A Preliminary Assessment of the Environmental Sustainability of the Current Italian Dietary Pattern: Water Footprint Related to Food Consumption

A comparison of the Mediterranean diet and current food consumption patterns in Spain from a nutritional and water perspective

Food consumption patterns are critical for sustainability. Many issues directly or indirectly related to food con- sumption patterns should be addressed in the Mediterranean area. A sustainable food system supports food security and makes optimal use of natural and human resources. The review paper aims at highlighting the main aspects and concepts regarding Mediterranean food consumption patterns sustainability that should be taken into consideration in order to set up a region wide research and action agenda. Current Mediterranean food consumption patterns are not sustainable. Unsustainable food con- sumption patterns are putting increasing stress on Mediterranean ecosystems and social systems. Food consumption and pro- duction patterns are among the most important drivers of environmental degradation. The social and economic costs of di- et-related illnesses are straining individuals, families and national healthcare budgets. The Mediterranean diet is widely consi- dered a healthy dietary pattern and a greater adherence to it has been associated with significant nutritional and health im- provements. It has also been acknowledged for its lower environmental footprints. However, there is an ongoing decrease of adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern. Moving towards sustainable food system in the Mediterranean region means addressing systemically the consumptive demand as well as productive supply elements. Curbing the amount of food loss and waste is a tangible starting point as well as promoting the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable dietary pattern. Steps must be taken to assess the nutritional, health, economic, environmental and social sustainability of the current food consumption patterns and to develop appropriate policy guidelines and instruments.

Food production is a major driver of environmental change, and unhealthy diets are the leading cause of global disease burden. In high-income countries (HICs), modelling studies suggest that adoption of healthy diets could improve population health and reduce environmental footprints associated with food production. We assessed whether such benefits from dietary change could occur in India, where under-nutrition and overweight and obesity are simultaneously prevalent.We calculated the potential changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, blue and green water footprints (WFs), and land use (LU), that would result from shifting current national food consumption patterns in India to healthy diets (meeting dietary guidelines) and to “affluent diets” (those consumed by the wealthiest quartile of households, which may represent future purchasing power and nutritional trajectories). Dietary data were derived from the 2011–12 nationally-representative household expenditure survey, and we assessed dietary scenarios nationally and across six Indian sub-regions, by rural or urban location, and for those consuming above or below recommended dietary energy intakes. We modelled the changes in consumption of 34 food groups necessary to meet Indian dietary guidelines, as well as an affluent diet representative of those in the highest wealth quartile. These changes were combined with food-specific data on GHG emissions, calculated using the Cool Farm Tool, and WF and LU adapted from the Water Footprint Network and Food and Agriculture Organization, respectively.Shifting to healthy guidelines nationally required a minor increase in dietary energy (3%), with larger increases in fruit (18%) and vegetable (72%) intake, though baseline proportion of dietary energy from fat and protein was adequate and did not change significantly. Meeting healthy guidelines slightly increased environmental footprints by about 3–5% across GHG emissions, blue and green WFs, and LU. However, these national averages masked substantial variation within sub-populations. For example, shifting to healthy diets among those with dietary energy intake below recommended guidelines would result in increases of 28% in GHG emissions, 18 and 34% in blue and green WFs, respectively, and 41% in LU. Decreased environmental impacts were seen among those who currently consume above recommended dietary energy (−6 to −16% across footprints). Adoption of affluent diets by the whole population would result in increases of 19–36% across the environmental indicators. Specific food groups contributing to these shifts varied by scenario. Environmental impacts also varied markedly between six major Indian sub-regions.In India, where undernutrition is prevalent, widespread adoption of healthy diets may lead to small increases in the environmental footprints of the food system relative to the status quo, although much larger increases would occur if there was widespread adoption of diets currently consumed by the wealthiest quartile of the population. To achieve lower diet-related disease burdens and reduced environmental footprints of the food system, greater efficiency of food production and reductions in food waste are likely to be required alongside promotion of healthy diets.

Immediate action is required in the Mediterranean to address environmental degradation that is mainly driven by consumption patterns. Increasing stress on biological and social systems is put by unsustainable consumption patterns. Food consumption patterns are important drivers of environment degradation. The objective of this review paper is to explore natural resources-food nexus in the Mediterranean region by highlighting the environmental footprints of the current consumption and production patterns. Secondary data from different sources such as FAOSTAT, the World Bank, Water Footprint Network (WFN), and Global Footprint Network were used to analyze the situation in 21 Mediterranean countries. The region faces many environmental challenges, e.g., land degradation, water scarcity, environment pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The current consumption patterns imply high ecological, carbon, and water footprints of consumption and unfavorable national virtual-water balances. Food Balance Sheets data show that the contribution of vegetal and animal-based food product groups to food supply is variable among the Mediterranean countries. This has implications also in terms of the WF of food supply, which was calculated for Bosnia, Egypt, Italy, Morocco, and Turkey. The WF of the current diet resulted lower than that of the proposed Mediterranean one in the case of Italy. There is a strong scientific evidence supporting assumption that it is so also for other Mediterranean countries. The Mediterranean is characterized by a high resource use intensity that is further exacerbated by food losses and waste (FLW). In fact, FLW implies the loss of precious resources (water, land, energy) and inputs (fertilizers). Therefore, it is crucial to increase adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet and to reduce FLW in order to foster transition to more sustainable food consumption patterns thus reducing pressure on the scarce resources of the Mediterranean region.

