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Journal ArticleDOI

Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems

02 Feb 2019-The Lancet (Elsevier)-Vol. 393, Iss: 10170, pp 447-492
TL;DR: Food in the Anthropocene : the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems focuses on meat, fish, vegetables and fruit as sources of protein.
About: This article is published in The Lancet.The article was published on 2019-02-02 and is currently open access. It has received 4710 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Food security & Food systems.

Summary (1 min read)

Jump to: [Executive Summary] and [Conclusions]

Executive Summary

  • Food has the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability.
  • Scientific targets for healthy diets, are presented in Table 1, based on the extensive literature on foods, dietary patterns, and health outcomes.
  • The quantification of scientific targets for the safe operating space of food systems in the world, was done for the key environmental systems and processes where food production plays a dominant role in determining the state of the planet.
  • Given that food systems are the major driver of poor health and environmental degradation, global efforts are urgently needed to collectively transform diets and food production.
  • This would entail closing yield gaps on current cropland, radical improvements in fertilizer and water use efficiency, recycling of phosphorus, redistribution of global use of nitrogen and phosphorus, implementing climate mitigation options including changes in crop and feed management, and enhancing biodiversity within agricultural systems.

Conclusions

  • Unhealthy and unsustainably produced food poses a global risk for people and planet.
  • Simultaneously, global food production is the single largest human pressure on Earth, threatening local ecosystems and the stability of the entire Earth system.
  • Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts, including a greater than 50% reduction in global consumption of unhealthy foods such as red meat and sugar, and a greater than 100% increase in the consumption of healthy foods such as nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes.
  • The changes needed differ greatly by region.
  • 7 9. The scientific targets for healthy diets from sustainable food systems that the authors have described are intertwined across all UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Citations
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01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The work of the IPCC Working Group III 5th Assessment report as mentioned in this paper is a comprehensive, objective and policy neutral assessment of the current scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change, which has been extensively reviewed by experts and governments to ensure quality and comprehensiveness.
Abstract: The talk with present the key results of the IPCC Working Group III 5th assessment report. Concluding four years of intense scientific collaboration by hundreds of authors from around the world, the report responds to the request of the world's governments for a comprehensive, objective and policy neutral assessment of the current scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change. The report has been extensively reviewed by experts and governments to ensure quality and comprehensiveness.

3,224 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The largest declines in risk exposure from 2010 to 2019 were among a set of risks that are strongly linked to social and economic development, including household air pollution; unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing; and child growth failure.

3,059 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Frank L.J. Visseren, François Mach, Yvo M. Smulders, David Carballo, Konstantinos C. Koskinas, Maria Bäck, Athanase Benetos, Alessandro Biffi, José-Manuel Boavida1, Davide Capodanno, Bernard Cosyns, Carolyn Crawford, Constantinos H. Davos, Ileana Desormais, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Oscar H. Franco, Sigrun Halvorsen, FD Richard Hobbs, Monika Hollander, Ewa A. Jankowska, Matthias Michal, Simona Sacco, Naveed Sattar, Lale Tokgozoglu, Serena Tonstad, Konstantinos P Tsioufis2, Ineke van Dis, Isabelle C. Van Gelder, Christoph Wanner3, Bryan Williams, Guy De Backer, Vera Regitz-Zagrosek, Anne Hege Aamodt, Magdy Abdelhamid, Victor Aboyans, Christian Albus, Riccardo Asteggiano, Magnus Bäck, Michael A. Borger, Carlos Brotons, Jelena Čelutkienė, Renata Cifkova, Maja Čikeš, Francesco Cosentino, Nikolaos Dagres, Tine De Backer, Dirk De Bacquer, Victoria Delgado, Hester Den Ruijter, Paul Dendale, Heinz Drexel, Volkmar Falk, Laurent Fauchier, Brian A. Ference, Jean Ferrières, Marc Ferrini4, Miles Fisher4, Danilo Fliser3, Zlatko Fras, Dan Gaita, Simona Giampaoli, Stephan Gielen, Ian D. Graham, Catriona Jennings, Torben Jørgensen, Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, Maryam Kavousi, Wolfgang Koenig, Aleksandra Konradi, Dipak Kotecha, Ulf Landmesser, Madalena Lettino, Basil S. Lewis, Aleš Linhart, Maja-Lisa Løchen1, Konstantinos Makrilakis1, Giuseppe Mancia2, Pedro Marques-Vidal, John W. McEvoy, Paul McGreavy, Béla Merkely, Lis Neubeck, Jens Cosedis Nielsen, Joep Perk, Steffen E. Petersen, Anna Sonia Petronio, Massimo F Piepoli, Nana Pogosova, Eva Prescott, Kausik K. Ray, Zeljko Reiner, Dimitrios J. Richter, Lars Rydén, Evgeny Shlyakhto, Marta Sitges, Miguel Sousa-Uva, Isabella Sudano, Monica Tiberi, Rhian M. Touyz, Andrea Ungar, W. M. Monique Verschuren, Olov Wiklund, David A. Wood, José Luis Zamorano, Carolyn A Crawford, Oscar H Franco Duran 

