World Food Day: “Big Food” vs. Sustainable, Healthy Diets — Kids and Earth are at Stake
This op-ed was written by Judy Bankman with Mia MacDonald.
Among the many sobering statistics produced almost weekly about how our current industrial food system negatively impacts people, animals, and the environment, recent data from the World Obesity Federation struck us as particularly alarming. According to the organization’s 2019 Atlas of Childhood Obesity, the number of children between 5 and 19 living with obesity will rise from 158 million today to 254 million by 2030. That’s about ten million fewer than the current human population of Indonesia. These statistics sit side by side with their similarly stark corollary, that by 2030 nearly 130 million children still will be malnourished.
This World Food Day, we’re all tasked with taking action for sustainable and healthy diets that are affordable and accessible. In order to truly support Healthy Diets for a #zerohunger World, we need the commitment of everyone: from policymakers to industry influencers, from city planners and local business owners to consumers who have the power to demand healthier, plant-based options. And today and every day, we need to confront the many ways the current global food system is compromising the future of our children and the planet.
The power of “Big Food” can be seen across the globe, from sophisticated marketing to children to the sheer number of fast food chains in countries moving quickly through the nutrition transition. KFC, for example, has over 5,000 locations in China and has gained popularity for catering to Chinese tastes. In the US, processed foods are cheap and accessible, largely because their main ingredients, corn and soy, are heavily subsidized.
Several countries have taken action to curb the influence of Big Food; for example, last year, Chile “slayed” Tony the Tiger,” a popular character used to market high-sugar, processed foods to children, and implemented policies that prohibit sales of junk food in schools. In 2014, Mexico enacted a tax on sugary drinks, which has led to less purchasing of soda. Chile and Mexico show how government, with enough political will, can limit the impact of the food industry, despite its determined and well-funded lobbying.
However, the food industry still wields disproportionate power. Its presence is seen clearly in the recent study contradicting decades of nutrition wisdom about red and processed meat. The lead researcher had undisclosed ties to the food industry and wrote a similar article in 2016 countering nutritional advice about sugar. That study was funded by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), a trade group whose industry members hail from companies like Coca Cola and Cargill. Perhaps science can never be 100% free from all bias, but this example goes to show how large corporations can influence research to support their own claims to drive and protect profits.
While childhood obesity is a public health concern on the consumption side of the food system, production carries with it many causes for alarm as well. Unsustainable agricultural practices, such as the burning of the Amazon forests to clear land for cattle and soybeans, have led to habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, water contamination, violations of communities’ rights to land, and the release of large quantities of climate-warming carbon dioxide. Food production now contributes 25–30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, with livestock accounting for at least 14.5%. Cattle, raised for both meat and milk, are the biggest culprit. Animal agriculture is also extremely resource intensive. Astonishingly, in the U.S. it takes four and a half pounds (2 kg) of water to produce one pound of milk (about half a liter). What’s more, the grain that feeds much of the world’s livestock is grown on land that could also produce protein-rich crops like legumes, or be rewilded.
So how can we move toward a food system that supports healthy food for both us and the environment? The EAT-Lancet Report, released in January, offers recommendations for achieving “planetary health diets” to meet both the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and commitments in the Paris climate agreement. The report links the earth’s planetary boundaries that global food production should stay within in order to avoid irreversible environmental damage with the components of a diverse, nutritious diet.
To fulfill this task, we’ll need an agriculture that prioritizes a diversity of crops, or polyculture, rather than focusing on ultra-high yields of one crop (e.g. corn or soybeans). We’ll need farmers to begin practicing regenerative agriculture, which has the ability to sequester carbon in soil and help restore soil health.
Making healthy food affordable and accessible may seems like a tall order, as most of us are familiar with the price difference between a bag of Cheetos and a few heirloom tomatoes at the farmers’ market. We’ll need governments to shift their investments (subsidies, tax incentives, and payouts) in commodity grains and industrial meat and dairy production toward vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes. We’ll need to start incentivizing health-oriented supermarkets to open locations in areas where they’re needed most. This will take commitment from policymakers, community members, and planners, as well as from forward-thinking companies willing to change a paradigm that right now threatens the health of the planet and of coming generations.
As we aim for the goal of Healthy Diets for a #zerohunger World, we can’t forget the power we have as individuals, especially in industrialized countries with many food choices, to shift our diets. We can choose plant-based proteins over processed meats. We can purchase local, investing in regional economies and foodsheds. As we support each other in making healthier choices, we’ll create greater demand. We’ll also signal to producers and policymakers the importance of sustainable and healthy diets and food systems for planetary survival, human dignity and intergenerational equity.
Judy Bankman is a public health consultant and writer focusing on the intersection of agriculture, health, and the environment. Her work has been published by Civil Eats, The New Food Economy, The Food Climate Research Network and China Dialogue. For Brighter Green, she authored the policy paper, Chronic Disease, Changing Diets and Sustainability: The Globalization of Western-style Eating and Its Implications, published on World Food Day in 2017.
Mia MacDonald is the executive director of Brighter Green, an action tank based in New York City that raises awareness of and encourages policy action on issues where the environment, animals and global sustainability intersect. She has published widely and taught courses on climate change, food, sustainability and animal agriculture at Columbia and New York University.
