How can nearly 10 billion people be fed healthily by 2050 while still preserving the planet's resources? The EAT-Lancet Commission, a multidisciplinary scientific panel established several years ago by the EAT research platform and the British medical journal The Lancet, was created to answer this crucial question. Six years after its initial work on the "planetary health diet," about 40 commissioners from a range of fields – including climate science, nutrition, economics, agronomy and epidemiology – and from every continent published a major new study on Friday, October 3, reaffirming the urgent need to transform both food production systems and consumption patterns.
This is a "landmark scientific assessment," according to Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-chair of the commission. The study finds that food systems – which encompass every link in the production, processing and distribution chain – are driving some of the century's greatest challenges: the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, the explosion of chronic disease and rising social inequality. These systems, designed in the 20th century with the promise of feeding the entire global population, are now revealing their shortcomings. Despite sufficient caloric production, one third of the world's population faces food insecurity, while obesity and weight gain are on the rise everywhere, affecting more than 40% of adults.
You have 80.8% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.