 2008

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Fish eat more, less, differently or none?

• YES (nutritionists)
• long chain omega 3s / 2 portions a week (one
  oily)
• FSA, Eurodiet, WHO etc
• NONE or LESS (environmentalists)
• Stocks running out
• strong evidence FAO SOFIA, RCEP 2004, Pew 2003
• DIFFERENTLY (eco-business)
• Marine Stewardship Council, Organics

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Fat is overproduced yet consumers are told to eat
less
WHO/FAO (2003) Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention
of Chronic Diseases.WHO TR 916 p.18
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So what? (you might think)

• Policy is in a state of structured incoherence
• Leadership is poor
• Institutions are fragmented (different remits and
  ethos, eg IMF/WB/ WTO vs UN family)
• Policy still centres on quantity rather than
  sustainability
• Neo-liberal critique of agriculture hasnt
  engaged sufficiently with sustainability (eg.
  over CAP)
• Yet evidence is overwhelming about the need to
  act / change fast eg IPCC, WHO/FAO, UNEP

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3. Are Governments getting engaged with this
complex new picture?
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The answer is

• Yes but too slowly
• and within policy silos
• (understandable but part of the problem)
• For example, too much food interest in foreign
  policy is about backing trade and home interests
  (at WTO, in EU)
• Tricky bits left to Health or Environment
  ministries
• Result not enough joining up

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UK is like this too but a policy process is now
emerging

• HM Govt Securing the Future (2005) White Paper
• Foresight 2008 Tackling Obesities? Change4Life
  programme
• Cabinet Office Food Matters (2008)
• Climate Change Act (2008)
• Council of Food Policy Advisors created (2008)
• New Cabinet Domestic Affairs (Food) Comm (2009)
• But tensions e.g. over
• whether / how much UK food to produce
• Defra Food Security papers (2006, 2008)
• SDC Food Security paper (2009)
• Whether / how to merge food guidelines

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Nordics

• Long tradition of trying to integrate land,
  labour, environment, health and social policies
  (eg Norway Food Nutrition Council dates from
  1937)
• 1989 Nordic Council of Ministers introduce
  official eco-label (swan/Svanen) to help
  sustainable consumption
• 1990s ff Debates about reducing environmental
  damage from food chain
• 2009 June 22 Swedish report Environmentally-smart
  Food Choices recs a shift 1or 2 meals a week
  from meat to vegetarian (sent to EU for
  consultation with MSs)

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Questions all Govts should ask

• Is the food system changing fast enough?
• Is policy putting onus on consumers to lead
  behaviour change?
• Are the full range of policy levers being used
  well enough soft to hard?
• Are Govt processes helping company actions?
• Eg of yes UK Defra ? Carbon Trust ? BSI ?
  PAS2050 methodology http//www.bsigroup.com/en/Sta
  ndards-and-Publications/How-we-can-help-you/Profes
  sional-Standards-Service/PAS-2050/

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4. Wider policy implications
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Consumers have to change what and how we eat

• Western models of consumerism and progress are
  unsustainable
• No romance about simple diets or turning clocks
  back
• There is cacophony of advice but we need new
  cultural norms or rules
• No clarity in everyday culture yet
• Most consumers want choices taken upstream

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Supply chain need a new business model

• Less focus on price more on quality and means
• Hoist by 30 year legacy of neo-liberal dominance
• Industry creating own standards (GlobalGAP, GFSI
  etc)
• Companies deciding their own priorities
• But can ecological public health be left to the
  market place?
• That said, there are some remarkable initiatives
• Marks Spencer Plan A
• Reduced GHG dairy initiatives eg WalMart-Asda J
  Sainsbury

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Implications for policy-makersfood paradigm is
under stress