It is evident that the modification of dietary patterns is a necessary precondition of disease prevention and health improvement. Changing nutritional habits also has deep-rooted consequences on the environmental burden. The majority of similar previous studies have analyzed the change in greenhouse gas emissions against theoretical modifications in current food consumption. The analysis on the effect of diet on the water footprint is also gaining in importance, since water supply is a critical global issue. Based on current nutritional patterns of a Central European country—Hungary—as well as dietary recommendations and scientific literature, we generated six dietary scenarios and determined the consequences of these on green (originally from precipitation) and blue (sourced from surface or groundwater) water consumption and dietary quality. Compared to the baseline scenario (current local nutritional pattern) of both genders, based on the integrated aspect of water footprint and dietary quality, the most disadvantageous scenario was the ketogenic (ca. −2% in dietary quality, +18% in blue water footprint, and +16% in green water footprint) and the most advantageous was the sustainable scenario (ca. +9% in dietary quality, −42% in green water footprint, and −29% in blue water footprint). As a summary it can be stated, that (1) there is no clear linear relationship between the “healthiness” and water footprint of different diets, but (2) a more balanced diet, which integrates nutritional and environmental considerations could decrease the environmental burden in an efficient way.

The future of many coffee growing regions, such as Brazil, depends on strategies to allow the minimization of the negative impacts of climate change. Still the own contribution of coffee cultivation for global warming is largely unknown. Water and carbon footprints are concepts that indicate the potential negative impact of a specific product, underlining which part of the process is the major responsible for it. In this context, the objective of this study was to quantify and spatialize the water and carbon footprints from coffee crop in different regions of Brazil, and to find the proportional weight of coffee production in the total emission of CO2 and water consumption in the context of Brazilian agriculture. For this end, water and carbon footprints were estimated and spatialized for Brazilian regions along 10 productive seasons (from 2004/2005 to 2014/2015), based on data of plantation area (ha) and coffee production (tons of beans). It is concluded that the estimates of annual carbon and water footprints were 19.791 million t CO2-equivalent and 49,284 million m3 of water, with higher values from the Southeast region. This corresponded to a moderate (ca. 5%) value for the emissions of greenhouse gases, but a relevant water footprint in the context of Brazilian agriculture

Avocados, which have been labeled a superfood and are very popular around the world, are often grown in areas with water scarcity and have long-distance transports to their end consumer. Water and carbon footprints could be reduced by using greenhouse farming, waste heat and rainwater. This study aims to determine whether avocados and other exotic fruits could be locally or regionally grown in greenhouse systems in Bavaria heated using waste heat and examines whether this approach decreases the resulting water and carbon footprints. To test these hypotheses, the waste heat potential is estimated by analyzing a database provided by the Bavarian Environment Agency. Data on water and carbon footprints are extracted from databases by The Water Footprint Network and FAOSTAT. As a local case study, a greenhouse system using waste heat of a nearby glass factory in Upper Franconia is considered. The results show a tremendous waste heat potential for Bavaria and Munich with reduced carbon, but similar water footprints compared to international avocado production. The required area for these avocado farms would only amount to 0.016% of Bavaria's or 0.02% of Munich's total area. With more uncomplicated handling and earlier fruit bearing, fruits like papaya, guava, or carambola seem to be better suited for greenhouse farming than avocados. Waste heat supported farming in controlled environments can require significantly less water through modern irrigation techniques and should be considered when designing new food security concepts for urban or rural areas.

