The quality and quantity of the global food supply now and into the future are increasingly under threat. The food system contributes to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions and losses in biodiversity, to name just two consequences leading to environmental degradation. To mitigate environmental and health harms, governments around the world have instituted public policies to advance sustainability goals throughout the food system from producers to consumers. Without worldwide shifts in diets, the achievement of sustainability goals will be extremely challenging.
The availability and analysis of data on policy design and implementation plays an important role in identifying the evidence base to determine which policies are successful in the pursuit of the desired outcomes in sustainability goals, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
What are sustainable diets and food systems?
A system is sustainable when it optimises current natural resources, protects biodiversity and ecosystems, and respects social, economic and health outcomes. Sustainable diets and food systems are inextricably linked.
Diets drive food systems because dietary choices impact food production, processing, storage and trade. In turn, food systems influence diets in terms of food availability, affordability, acceptability and safety, reflecting both adequate sustainability and nutrition.1 For instance, although consumers in London or Shanghai may not yet see the impact of environmental degradation on their food systems, farmers throughout the world have already begun to adapt their agricultural practices. Sustainable diets are therefore an outcome of, and can only exist within, sustainable food systems.
Figure I identifies the major concepts involved in understanding the interconnectedness of sustainability, food and diets.
Figure I: Terminology for food systems and diets2
|Food systems||Consist of all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions etc) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food and the outcomes of these activities, namely nutrition and health status, socioeconomic growth and equity, and environmental sustainability.|
|Sustainable food systems||A food system that ensures food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition of future generations are not compromised.|
|Diets||A function of food systems, diets are the foods a person regularly consumes—including habits, routines and traditions around food.|
|Sustainable diets||Diets that are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable, nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy, while at the same time optimising natural and human resources.|
Public policy strongly influences both our food systems and our diets. Policies—subsidies, taxes, guidelines and regulations—shape the demand and supply of food, affecting what types of foods are produced, their price and availability, how they are marketed, and what measures are taken to mitigate environmental and health harms.3
Governments worldwide have implemented various policies to promote sustainable food systems and address the burdens of malnutrition. However, it is often difficult to evaluate the extent to which policies promote the multiple facets of sustainability. Policy analysis—a set of quantitative and qualitative tools for a comprehensive evaluation of policies—can illuminate a broad array of alternatives to the status quo in order to reach a public goal. Because sustainability policies intersect across environmental, health and economic sectors, effective policy analysis tools are paramount in helping governments to identify areas for improvement.
Two tools to evaluate sustainable diets and food systems
Recently, researchers have begun creating tools to help policymakers evaluate the effectiveness of policies supporting domestic sustainability goals. Two of these, the Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed in 2016 by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, and the Sustainable Diets Framework (SDF), developed in 2017 by Downs et al, 4 can be used in conjunction to evaluate the sustainability of both food systems and the diets they produce.
The Food Sustainability Index ranks food system sustainability across 25 countries—the G20 and five from otherwise unrepresented regions, including two low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The FSI evaluates qualitative and quantitative data to assess the true sustainability of a country across three primary dimensions—nutritional challenges, food loss and waste, and sustainable agriculture—and investigates how policy and programmes manage to work across sectors to improve the sustainability of these systems. The FSI compiles country-level data from a variety of sources and engages in policy analysis by ranking countries.
The Sustainable Diets Framework by Downs et al illuminates the gaps in objectives that the FSI intends to fill. The SDF outlines 53 constructs (see Figure II) that it sees as necessary to constitute a sustainable diet. The framework is used to evaluate the extent to which policies address the various constructs and then scrutinises the efficacy of these policies to work across sectors to support sustainable diets.
Figure II: Overview of the Downs et al Sustainability Framework
The broad overlap of the two evaluation frameworks—over half of the constructs from the SDF are assessed in the FSI—indicates the potential for their interdependent use in evaluating sustainability policies. The Economist Intelligence Unit notes that where possible, both national and sub-national data should be collected and analysed to ensure a holistic view of a domestic food system. Such an endeavour supports the Downs et al argument that primary data collection must accompany policy analysis. The FSI incorporates data on environmental, agricultural and nutritional outcomes, all of which are present in the SDF’s constructs. Worldwide, the achievement of sustainability goals will require comprehensive data collection and analysis of the policies and practices involved with food loss and waste, nutritional status and agriculture—indicative of the critical role played by both the FSI and the SDF.
Moving forward: Sustainability goals in low- and middle-income countries
Although the FSI, like many studies, models sustainable diets and food systems in high-income countries, little research has characterised what food groups and eating patterns will compose sustainable diets in LMICs now and into the future.5 Further, significant gaps in data exist on diet composition and food consumption in LMICs, particularly as they relate to consumer behaviour, preferences and attitudes about food. For instance, a sustainable diet in Paris will look very different from one in rural Kenya owing to differing food availability and access, as well as the customs and traditions surrounding food procurement and mealtimes. As such, culturally sensitive food system modelling is necessary to reach worldwide sustainable goals.6 Policy analysis and integrated data platforms such as the FSI and the SDF can help policymakers elucidate gaps between policy and practice by producers and consumers throughout the food system, particularly in LMICs.
The ability to adapt flexible frameworks and evaluation tools allows policymakers and researchers to use strong local data which can determine the different steps countries must take to achieve sustainability goals. Expanding the FSI to LMICs would require greater data collection on programme coverage to ensure that both urban populations and remote villages are captured by the index, which would in turn expand the accuracy and functionality of the FSI and its data. The FSI could use the Downs et al SDF to identify gaps for actionable recommendations and to promote adequate funding and resource allocation by LMIC government ministries and agencies. Incorporating LMICs into worldwide indices levels the playing field, presenting a more holistic understanding of food group diversity and what constitutes a sustainable diet.
1. HLPE. 2017. Nutrition and food systems. A report of the Committee on World Food Security High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
2. HLPE. 2014. Food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems. A report of the Committee on World Food Security High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition
3. Popkin, BM. 2011. “Agricultural policies, food and public health”. EMBO Rep. 12(1), pp. 11-18.
4. Downs, S, Payne, A and Fanzo, J. 2017. “The development and application of a sustainable diets framework for policy analysis: A case study of Nepal”. Food Policy. Vol. 70, pp. 40-49
5. Jones, AD, Hoey, L, Blesh, J, Miller, L, Green, A and Shapiro, LF. 2016. “A Systematic Review of the Measurement of Sustainable Diets”. Adv Nutr. Vol. 7. Pp. 641-64.
6. Johnson, JL, Fanzo, J and Cogill, B. 2014. “Understanding Sustainable Diets; A Descriptive Analysis of the Determinants and Processes That Influence Diets and Their Impact on Health, Food Security, and Environmental Sustainability”. Adv Nutr. Vol 5, pp. 418-429.