• OLD PARADIGM (1940s) focus on output
• Science Capital Distribution Progress
• Goal Output ? Cost reduction ? Health
• Success!?
• TODAY sustainability is rhetoric not reality yet
• Oil/ energy reliance (CO2) ? Climate Change
• Malnutrition up again
• Food insecurity inequalities (in/between
  states)
• Cost externalities health ecology societal

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Philosophical change from 1970s

• Planetary pressures spell end of Washington
  Consensus
• More complex world now
• Multi-polar
• Multi-level governance global ?? local
• Multi-sector chains farm ?? foodservice
• Tensions between govt, corporations and consumer
  society
• End of consumer power?
• All this when states are hollowed out reduced
  to advice rather than doing or leading

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Policy architecture is fissured

• UN internal fissures
• WHO vs UNEP vs FAO vs UNCTAD etc
• UN vs Bretton Woods
• Who has power WHO or IMF? FAO or WTO?
• Complexity of multi-level governance
• Global Regional National Local
• But some flexing of muscles at last
• WHO CSDH 2008 DPAS 2004
• Environment Kyoto ? Cop-15 (Dec 09)

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5. Ways ahead
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i. The challenge is to link issues up and to
create coherent Omni-Standards

• Quality
• Fresh (?)
• Localness (?)
• Seasonality
• Social values
• Animal welfare
• Working conditions
• Equality
• Cost internalisation

• Environmental
• Climate change
• Water
• Land use
• Biodiversity
• Health
• Safety
• Nutrition
• Access / affordability

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ii. De-emphasise choice and emphasise
choice-editing
Source Lang, Barling Caraher (2009) Food
Policy, OUP
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iii. Define / chart sustainable diets

• Start thinking about principles as well as
  practicalities
• Eg are trade-offs possible? Climate change
  matters above all? Trade biodiversity for health?
  (surely not!)
• Engage constituencies
• Be prepared to think out of the box
• Look for policy opportunities
• eg UKs NHS Sustainable Food report (May 2009)
• Aim to deliver new cultural rules e.g. eat
  green greens? Eat meat once a week?
• Think about how to change food delivery systems

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6. The Big Picture is this Govts have to lead
the process of translating new goals
(omni-standards etc) into supply chain and
business models and take consumers with them.
Not much to do, there!
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. evidence on problems in issues such as these .

• Water
• Energy
• Climate change
• Land use
• Human health
• Nutrition transition

• Inequalities
• Social justice
• Labour process
• Demographics
• Food availability stocks

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. requiring action by institutions covering
these policy sectors .

• International development
• Foreign affairs
• Industry
• Finance

• Agriculture rural affairs
• Environment
• Health
• Social welfare
• Trade

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. using the full range of policy levers (from
soft to hard) .

• Advice
• Labeling
• Education
• Public information
• Endorsements
• Welfare support
• Product standards

• Licensing
• Subsidies
• Competition rules
• Taxes fiscal measures
• Bans
• Rationing

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. to alter behaviour by all food system actors
.

• Input industries
• Agriculture
• Transport infrastructure
• Processing
• Traders

• Distribution logistics
• Retail
• Catering foodservice
• Domestic life
• Consumers

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using managerial measures to reshape.

• Standards
• Labour process skills
• Markets products
• Production and processing
• Distribution

• Full cost pricing
• Life cycle analysis
• Built environment
• Culture from niche to mainstream
• Targets metrics

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to deliver

• Sustainability (social, environmental and
  economic)
• Energy efficiency, wasteminimisation and closed
  loop systems
• Capacity building (for nature, people economy)
• Resilience to shock

• Eco-dietary advice
• Fairness and equitable access
• Confidence trust
• Accountability (political financial)
• Evidence-building for policy

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Conclusions

• We dont know what a sustainable diet is
• But we do know the criteria and processes by
  which we can move in that direction
• This needs to be addressed rapidly
• Its an issue which transcends current foreign
  policy concerns but ought to be central to them
• New Zealand is well placed to be a key player in
  this new discourse

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• Thanks!
• t.lang_at_city.ac.uk