Indicators on the sustainability of productive human sectors help boosting societal awareness and provide remarkable information for political decision-making and resources management. Prominent examples of relevant environmental indicators currently available are those that form the footprint family. In agriculture, the water footprint approach provides indicators that integrate direct and indirect freshwater usage. While a considerable number of studies developed so far used tabulated values for crop parametrization, the less explored application of dense remote sensing time series provides huge benefits.This paper aims to present the spatiotemporal estimation of the green and blue Remote Sensing-based Agriculture Water Footprint (RS-AWAF) at the Pinios River Basin (11,000 km2) in Greece (year 2017), combining two globally accepted and operational methodologies: the Soil Water Balance published by the Food and Agriculture Organization in its irrigation and drainage paper 56 for water accounting purposes, and the standardized methodology for Agricultural Water Footprint estimation of growing a crop or tree published by the Water Footprint Network. Initially, the RS-AWAF applies dense temporal series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index produced by Sentinel-2 data at 10m spatial resolution to monitor the crops provided by local authorities through the Land Parcel Information System and derive the biophysical parameters along its development, such as the basal crop coefficient and the fraction of soil surface covered by vegetation. Those are then integrated into a validated and operational Remote Sensing-based Soil Water Balance that day after day and within a pixel spatial scale, estimates among other components of the balance, the adjusted crop evapotranspiration (ETcadj) and the net irrigation requirements (NIR). In a second step, both previous components are combined to estimate the blue crop water use (CWUblue), related to the NIR, and the green crop water use (CWUgreen), related to the fraction of the ETcadj that comes from other freshwater sources different than irrigation, the precipitation. Finally, crop yield values collected from official statistics per crop or crop group are used to estimate the blue water footprint (WFblue) and the green water footprint (WFgreen).Once the green and blue RS-AWAF is estimated, a collection of thematic maps over the Pinios River Basin is ready for use by local stakeholders at their desired working scale. In that sense, monthly and annual thematic maps of ETcadj, NIR, CWUgreen and CWUblue are available, as well as annual thematic maps of WFblue and WFgreen. In parallel, tabulated values are created from these parameters using zonal statistics through GIS at the spatial scale appropriate to the final user (i.e. water user associations).These results are part of the EU Horizon 2020 project REXUS (Managing Resilient Nexus Systems Through Participatory Systems Dynamics Modelling), in which stakeholders from water user associations to river basin water managers are evaluating the information. At this stage, our final goal is to provide spatiotemporal distributed accounting of agricultural freshwater resources over large areas that enhance regional knowledge and increases efficiency in water management and subsequently contributing to energy-saving, since the major agricultural water volume is abstracted from deep groundwater wells.

Consumed food type, composition and quantity affects water resources demand (cf. water footprint). Since blue water resources availability is limited in the Mediterranean area diets shifting and food losses and waste reduction are key strategies. The paper aims at analyzing the water footprint of food consumption and implications of food waste in terms of water demand. The paper is based on secondary data mainly from the FAO Food Balance Sheets and the Water Footprint Network. Approximately 91% of the water footprint (WF) in the Mediterranean is due to the consumption of agricultural products. Dietary energy ranges between 2,130 (Palestine) and 3,666 kcal/day/person (Turkey). The share of vegetal-based energy in the diet ranges from 66.5% in France to 88.9% in Palestine. Total WF of food supply in Italy (1848.3) is higher than in Finland (1116.7) but lower than in the USA (2198.7 m3/capita/year). The highest water footprint is the green one, followed by the grey then the blue one. Meat and dairy products represent about a half of the WF of food supply. The contribution of cereals is significant in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The high Mediterranean consumptive water use is exacerbated by food losses and waste. In Egypt, losses in the rice supply chain are about 25%. Food loss and wastage account for more than one quarter of the total consumptive freshwater use. A 50% decrease in food losses and waste at the global level would save 1,350 km3 a year. Adoption of more sustainable food consumption patterns and production systems and the reduction of food losses and waste can help reducing pressure on the scarce water resources in the Mediterranean. Food waste reduction interventions will have significant impact on freshwater resource availability as other water use efficiency measures in agriculture and food production.

Relevance. Agricultural production is the main consumer of water. Globally, about 70% of fresh water is annually used for agricultural (food and non-food) production. Nearly 40% of the world's food supply comes from irrigation. Globally, the scarcity of irrigation water due to competition between industry and urban consumption threatens food security. Future population growth, income growth and changes in nutrition are expected to increase demand for water. The rate of warming in Russia since the mid-1970s about 2.5 times the global average. The highest rate of temperature increase occurs at high latitudes. The entire territory of Russia is subject to warming, both as a whole for the year and in all seasons. Water Footprint Accounting (WF), proposed by the Water Footprint Network (WFN), has the potential to provide important information for water management, especially in water-stressed regions that rely on irrigation to meet food needs.Methodology. The purpose of this systematic review was to collate and synthesize available data on global water use in vegetable production. Searched online databases covering the areas of environment, social sciences, public health, nutrition and agriculture: Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, OvidSP MEDLINE, EconLit, OvidSP AGRIS, EBSCO GreenFILE, and OvidSP CAB Abstracts. The search was conducted using predefined search terms that included the concepts of "vegetable crops" and "water footprint".Results. This article provides a brief overview of the vegetable growing water footprint and the sustainability of the blue water footprint. In general, a high green or overall (green + blue) WF may indicate that the vegetable crops are having low yields or inefficient water use. Low green and high blue WF indicate inefficient use of rainwater, which can lead to overexploitation of surface and groundwater. The water footprint can be considered a good economic ergometer, showing the level of water consumption required to obtain a certain vegetable product, whether it brings economic benefits or not, beneficial to society or not.

