Food and Environment

Recent studies related the link between food consumption and impacts on environment and health. These may present variations according to the dietary patterns of different populations. This chapter assesses the impacts of six dietary patterns while emphasizing protein overconsumption and sustainability of food systems in a world where one billion people are hungry and several more suffer from conditions related to obesity. The chapter shows the nutritional disparity existent in different dietary patterns and potential to make changes. Changes in dietary patterns are an opportunity to contribute for environmental and health benefits. The analysis was based on a set of environmental indicators such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land use demand, while providing a nutritional balance. The methodology comprehended a life cycle assessment in order to quantify the GHG emissions and the land use demand for food production. Finally, a review is made to focus on the benefits of shifting from current diet patterns to more sustainable ones, such as the Mediterranean.

Reply to L Aleksandrowicz et al.

Diets have been changing drastically in China in the recent decades and this change has contributed considerably to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In determining effective mitigation strategies for future emissions, it is necessary to know how emissions related to diet vary over time in overall magnitude and due to compositional changes driven by socioeconomic dynamics. This study evaluates the change in dietary GHG emissions in China during the 1997–2011 period by linking environmentally extended input–output tables with individual daily food intake data. It further decomposes the contribution to GHG emission changes of various socioeconomic driving factors. The results show that GHG emissions related to national diet have been decreasing from 1,180 Mt CO 2 e to 640 Mt CO 2 e (a 54% decline), largely due to technical innovation that has reduced the emissions per calorie of food (135% of the total reduction). The change in dietary patterns has had mixed effects, with a decline in calorie intake reducing emissions by 21% while increases in animal‐sourced food consumption have raised emissions by 25%. Our findings stress the importance of technical progress in the historical change in dietary GHG emissions and suggest a focus on behavior changes for future research and policymaking, which has the potential to promote dietary changes toward less animal product consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of both technological and demand‐side behavioral options in reducing the impact of diets on GHG emissions.

China is undergoing a marked transition in its diet and nutritional status patterns. This study determines the structural change in the impact of income on food consumption in China during 1989-93. Utilizing data from a longitudinal study of 3800 households in China evidence points to a shift in the relationship between income dietary structure and total nutrient intake at the macrolevel. Overall it is noted that the increase in income over time in the country coincided with a shift in the demand for inferior and normal food groups. In addition there was a pronounced increase in the income elasticity for more luxury foods during the specified period while less superior goods became more inferior over this 4-year span. Such an increase in income elasticities for total energy and for energy from fat suggest a worsening of the composition of the diet in ways that are linked to obesity and obesity-related diseases as incomes continue to rise. In view of this several implications for the formulation of future nutrition policies in China are cited.

Region-specific nutritious, environmentally friendly, and affordable diets in India

Japan is a country committed to complying with the international agreement on mitigating greenhouse gases (GHGs) causing climate change. However, the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011 led the country had to modify the energy and environmental policy to global warming. The 15 m of tsunami occurred from an underwater earthquake hit the east coast where the nuclear reactors were located. The coolant system failed and the radioactive materials were spread out into the atmosphere, ocean, and soil. The Japanese government investigated the level of contaminated materials (iodine, cesium, etc.) and reassessed the food safety regulations. Simultaneously, consumers' anxiety about the food system was increasing and their preferences for food consumption were affected by the food safety phenomenon that arose in connection with the nuclear accident after the natural disaster. Japanese consumers avoided agricultural and fish products originating from the land and sea, so the consumption per capita of fish decreased by 11.3% while the beef consumption increased by 13.7% between 2011 and 2020. As reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), meat and dairy products are accounted for around 16.5% of global GHGs emissions per year, and there are differences in the emission factors between beef (40.5 kgCO2e/kg) and fish (7.7 kgCO2e/kg). Per capita meat and fish consumption in Japan affected the GHGs emissions and the study employs the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) to estimate the impact of a change in dietary patterns on CO2 emissions from household food consumption. The outcome variable is CO2 emissions from household food consumption and the intervention period is between 1995 and 2019 (pre-intervention: 1995–2010; post-intervention: 2011–2019). Analyzing 32 countries, placebo studies, leave-one-out, and post-/pre-MSPE ratio are performed to make the statistical inferences. The results present that there is a meaningful relationship between the dietary patterns and the increase in CO2 emissions. Unlike the countries in the control group, Japan shows a significant increase in CO2 emissions from household food consumption after the natural disaster. However, the westernization of the diet can be another long-term factor affecting climate change. Therefore, future research can involve analyzing the impact of CO2 emissions from household food consumption in multiple treated countries with multiple interventions.

