Report on Food Consumption: WWF

• 17 Oct 2020

Why in News

Recently, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has published the report “Bending the Curve: The Restorative Power of Planet-Based Diets”.

• The report offered a detailed analysis of food consumption patterns in 147 countries and six regions and the national dietary guidelines (NDGs) across 75 countries. For each country and region, the impacts of diets were assessed on various environmental and health indicators.

Key Points

• Food consumption patterns vary widely and can best be characterised by massive inequality.
  
  • Different consumption patterns are observed in the richest and poorest countries, with European countries consuming approximately 600 grams per day more food (1,800 g/day) than African countries (1,200 g/day).
  • Although under-nutrition and obesity affect almost all countries, the rate of underweight people is up to 10 times higher in the poorest countries as compared to other countries.
  • The rate of overweight/obese people is up to five times higher in the richest countries.
• Major Concerns:
  
  • Premature deaths in low- and middle-income countries due to unhealthy diets, under-consumption as well as over-consumption.
  • India needs to be extra careful in figuring out the changes in the diet because there could be an increase in biodiversity loss due to a shift to a healthier and planet-friendly diet and extensively increased consumption.
    
    • The country has to first increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and dairy to meet its nutritional requirements.
• Suggestions:
  
  • There is a need to strike a balance in how countries consume their food as well as a shift to a plant-based diet which is the need of the hour.
    
    • However, this dietary shift will impact different countries differently. While some countries will need to reduce their consumption of animal-source foods, others may need to increase them.
  • The shift will not only improve human health by preventing over-consumption of any food but will also reverse the biological loss that has occurred until now and improve environmental health.
    
    • The shift to more plant-based diets will cut down carbon emissions by 30%, wildlife loss by 46%, agriculture land use by 41% and premature deaths by 20%.
  • A sustainable environment and human health can be achieved by following a few lifestyle changes that include eating foods which are:
    
    • More sustainable.
    • More plant-based food and less animal-based.
    • Healthy and locally grown and minimally processed.
    • More diverse instead of just one kind.
  • Countries should not solely depend on the domestic production and biodiversity-rich countries, including India, should import food from higher-yielding and less biodiverse nations.
• New Launch:
  
  • The WWF has launched a new platform known as Planet-Based Diets Impact and Action Calculator.
    
    • One can calculate their consumption and find out the impact caused by their diet on the environment.
  • The platform also shows national level impacts. This will help people living anywhere in the world to make a conscious decision by finding out if their diet is good for them as well as their environment.

Source: DTE