The first official recommendations for a diet that is both healthy and good for the environment are published today, and they are likely to be seen as an assault on the UK's current food system.
To fight climate change and tackle the growing crisis of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, British consumers must cut down on meat and dairy produce, reduce their intake of processed foods and curb waste.
These are the three priorities identified in a report by the government's independent advisory body on sustainability, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), which calls for radical changes in patterns of consumption.
The report -- which will dismay many in the livestock and processed food industries -- will feed into all government departments and procurement agencies. Well-placed sources say it has created tension between Whitehall departments and advisers over its potential impact.
The study acknowledges that cutting processed food and reducing consumption of intensively-produced meat and dairy foods could lead to a shrinking of the UK food and drink industry.
The UK's retail supply system would also be affected -- the SDC report recommends that people reduce energy consumption by shopping more on foot or over the internet and that they replace bottled water with tap water.
While about 18% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions are related to food and drink consumption and production, the industry is the single biggest manufacturing sector in the UK, accounting for 7% of GDP and employing 3.7m people. The recommended shift away from meat and dairy to more seasonal and field-grown (as opposed to glasshouse-grown) vegetables and fruit would also hit the UK's already hard pressed livestock farmers.
| Of course, there'd be no fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter without greenhouses, but never mind that little quibble. |
| It would be better for us to eat canned, stewed beets all winter long. Builds character. That's what Ma told me when I was eight ... |
| "Organic" D'you know what they fertilize with to get that label? Ick. Not to mention unhealthy, in a double-ick kind of way. |
Lots of premature deaths in government could be avoided by leaving people's burgers alone.
Figures released yesterday by the NHS information survey showing that almost one in four boys and more than one in five girls in England are overweight or obese at the start of their school lives added urgency to the debate. SDC commissioner Professor Tim Lang said the recommendations represented the first coherent advice on a sustainable diet. "So far we've had fragmented and contradictory thinking on what dietary intakes should be. Advice to consumers ought to change and stop compartmentalising issues.
"Cutting down on meat and dairy, eating only sustainably sourced fish, fruit and vegetables, would all help reduce the impact of our food system as well as improving health," he said.
Mmm. Mercury-rich fish for dessert!
The government's approach to addressing the priorities in the report has been "mixed", according to the SDC. Food waste and consumers' shopping have received high-profile attention but cutting meat and dairy and junk food has not, it argues.
Recommended diet for a warming planet
1 Cut consumption of meat and dairy products
Gak! If we don't eat them, they'll just live to fart more!
Health benefits: Reduces incidence of cardiovascular disease, of some forms of cancer, and of animal-borne infections. Environmental benefits: Large reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, slowing of deforestation, freeing of farm land for other use, freeing of water resources, slowing loss of biodiversity, lower food prices and cheaper diets, higher employment. Negative impacts: Decline in UK and global livestock industry, potential increase in deficiencies of iron, calcium and zinc.
| Oh goody: long-term, partially genetic risks reduced, wholly avoidable short-term, major health risks significantly increased. Clever, reintroducing mass anemia and rickets like that. It'll be ever so easy to differentiate the bright, energetic, straight-legged aristos from the mentally and physically slower, whey-faced, bow-legged peasantry. Just like the good old days! |
Health benefits: Reduced obesity, reduced tooth decay,
How are we supposed to tell the British girls from the Americans if this goes into effect?
likely to particularly improve health of low income groups. Environmental benefits: Cut in GHG emissions from energy-intense production of highly processed foods and bottled water. Reduced land use. Negative impacts: Cut in size of UK food manufacturing industry.
3 Reduce waste
Other recommended changes:Hey, I respect venison . . . .
| I did that when we lived in Germany. We had a standard German-style refrigerator, ie the size of a single-door lower kitchen cabinet, which had a freezer just large enough to hold an ice cube tray and a gallon of ice cream. I went to the grocery store no less than every other day, coming home with two grocery bags of food, which was all I could carry. Shopping had to be done in the morning under this system, as by afternoon very little fresh food was left. Once a week I took the car, and stocked up on dry goods. This is a fine system when all is well, but let there be a bad storm and there would be food riots by the end of the week were the transport system not fully restored. Bottom line: if they want the people to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, fish and chicken, and to reduce the number of gasoline/benzine powered trips to the grocery store, the people need to have large refrigerators and even larger freezers, and make food runs once weekly. Daily runs on foot will be counterproductive to the stated goals, although much more picturesque. |
| That should be a boon for the water filter companies. I mean, given government efficiency in general, and demonstrated British government efficiency in particular, how trustworthy d'you suppose the tap water really is over there? |