Sustainable nutrition.

Abstract

Abstract A new paradigm - 'sustainable nutrition' - has emerged where distinct streams of scientific discourse are beginning to overlap: in global change, environmental science, agriculture, food security, nutrition, sustainable development and public health. A broadening of perspective has accompanied this new way of thinking, which holistically considers overall food system performance, as measured by economic, environmental, societal, nutrition and health outcomes. This systems approach includes analysis of entire food supply chains: beginning with the production of essential agricultural inputs, animal and crop farm operations, fisheries and aquaculture, processing, storage, distribution, preparation, consumption and ending with waste disposal. The burgeoning scientific literature on this topic is reviewed here, which points to four actions that are needed to achieve sustainable nutrition: (1) carefully define terminology and agree upon quantifiable measures, metrics and methods of assessing the status of sustainable nutrition; (2) bridge the gap between the ability to characterize national-scale food system performance and the diet and health of individuals, by gender, age and socio-economic status; (3) better coordinate and resource the efforts now underway at local and regional levels that attempt to enhance sustainable nutrition; and (4) facilitate consensus-building across the full spectrum of food system stakeholders on the trans-sectoral, ethically based policies and other interventions that are needed across entire food supply chains in order to attain sustainable nutrition.