Industrialization is a vital process in production. Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, economies that had been based on handicrafts have been transformed into economies based on manufacturing and large-scale industries. However, the improvident exploitation of natural resources to serve industrialization has progressively negatively impacted the environment, making environmental sustainability a major global agenda. Therefore, the current blog post touches upon environmental sustainability and how it can be achieved, critical drivers of ecological damage, ways through which the negative environmental impact could be reversed, and how nutritional sustainability could be the locus of the change toward a more sustainable environment.
Environmental sustainability: Is there an ideal state?
Whether we like it or not, the environment provides scarce and limited natural resources. Not protecting these resources has resulted in their depletion and, thus, a negative environmental impact, an unequal distribution of wealth, and an unsustainable consumption pattern. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the ideal situation of environmental sustainability should focus on renewable natural resources, rational utilization of natural resources, and food waste minimization to match what is environmentally disposable.
Moreover, the ideal point of sustainability would be to achieve sustainable production and consumption—that is, the production and use of products and services in a socially beneficial, economically viable, and environmentally friendly manner. Such a practice would increase productivity, reduce future economic, environmental, and social costs, strengthen economic competitiveness, and reduce poverty.
Unfortunately, over the years, governments worldwide have not taken effective steps toward environmental sustainability, such as limiting global warming through the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), promoting responsible consumption and production processes, and resource recycling to avoid resource waste and ecological depletion.
Agriculture and food production as potent drivers of ecological damage
One of the most important factors infringing on environmental sustainability is food production. Food, especially food overconsumption, contributes to 20-30% of total environmental impacts. Food overconsumption necessitates agricultural practices needed to produce and distribute this exaggerated amount of food, which can influence the environment by reducing yields and causing environmental degradation. Moreover, agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water and the second largest contributor to GHG emissions worldwide. In other words, agri-food systems are critical drivers of climate change and are thus inextricably linked with environmental sustainability.
The inversion of a massive ecological damage: Is it possible?
Taking into account the severe impact of the food sector on the environment, it is almost obligatory that improvements in food production and changes to current consumption patterns take place to reduce impacts. For example, it has been estimated that emissions of GHG in agriculture can be reduced by 15-30%, thereby reducing climate’s impact, through improved farming practices such as more efficient handling of nitrous oxide emissions from soils and methane from manure as well as decreased use of fossil energy sources. Furthermore, land use change, by focusing on resources within the limits of available land, can contribute considerably to the climate impact of food.
Studies investigating pathways to more sustainable food production also highlight the need for more sustainable dietary patterns, which will discourage the consumption of food items high in GHG emissions (e.g., beef, lamb, pork) and requiring high fertilizer application (e.g., oil seeds, rice, or grain-fed poultry).
Studies on such issues have increased the knowledge that dietary patterns based primarily on meat products, such as the current Western diet, heavily influence the environmental impact by exceeding the acceptable GHG emissions and nitrogen footprints. It has actually been supported that transitioning towards a more sustainable diet would reduce the ecological footprint by 36%.
What would this more sustainable diet look like, though? Achieving a more sustainable, environmentally friendly diet would encompass, apart from a high reduction in meat and vegetable oil intake, also a moderate reduction in cereals, roots, and fish products in parallel with an increased intake of legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. In other words, we are talking about a dietary shift towards vegan, vegetarian, and Mediterranean-style diets that will not only result in GHG emission reductions but also other environmental benefits, such as water savings and less aquatic eutrophication and acidification.
Such a dietary shift requires a combination of policy instruments, including taxation of high-impact foods such as meat, dairy, and ultra-processed foods, making low-impact foods such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts more economically affordable, especially for developing countries, properly informing the consumers and other stakeholders, etc.
Diverging from a meat-oriented diet would not only eventually be good for the environment but also human health, as it is widely known that increased meat consumption is associated with adverse health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease.
Can plant-based foods support the increased food production needs?
It’s becoming broadly agreed that transitioning from the current Western dietary patterns high in meat, dairy, and ultra-processed foods, such as ready-to-eat meals, fast food, and candies, to plant-based diets is a more sustainable choice not only for the environment but also for human health and welfare. This substantial reduction in average meat consumption levels can be established in many ways, such as by i) reducing meat portion sizes, ii) replacing part of meat-based products with plant-based alternatives, such as legumes, soy products, etc., iii) replacing meat with another protein source such as eggs, and iv) consuming plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA).Although plant-based foods such as tofu, tempeh, legumes, etc., are already known and can facilitate the transition toward more sustainable diets, PBMAs, such as plant-based burgers, have been more recently developed and launched globally to open the door for consumers who still want to consume meat-like products but using 100% plant-based ingredients.
Both plant-based foods and PBMAs require fewer resources per product unit for crop growth compared to animal protein, making them an excellent alternative for sustainable development while meeting the increasing demand for food. Thus, especially in affluent countries that would not massively rely on animal breeding to support their food production, PBMAs could benefit biodiversity, land and water use, and reduce GHG emissions.
Therefore, achieving the increased food demand goal through more sustainable diets is feasible, but it will require an agriculture system that undergoes changes to be able to supply sufficient produce of this kind of food. A few examples of such changes would be replacing existing crops with more heat-tolerant varieties, switching to different crops, and using less water-intensive crops.
However, unless this change is addressed now, sustainable agricultural systems will be ever more challenging to achieve in the future since the world’s population is expected to reach > 9 billion by 2050. At the same time, climate changes are increasingly stressing productivity, inevitably leading to a substantial increase in global crop harvests to meet future food demand.
Nutritional Sustainability: What is it, and are there any health implications?
The dietary shift described in a previous section can be summed up in the term Nutritional Sustainability. So, Nutritional Sustainability refers to the ability of a food system to provide access to nutritious food, complete with all the essential nutrients required to maintain good health for both the current population and future generations, while at the same time minimizing the environmental impact of producing that food. Nutritional Sustainability calls on human communities to find ways to fulfill their dietary needs by more efficiently utilizing the limited natural resources and respecting the limits of environmental carrying capacity.
As stated before, sustainable diets that will serve the goals of Nutritional Sustainability are vegan, vegetarian, and Mediterranean-style diets that not only promote a healthier status but also optimize the use of natural resources, mitigating the environmental impact.
Are these diets nutritionally complete, though?
When evaluating diets with fewer or completely absent meat sources, we need to assess their nutritional quality since meat is a protein food of high biological value. The problem mainly lies in vegan or vegetarian diets that do not contain any animal food sources, including eggs, cheese, and fish, since they carry the risk of deficiency of certain micronutrients and protein supplied primarily through animal-based products. A sufficient intake of alternative protein sources, such as legumes, soy products, and PBMAs, will meet the recommended protein levels.
On the other hand, the main micronutrients that may be difficult to obtain sufficiently through such diets include iron, zinc, calcium, choline, and vitamin B12. As a result, individuals may need to opt for foods enriched with these micronutrients or take supplementary dosages in case of clinically detected deficiencies.
By taking these parameters into account, sustainable diets are not only safe for human health in terms of nutrient deficiencies but may also improve nutrition quality by providing a wide range of micronutrients and phytochemicals through the increased consumption of plant foods.
Overall, sustainable diets not only protect and respect biodiversity and ecosystems but can also be nutritionally adequate, safe, and more affordable.
To sum up, a changing climate, increasingly scarce resources, and growing demand for food due to the current agri-food system have magnified the environmental stress. Still, the future effects if worldwide authorities keep shutting down the need for change to limit ecological damage could be much greater. Nutritional sustainability could be a great start for this change that could bring about a series of favorable environmental effects, but it requires a lot of work.
References
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