Plating up solutions
Can eating patterns be both healthier and more sustainable?
Abstract
The food system—that is, all the processes involved in feeding the global population—is responsible for ∼25% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It also drives deforestation and biodiversity loss, land degradation, water overuse, and pollution, and creates and perpetuates inequalities within and across societies. And it does not even feed us effectively: While obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases escalate, hunger and micronutrient deficiencies persist. As the global population grows, becomes wealthier, and demands more resource-intensive foods, these problems are likely to worsen. A systemic approach that jointly addresses problems related to production, consumption, and inequity is needed.
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Published In
Science
Volume 353 | Issue 6305
16 September 2016
16 September 2016
Copyright
Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Published in print: 16 September 2016
Acknowledgments
The author is head of the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) . The FCRN is an interdisciplinary and international network focusing on food systems, at the University of Oxford.
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Is fish a fish - adding fish to the global food sustainability transformation
The Perspective on food sustainability (T. Garnett, 16 September, 353/6305) gives valuable insights related to links between dietary choices, environmental impacts and health. Substituting meat with fish could, as stated, only result in a transfer of impacts. If, however, fish is caught sustainably, respecting biological limits and using smart fishing methods, capture fisheries can produce low-impact food without requiring land, pesticides, fertilizers or irrigation (1). This is unique and fishery is the only large-scale food production system based on a wild resource. While many wild fish stocks are fully or over-exploited, global landings could potentially increase by up to 20% if stocks were properly managed (2).
Half of the seafood eaten globally is farmed, which is more similar to land–based meat production. Feed production represents a large part of the environmental impacts of both livestock and farmed fish. Fish, however, invest more of its metabolic energy into growth than chicken, pigs or cows; as they don't waste energy on keeping temperature homeostasis, nor on combating gravity. Fish, both from fisheries and aquaculture, have therefore repeatedly been shown to outcompete livestock in terms of environmental impacts (3, 4).
However, fish represents a highly diverse commodity with vastly different environmental profiles (5,6). It is therefore crucial to push consumption towards the most low-impact products and production methods. Fish also provides health benefits and remain an essential source of protein and micronutrients, especially in developing countries (7, 8). Replacing meat by sustainably sourced seafood products could accelerate the needed transformation of the food system. Such a strategy does not argue against the needed general reduction of overconsumption of animal protein, but plating up more seafood at the expense of meat is an important solution needed to achieve global food security.
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Beveridge et al. 2013. Meeting the food and nutrition needs of the poor: the role of fish and the opportunities and challenges emerging from the rise of aquaculture. Journal of Fish Biology, 83(4): 1067-1084.