Understanding the LCA and ISO water footprint: A response to Hoekstra (2016) “A critique on the water-scarcity weighted water footprint in LCA”

Food consumption is closely associated with resource consumption and environmental sustainability. An unreasonable dietary pattern would cause great pressure or damage to resources and the environment. It is particularly important to reduce the negative impact of household food consumption on resources and the environment while simultaneously ensuring people’s nutrient intake and health. This study applied the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) database to quantitatively study the spatial-temporal analysis of multiple footprints of household food consumption at multiple scales and explored the driving mechanism of the multiple footprints. The results showed that, except land footprint (LF), the other four types of footprints all decreased at varying degrees; the water footprint (WF), carbon footprint (CF), nitrogen footprint (NF) and energy footprint (EF) decreased by 18.24%, 17.82%, 12.03% and 20.36%, respectively, from 2000 to 2011; multiple footprints of food consumption of household in Guizhou was the highest among the 12 provinces involved in the study; this shows that resource consumption (water, energy and land resource) and environmental influences (CO2 emissions and nitrogen emissions) brought by food consumption of per household in Guizhou are much greater than in other provinces, which has a negative influence on sustainable development; by analyzing the driving factors of multiple footprints, it is shown that nutrient intake, household attributes, educational level and health conditions were significantly correlated to multiple footprints. Among them, nutrient intake has greater impact on the multiple footprints of Chinese household food consumption. By comparing multiple footprints of different dietary patterns, it was found that the current Chinese dietary pattern would cause excessive resource consumption, which would bring more pressure on resources and the environment. Adjusting household living habits would possibly reverse the unsustainable situation, such as reducing the consumption of animal-derived foods and adjusting the dietary pattern of households with a higher educational level and income status. Chinese Dietary Guidelines 2016 has better sustainability; the promotion of this dietary pattern across the country would help China to relieve the pressure on resources and environment from the consumer side, promoting the realization of sustainable development.

Water is key to food security since agriculture can require up to 85% of a country’s water. Dietary Water Footprint (WF) calculations have recently been used to assess the impact of diet on water use in contexts of water scarcity. However, diet WF calculations are generally done worldwide for cooked foods using raw food databases, with no consideration of food peeling and the water needed to wash and cook food. The WF of the Mexican diet has not been evaluated. We propose a WF calculation model using correction factors for conversion from cooked to raw and peeled to unpeeled foods, and considering the water necessary to wash and cook food. We calculated the WF of the Mexican diet to validate the model and verify its impact on this diet’s WF. We conducted a search of available dietary WF calculation methodologies, a review of the food components of the Mexican diet, a confirmatory study through 24-h recall and interviews, and an exploratory study of 237 adults following the Water Footprint Network (WFN) method. The WF of the Mexican diet using traditional WFA was 7750 l of water per person per day (l/p/d), and our proposed methodology (which included correction factors and food cooking and washing) increased the WF to 8334 l/p/d, an increase of 584 l/p/d. This is between 148% and 363% higher than WFs reported for other diets around the world, including the US American and vegetarian in Austria. This study represented the first approach of Mexican diet WF calculation and proved that, among diets WF worldwide, the Mexican diet WF is the highest. Also, we found that correction factors can increase or decrease WFs by up to 135%. Although water for cooking and washing food represent small proportions of the Mexican diet’s WF, in the long term these can generate significant impacts on water availability in Mexico, given the large WF of the diet and scarcity of water in much of the country. Effective management of the Mexican diet’s WF will be crucial for continued food security in Mexico.

Background and aim: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Several studies have investigated the effects of dietary patterns on prostate cancer risk, but this topic is still a matter of debate. This study aimed to examine the association between dietary patterns and prostate cancer risk.Methods: In a case-control study, 60 newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases and 60 hospital-based controls were selected from two main hospitals of Shiraz, Iran. Data on dietary intakes, anthropometric features, and demographic characteristics were collected. To determine the dietary patterns factor analysis, and to estimate the odds ratios (ORs), multivariable logistic regression was performed.Results: Two major dietary patterns were identified: Western dietary (WD) pattern and Mediterranean dietary (MD) pattern. After adjusting for potential confounders, men who had higher scores for WD pattern (above the median) were more likely to have prostate cancer (OR = 5.15; 95% CI (1.44–18.47); P = 0.01) compared with men who had lower scores. A nonsignificant inverse association was found for MD pattern (OR = 0.62; 95% CI (0.22–1.77); P = 0.37).Conclusions: Our findings suggest that WD pattern may increase the risk of prostate cancer and the beneficial effects of MD pattern on prostate cancer risk need further research.

Impact of urban and rural food consumption on water demand in China—From the perspective of water footprint