Considering the global demand for food production by 2050 in its latest Living Planet Report, released on Thursday, the World Wildlife Fund or World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) called India’s food consumption pattern as the most climate-friendly among G20 nations and highlighted that India’s diet is the least harmful to the environment. If all countries adopted India’s consumption patterns, the world would require less than one Earth to support food production by 2050, making it a model for sustainability.
One Earth is Enough
The report stated, “Any gains from more sustainable food production will count for little if we don’t also address food consumption. If everyone in the world adopted the current food consumption patterns of the world’s major economies by 2050, we exceed the 1.5°C climate target for food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 263% and require one to seven Earths to support us (Figure 4.11). There are also compelling public health reasons to address unsustainable diets.”
Cautioning that overconsumption, especially of fats and sugars, is driving a worldwide obesity epidemic, the WWF report revealed that over 2.5 billion adults are overweight, including 890 million living with obesity. It stated, “It’s possible to provide a growing global population with enough nutritious, healthy food – but it will require different dietary shifts depending on current levels of nutrition and consumption. For developed countries, dietary shifts need to include a greater proportion of plant-based foods and fewer animal products. At the same time, for countries facing significant burdens of undernutrition, hunger and food insecurity, achieving nutritious diets may require increasing consumption, including of animal-source foods.”
How India’s Diet Could Solve Our Future Food Challenges
Suggesting that eating more sustainable diets would reduce the amount of land needed to produce food, the researchers claimed in the report that achieving healthy and nutritious diets will be heavily influenced by local cultural traditions, individual choice and available food. Crediting India’s National Millet Campaign for promoting climate-resilient grains, such as millets, the report asserted, “In some countries, promoting traditional foods will be an important lever to shift diets. For example, the National Millett Campaign in India is designed to increase national consumption of this ancient grain, which is good for health and highly resilient in the face of climate change.”
It elaborated, “In other countries, an important area of focus is developing and promoting healthy alternative protein sources such as legumes and nutri-cereals, plant-based meat alternatives, and algal species high in nutritional value. Finally, financial incentives are needed to increase the availability, affordability and appeal of nutritious foods and support healthy food imports and exports, especially in countries with limited natural resources to grow their own food.”