1,650 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The incidence of most infections is increasing, including those caused by Campylobacter and Salmonella, which might be partially attributable to the increased use of culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs).
Abstract: Foodborne illnesses represent a substantial, yet largely preventable, health burden in the United States. In 10 U.S. geographic areas, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) monitors the incidence of laboratory-confirmed infections caused by nine pathogens transmitted commonly through food. This report summarizes preliminary 2014 data and describes changes in incidence compared with 2006-2008 and 2011-2013. In 2014, FoodNet reported 19,542 infections, 4,445 hospitalizations, and 71 deaths. The incidence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 and Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium infections declined in 2014 compared with 2006-2008, and the incidence of infection with Campylobacter, Vibrio, and Salmonella serotypes Infantis and Javiana was higher. Compared with 2011-2013, the incidence of STEC O157 and Salmonella Typhimurium infections was lower, and the incidence of STEC non-O157 and Salmonella serotype Infantis infections was higher in 2014. Despite ongoing food safety efforts, the incidence of many infections remains high, indicating that further prevention measures are needed to make food safer and achieve national health objectives.

895 citations


Cites background from "Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–L..."

  • ...Because produce is a major component of a healthy diet and is often consumed raw, making it safer is important for improving human health (10)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
Nick Watts1, Markus Amann2, Nigel W. Arnell3, Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson4, Jessica Beagley1, Kristine Belesova5, Maxwell T. Boykoff6, Peter Byass7, Wenjia Cai8, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum9, Stuart Capstick10, Jonathan Chambers11, Samantha Coleman1, Carole Dalin1, Meaghan Daly12, Niheer Dasandi13, Shouro Dasgupta, Michael Davies1, Claudia Di Napoli3, Paula Dominguez-Salas5, Paul Drummond1, Robert Dubrow14, Kristie L. Ebi15, Matthew J. Eckelman16, Paul Ekins1, Luis E. Escobar17, Lucien Georgeson18, Su Golder19, Delia Grace20, Hilary Graham12, Paul Haggar10, Ian Hamilton1, Stella M. Hartinger21, Jeremy J. Hess15, Shih Che Hsu1, Nick Hughes1, Slava Mikhaylov, Marcia P. Jimenez22, Ilan Kelman1, Harry Kennard1, Gregor Kiesewetter2, Patrick L. Kinney23, Tord Kjellstrom, Dominic Kniveton24, Pete Lampard19, Bruno Lemke25, Yang Liu26, Zhao Liu8, Melissa C. Lott27, Rachel Lowe5, Jaime Martinez-Urtaza28, Mark A. Maslin1, Lucy McAllister29, Alice McGushin1, Celia McMichael30, James Milner5, Maziar Moradi-Lakeh31, Karyn Morrissey32, Simon Munzert, Kris A. Murray33, Kris A. Murray5, Tara Neville9, Maria Nilsson7, Maquins Odhiambo Sewe7, Tadj Oreszczyn1, Matthias Otto25, Fereidoon Owfi, Olivia Pearman6, David Pencheon32, Ruth Quinn34, Mahnaz Rabbaniha, Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson3, Joacim Rocklöv7, Marina Romanello1, Jan C. Semenza35, Jodi D. Sherman14, Liuhua Shi, Marco Springmann18, Meisam Tabatabaei36, Jonathon Taylor, Joaquin Trinanes37, Joy Shumake-Guillemot, Bryan N. Vu26, Paul Wilkinson5, Matthew Winning1, Peng Gong8, Hugh Montgomery1, Anthony Costello1 
TL;DR: TRANSLATIONS For the Chinese, French, German, and Spanish translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

