The food of the future must be based on a healthy and sustainable Food System for all.It this possible?

The global Food System is not working properly. While there is still hunger in the world, many human diseases are due to overweight and lack of essential micronutrients. On the other hand, environmental sustainability is in question due to the methods of extraction, production and distribution of sustainable food. 

After the pandemic, a new vector is added to the previous problems: environmental awareness and awareness of one’s own and collective health. 

We interviewed Future Trends Forum expert Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, who tells us what the most pressing problems are and how to address them. 

A healthy and sustainable diet for 10 billion people is feasible 

Supported by the report of the EAT Lancet Commission that you co-chair, you stated that a healthy and sustainable diet for 10 billion people is feasible in 2050. How is this possible? What should be done? 

We started by reviewing evidence on the relation of food groups to health to identify target numbers and possible ranges.  What emerged was what some call a flexitarian or plant-forward dietary pattern, meaning modest amounts of meat and dairy foods, about two servings a day, although someone could be a vegan if they so choose, together with a base of nuts, legumes, soy foods, fruits, and whole grains.  For some parts of the world this would be a reduction in meat and dairy foods, but for other this would be little change or even an increase.  This is pattern is consistent with a traditional Mediterranean diet, but can be provided by foods and flavors familiar to almost all parts of the world.  Using data on environmental footprints of food groups, we found that this diet could be consumed by 10 billion people and be sustainable if combined with some reductions in food waste and improvements in production methods.  Shifting the world’s population to this diet would reduce overall mortality rates by about 20 to 24%. 

Levers of change for a sustainable Food System   

What should be the role of the different stakeholders (governments, international organizations, agri-food industries, consumers, etc.) to achieve this? 

Everyone and every institution need to be involved in this…. we are all stakeholders because we live on planet Earth.  We need to examine everything we do through a climate change lens at this is an urgent issue. We need creativity and also policies and economic strategies that may involve shifting subsidies to support sustainable actions and pricing to internalize the environmental costs.    

The fossil fuel problem -H2 

Since you participated in the Future Trends Forum Food of the future a year and a half ago, what changes have you seen in the food industry? Is there more awareness after the pandemic? 

I haven’t seen good data on changes, but I think there is an increased awareness that climate change is an urgent issue.  Unfortunately, some actors have been using fake solutions involving carbon offsets, such as protecting forests elsewhere while continuing to use fossil fuels.   We do need to protect and increase forests, but we also need to rapidly wean ourselves from fossil fuels. 

Food waste  

How could we cut down on food waste? 

Having the cost of food reflect the true health and environmental costs would incentivize was reduction.  We need actions at all levels, from individuals to institutions. 

Innovation should focus on achieving a change in eating habits

What scientific or technological innovations do you think will help will help make the future of the food sector more sustainable and inclusive? 

The most important action needs to be a shift in diets, which means that we will need to combine creativity and marketing to make healthy and sustainable diets the smart, inspirational way to eat.   This will involve delicious and enjoyable meals available and affordable to everyone…. which is possible, and the Mediterranean diet provides a good example. Innovation can help by using information technology to improve production and supply chains to be more efficient and provide higher quality foods for everyone. I understand that there is much interest in plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy foods; in principle these are not necessary because existing foods can be healthy and sustainable, but they can help some people shift from their current animal-sourced foods.   This can help accelerate changes for people who are not ready to more fundamentally change their dietary pattern.   

Doubts about new foods 

Do you think that the investigation of new molecules could create healthier and cheaper food?  

This remains to be seen; traditional diets can be sustainable and are generally not expensive because most are already plant forward.  I think our main effort should be to promote these and make them as attractive as possible.   

In short, our expert believes that, in order to have a healthy and sustainable Food System for all, we must focus on two issues: 

• The fight against climate change and the ecological disaster towards which we are heading. 
• People’s health. 

According to Dr. Willett, the common enemy of both is the excessive consumption of red meat, the production of which generates large amounts of greenhouse gases and requires a lot of land.  

You can see Dr. Willett’s speech at the Future Trends Forum in the following video: 

You can also deepen into what was discussed in the Future Trends Forum “Food of the future“, and access the videos of other experts who participated, by clicking here.E