Vital Insights from the FAO for Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity
- Wednesday, 05 September 2012
Consideration of sustainable diets will be important for future food policy research and development.
Background
Following an International Scientific Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets the FAO has released a publication detailing the topics presented. It is entitled Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity: directions and solutions for policy, research and actions. It contains some fundamental insights and provides an excellent starting point for anyone seeking to better understand global food production and consumption, research into sustainable alternatives, and directions for the future of food policy, research and development.
Comment
An International Scientific Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets, held 3–5 November 2010, was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Bioversity International. The main agenda was to promote biodiversity and nutrition as crucial elements of sustainable development and poverty alleviation. One product of the symposium was an agreed definition for sustainable diets:
‘Sustainable Diets are those diets with low environmental impacts, which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing natural and human resources.’
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets Symposium, November 2010)
Following the symposium, the FAO released their publication, Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity: directions and solutions for policy, research and actions. This is a collection of analyses and case studies presented at the symposium, which together examine the concept of sustainable diets, consider biodiversity in food production and suggest how sustainable diets can, and in some cases have been, practically achieved.
Some proposed actions to enhance food production and security are discussed in the first chapter. These include increasing local production, promoting agro-ecological methods (which combine local knowledge of specific environments with modern agricultural concepts and methods) and encouraging short-distance consumption patterns. In some cases, agro-ecological methods have been found to perform up to 180 per cent better than agro-industrial systems in producing food in developing countries. Maintaining nutritional quality in the processing of food (especially cereals) is also examined, as is the importance of education and information availability on nutritious food consumption.
Later articles focus on sustainable food production and consumption, outlining the emerging challenge to achieve ‘Sustainable Crop Production Intensification’; that is, to produce more food while using fewer resources and mitigating environmental impacts, by increasing efficiency, decreasing waste and developing innovative management systems. One of the methods proposed for achieving this is an ‘ecosystems approach’, emulating natural ecosystem processes in agriculture. A key aspect of this approach is to increase biodiversity within agricultural production systems. Increased biodiversity has been shown to increase productivity, conserve resources and make agricultural systems more resilient in coping with environmental stresses such as drought. At the level of the organisms themselves, maintaining animal genetic diversity, plant genetic diversity and aquatic biodiversity are all important in retaining genetic resources for future breeding of more productive and resilient plants and animals.
Case studies are presented to illustrate a range of traditional food production systems, production and nutritional challenges, along with some interventions and solutions that have been implemented in a wide variety of countries. The link between cultural diversity and biodiversity in food production is also recognised. It is stressed as a vital element in maintaining sustainable and nutritional food production. The studies conclude with a closer examination of ‘the Mediterranean Diet’, which is presented as an example of a potentially sustainable pattern of production and consumption.
Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets: directions and solutions for policy, research and actions,presents an extensive examination of global food production and consumption patterns, requirements for nutritional and sustainable diets, and possible solutions to the food security challenges the world now faces. It is an informative and valuable collection of information, demonstrating local case studies and the global significance of promoting biodiversity, high-nutrition foods and environmentally sustainable practices. It provides an excellent starting point for anyone seeking to better understand current global food issues, sustainable food production, new directions for research and policy, and the possible challenges for the future.
For further information, please refer to Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity: directions and solutions for policy, research and actions, and Bioversity International.
Sarah Metcalfe
Research Assistant
FDI Global Food and Water Security Programme