886 citations

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Frequently Asked Questions (16)
Q1. What are the contributions in "Our food in the anthropocene: the eat-lancet commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems" ?

Willett et al. this paper presented the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. 

Substantially reducing the amount of food lost and wasted across the food value chain, from production to consumption, is essential for the global food system to stay within its safe operating space. 

there is a need to improve the management of the world’s oceans, to ensure that fisheries do not negatively impact ecosystems, fish stocks are utilized responsibly, and global aquaculture production is expanded sustainably. 

In this report, their focus is mainly on environmental sustainability of food production and health consequences of final consumption. 

The objective is to provide scientific boundaries to reduce environmental degradation arising from food production at all scales. 

Within the sustainable food production boundaries, the components of the reference diet can be used to make meals that are consistent with taste and dietary preferences of all regions of the world. 

This implies implementing a zero-expansion policy of new agricultural land into natural ecosystems and species-rich forests, management policies aimed at restoring and reforesting degraded land, establishing international land use governance mechanisms, and adopting a "Half Earth" strategy for conservation of biodiversity in intact ecosystems. 

There is strong scientific evidence that food production is among the largest drivers of global environmental change due to its contributions to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss, freshwater use, eutrophication, and land-system change (as well as chemical pollution, which is not assessed by this Commission). 

With much of the world’s population inadequately nourished and many of the environmental systems that regulate the state of the planet pushed beyond safe boundaries by food production, the need for a global transformation of the food system is urgent. 

It is a hopeful conclusion that this Commission finds that global food systems have the potential to provide “win-win” diets to everyone on the planet in 2050 and beyond, while greatly improving health and enabling a sustainable future. 

A transformation of the global food system must ultimately involve multiple stakeholders, from individual consumers to policy makers and actors along the food value chain, working together toward the shared global goal of healthy and sustainable diets for all. 

An unprecedented opportunity exists to develop food systems as a common thread between many ambitious international, national, and business policy frameworks aiming for improved human health and environmental sustainability goals. 

the uncertainty range for these food boundaries remain high, due to the inherent complexity in Earth system dynamics from local ecosystems to the functioning of the biosphere and the climate system. 

Applying this framework to future projections of world development, indicates that food systems can potentially provide the healthy diets (i.e. reference diet) for an anticipated world population of nearly 10 billion people by 2050 and still stay within a safe operating space on Earth. 

The authors propose that this framework is universal for all food cultures and food production systems in the world, with a high potential of local adaptation and scalability. 

Scientific Targets for Healthy Diets*Food group Food subgroup Reference diet (g/day) Possible ranges (g/day)Whole Grains All grains 232 0 to 60% of energyTubers/Starchy Vegetables Potatoes, cassava 50 0 to 100Vegetables 

Trending Questions (1)
Are whole-food, plant-based diets the most healthy diets for humans?

Yes, according to the EAT-Lancet Commission, healthy diets should consist of a diversity of plant-based foods and low amounts of animal source foods.