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).

Background: Current scientific literature suggests healthy dietary patterns may have less environmental impact than current consumption patterns, but most of the studies rely on theoretical modeling. The aim of this study was to assess the impact on resources (land, water, and energy) use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of healthy dietary patterns in a sample of Italian adults. Methods: Participants (n = 1806) were recruited through random sampling in the city of Catania, southern Italy. Dietary consumption was assessed through a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ); dietary patterns were calculated through dietary scores. The specific environmental footprints of food item production/processing were obtained from various available life-cycle assessments; a sustainability score was created based on the impact of the four environmental components calculated. Results: The contribution of major food groups to the environmental footprint showed that animal products (dairy, egg, meat, and fish) represented more than half of the impact on GHG emissions and energy requirements; meat products were the stronger contributors to GHG emissions and water use, while dairy products to energy use, and cereals to land use. All patterns investigated, with the exception of the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH), were linearly associated with the sustainability score. Among the components, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet and Alternate Diet Quality Index (AHEI) was associated with lower GHG emissions, dietary quality index-international (DQI-I) with land use, while Nordic diet with land and water use. Conclusions: In conclusion, the adoption of healthy dietary patterns involves less use of natural resources and GHG emissions, representing eco-friendlier options in Italian adults.

Food processing is a major thriving industry globally and provides livelihood to millions of workers. Food processing is an energy intensive process and often has an impact on the environment which remains undiagnosed and hence not quantified. Food processing industry comprises the organized as well as unorganized sector with varying levels of energy requirement and therefore the carbon foot prints also significantly vary. Higher energy use is often related to higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emission which is responsible for global warming and climate change. Carbon footprint (CFP) of food industry is an estimate of the energy use and GHG emissions caused due to the processing and delivery of food items to the consumer and also disposal of packaging. Recently there is a growing interest in estimating the carbon footprint of food industries to know how improved technologies can be used to make food processing less energy and carbon intensive. In this book chapter we would like to provide an overview of energy use and carbon footprint of different types of food industries. Quantification of CFP is generally done using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in which GHG emissions are measured from the very beginning of the production process to its final use and disposal. GHG emission from a food industry will include both direct emissions as well as indirect emissions. The CFP of different sectors like fruit and beverage industry, sugar production, dairy sector, fisheries, meat and poultry supply chains are presented. Apart from this, research gaps and possible steps to minimize the carbon footprint will be mentioned. Assessing the CFP of food industries can help in identifying the GHG sources and can be useful in developing alternative technologies which are more energy efficient and reduces GHG emission. Further, change in dietary pattern also contributes immensely to reduce the environmental impact of food consumption.

Food production is a major driver of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water and land use, and dietary risk factors are contributors to non-communicable diseases. Shifts in dietary patterns can therefore potentially provide benefits for both the environment and health. However, there is uncertainty about the magnitude of these impacts, and the dietary changes necessary to achieve them. We systematically review the evidence on changes in GHG emissions, land use, and water use, from shifting current dietary intakes to environmentally sustainable dietary patterns. We find 14 common sustainable dietary patterns across reviewed studies, with reductions as high as 70–80% of GHG emissions and land use, and 50% of water use (with medians of about 20–30% for these indicators across all studies) possible by adopting sustainable dietary patterns. Reductions in environmental footprints were generally proportional to the magnitude of animal-based food restriction. Dietary shifts also yielded modest benefits in all-cause mortality risk. Our review reveals that environmental and health benefits are possible by shifting current Western diets to a variety of more sustainable dietary patterns.

Gaining Acceptance of Novel Plant Breeding Technologies.

We study ideals of pointfree function rings. In particular, we study the lattices of z-ideals
\nand d-ideals of the ring RL of continuous real-valued functions on a completely regular
\nframe L. We show that the lattice of z-ideals is a coherently normal Yosida frame; and
\nthe lattice of d-ideals is a coherently normal frame. The lattice of z-ideals is demonstrated
\nto be 
\natly projectable if and only if the ring RL is feebly Baer. On the other hand, the
\nframe of d-ideals is projectable precisely when the frame is cozero-complemented.
\nThese ideals give rise to two functors as follows: Sending a frame to the lattice of
\nthese ideals is a functorial assignment. We construct a natural transformation between the
\nfunctors that arise from these assignments. We show that, for a certain collection of frame
\nmaps, the functor associated with z-ideals preserves and re
\nects the property of having a
\nleft adjoint.
\nA ring is called a UMP-ring if every maximal ideal in it is the union of the minimal
\nprime ideals it contains. In the penultimate chapter we give several characterisations for
\nthe ring RL to be a UMP-ring. We observe, in passing, that if a UMP ring is a Q-algebra,
\nthen each of its ideals when viewed as a ring in its own right is a UMP-ring. An example
\nis provided to show that the converse fails.
\nFinally, piggybacking on results in classical rings of continuous functions, we show that,
\nexactly as in C(X), nth roots exist in RL. This is a consequence of an earlier proposition
\nthat every reduced f-ring with bounded inversion is the ring of fractions of its bounded
\npart relative to those elements in the bounded part which are units in the bigger ring. We
\nclose with a result showing that the frame of open sets of the structure space of RL is isomorphic to L.

