The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has begun a campaign to get people to eat in a way that supports environmental sustainability.
The Livewell diet, the organisation says, is not only healthy but also helps the environment. The diet does not suggest meat eaters become vegetarians but advocates eating less meat and fewer processed foods, while promoting fruit, vegetables and grains.
The WWF has been working with the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen to research diet and produce the Livewell report on sustainable food production and retail. In the report, the WWF calls on the UK government and retailers to develop and promote eating habits based on a sustainable diet to help address climate change and protect ecosystems.
Can you save the planet over lunch? Can the amount of chicken in your curry or milk in your coffee make a difference? Researchers now claim it can: in fact, they say, if we all switched to eating what they would like to see on our plates, we could cut greenhouse gas emissions by a quarter and be a lot healthier too.
The diet is designed to be familiar, say the researchers, and normal. But crucially it shifts away from processed foods and meat, both blamed for rising levels of heart disease and diabetes. Increasing consumption of meat, especially beef, is one of the key environmental issues for the world.
In the US alone, 70% of agricultural land is given over to growing food for livestock, using huge amounts of water resources. It has led to extensive areas of rainforest being cleared, especially in Brazil, and vast amounts of pesticides and fertilisers ending up in the world’s waterways. Processed foods, with their extra production, packaging, transportation and energy consumption, are also an environmental “hotspot”.
In the UK, where the average person eats 79kg of meat a year, reducing this intake is deemed crucial by the researchers behind the Livewell plate. Their diet aims to bring down consumption of white and red meat by allowing for 203g a week, or 10kg a year. But the main objective, says WWF, is to streamline and simplify some of these issues for consumers who are becoming increasingly baffled by the choice between Fairtrade, organic and the cheapest produce on offer.
As the politicisation of our dinner plate grows more intense, the supermarket is becoming a minefield for the eco-conscious to navigate. How much fertiliser was used to grow the tomatoes? How many greenhouse gases were emitted by the plane that brought the New Zealand apples?
It’s enough to kill the healthiest of appetites, says WWF’s head of campaigns, Colin Butfield. “A lot of people we speak to, our members and others, were saying they were overwhelmed by the maelstrom of information over what they should buy: organic, locally sourced, seasonal, Fairtrade, farm standards, the labels are just endless and not everyone has the time to really work out what they should be doing,” he said.
“While there are answers to all of people’s questions over what they should buy and eat, it’s not realistic to expect everyone to be able to devote a lot of time to getting deeply into all the issues. Too many messages are just no good for busy people.”
Butfield said the Livewell researchers had done their best to keep the diet simple, taking the standard advice on good nutrition and then factoring in environmental concerns. The cost is manageable, too: the suggested weekly shopping list comes in at just under £29 a person.
“You can still go further and buy organic and look for seasonal foodstuffs, but essentially here is the simple message in the Livewell Plate – eat a little less meat and dairy, bulk out your diet with a little more vegetables and whole grains,” said Butfield.
See http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/campaigning/food_campaign/livewell_2020/.