Who Wants a Seat at the Table for Dietary and Climate Change Strategies?

BackgroundFollowing the release of the Sustainable Development Goals, dietary patterns and guidelines are being revised for their effect on the environment in addition to their health implications. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the Environmental Footprints (EFPs) of food consumption patterns among Lebanese adults.MethodsFor this study, data for adults aged > 18 years (n = 337) were drawn from a previous national survey conducted in Lebanon (2008–2009), where dietary intake was assessed using a 61-item Food Frequency Questionnaire. Dietary patterns previously derived in the study sample included: Western, Lebanese-Mediterranean and High-Protein. In this study, food consumption and dietary patterns were examined for their EFPs including water use, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, using review of life cycle analyses.ResultsIn the study population, the EFPs of food consumption were: water use: 2571.62 ± 1259.45 L/day; energy use: 37.34 ± 19.98 MJ/day and GHGs: 4.06 ± 1.93 kg CO2 eq / day. Among the three dietary patterns prevalent in the study population, the Lebanese-Mediterranean diet had the lowest water use and GHG per 1000 Kcal (Water (L/Kg): 443.61 ± 197.15, 243.35 ± 112.0, 264.72 ± 161.67; GHG (KG CO2 eq/day) 0.58 ± 0.32, 0.38 ± 0.24, 0.57 ± 0.37, for the Western, Lebanese-Mediterranean and High- Protein, respectively). The scores of the High-Protein dietary pattern were associated with higher odds of the three EFPs, whereas the Lebanese-Mediterranean dietary pattern was associated with lower odds of energy use. Furthermore, scores of the Western pattern were associated with higher water use.ConclusionsThe findings of this study showed that, among Lebanese adults, the Western and High-Protein dietary patterns had high EFPs, whereas the Lebanese-Mediterranean dietary pattern had lower water use and GHG emissions. Coupled to our earlier findings of the Lebanese-Mediterranean pattern’s beneficial effects on health, the findings of this study lend evidence for the notion that what is healthy for people may also be healthy for ecosystems and highlight the need for nutrition recommendations to take into consideration the nexus of water, food, energy, in addition to health.

Changing dietary patterns is essential to reducing the substantial environment impact of agriculture and food production systems. We performed a cross-country comparison of dietary patterns and their associated environmental impact in Europe, including by sociodemographic factors. We analyzed pooled cross-sectional dietary records collected during 2010-18 from 10 European countries using the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Comprehensive European Food Database (16 508 adults; aged 18-79 years). Each food consumed was mapped to the corresponding environmental impact data using the SHARP Indicators Database, which provides greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) and land use (LU) values of approximately 900 foods. Total diet-associated environmental impact was calculated for each person and averaged across multiple days. Multivariable linear regression models were used to compare diet-associated GHGE and LU between population subgroups (gender, age, education and diet type) with country-level fixed effects. The mean dietary GHGE and LU per capita ranged from 4.0 kgCO2/day and 5.0 m2*year/day in Spain to 6.5 kgCO2eq/day and 8.2 m2*year/day in France. Diet-related GHGE and LU (per kg/food) were lower among females (2.6 kgCO2eq/day, B = -0.08, P < 0.01; 3.2 m2*year/day, B = -0.11, P < 0.01), older population aged 66-79 (2.6 kgCO2eq/day, B = -0.03, P < 0.01; 3.4 m2*year/day, B = -0.4, P < 0.01), people following vegetarian diets (1.7 kgCO2eq/day, B = -0.07, P < 0.01; 2.0 m2*year/day, B = -0.07, P < 0.01), and higher among individuals with secondary education (2.7 kgCO2eq/day, B = 0.05, P < 0.01; 3.6 m2*year/day, B = -0.05, P < 0.01). Environmental footprints vary substantially across countries, dietary patterns and between different sociodemographic groups in Europe. These findings are crucial for the development of country-specific food policies aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable diets.