DN Debate. Set about quickly to healthier and more climate friendly food

Thursday 17 January, we publish the report ”Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems” in the medical journal The Lancet. The report points to escalating public costs of obesity, malnutrition, and environmental impact. Today, for example, agriculture for almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and food production itself accounts for 70 percent of all water use from rivers and groundwater. At the same time, we need to produce food for the additional 2-3 billion people by the year 2050.

Researchers in the health, agriculture and environment have joined together in order to determine whether it is possible to provide all people in the world with healthy food within scientifically identified boundaries of what the planet can tolerate. The report concludes that the world finds itself in an emergency mode, where food production and consumption greatly needs to be structured. Such a shift to healthy diets from sustainable food production is possible, with major benefits for both health and the environment, and an important part of the solution to keep us under two degrees of global warming. The number of diet-related deaths per year can also be reduced by over 20%. But how do we achieve this change?

According to the report, needed a quick upshift of the production of mainly legumes, fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Globally, we should reduce our consumption of red meat (include beef, lamb and pig) to 0-200 grams in a week. In Sweden, we eat on average about 700 grams, while the nfa advice located on 500 grams a week.

the Report also proposes an approximately ten times higher the consumption of beans, lentils and other legumes, and a doubling of the vegetables, and a sharp increase in nuts and seeds, compared with what is consumed in Sweden and the Nordic region today. Fish has continued to be an important role and the report's advice coincides quite well with what we already consume in Sweden. At the global level, the consumption of sugar to decrease by approximately 50 percent.

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to meet this need for improved public procurement rules in the public sector, taxes and subsidies that benefit a healthy diet, legislation or industry-wide agreements on how unhealthy and unsustainable products may be exposed in shops, as well as guidelines for each fast-food chains with unhealthy food may be located. The business here can go ahead and develop products and meals that are healthy, sustainable, good and lättlagade.

Productivity in agriculture has increased dramatically in the last 60 years, with positive effects on global food security. Unfortunately, almost all of the investment occurred in a few crops. Despite the fact that there are more than 14 000 edible plant species are used only about 150-200 species in our diet, of which only three (maize, rice and wheat) contribute to about 60 per cent of the total calorie intake in the world.

According to the report, needed a quick upshift of the production of mainly legumes, fruits, vegetables and nuts. Agricultural development and investment in plant breeding for these crops is therefore an important strategy. In Sweden, we should review the portfolio of crops and animal foods are produced and how the in a greater degree can benefit a healthy diet. In addition, agriculture must move from being a source of greenhouse gases to become a lower.

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It will, according to the report, will require a sustainable intensification of production in agriculture at a global level in order to achieve more efficient water use, less fertilizer leaching and less greenhouse gas emissions per unit of output. To reduce the gap between the current crop and the harvest is possible to produce in a particular location is particularly important in areas like sub-Saharan Africa.

In Sweden and Europe where skördeglappet is relatively low, it is important to see how production can become more sustainable, for example by securing biological diversity in agricultural landscapes, to develop perennial (perennial) crops that can store more greenhouse gases, to develop techniques that maintain soil quality and reduce nutrient losses. By the year 2050, must also farm to be zero carbon, which requires, inter alia, support for investments in new technology for transportation and infrastructure.

When the harvests are increasing as a result of a sustainable intensification, it can create additional incentives for the expansion of agriculture. Therefore, a combination of intensification and better regulate land use so that other ecosystems are protected.

Although this is not a big problem in Sweden where we have a strong downward trend in the amount of agricultural land so it is a big problem in many countries from which we import food, and that is the subject of the Swedish development and aid policy, including klimatinvesteringar. There is also need for support for the sustainable cultivation of fish and shellfish as well as expanded protection of marine areas and the prevention of overfishing.

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In Sweden, researchers have begun to develop new partnerships for better management of the oceans and a more sustainable aquaculture, including through initiatives such as the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) where the largest fishing firms in the world gather to lead the whole sector in a more sustainable direction. Sweden can and should continue to pursue these issues internationally.

It required a sharp reduction of food wastage, which today stands at 30 per cent of the global production of food. In low-income countries is wastage mainly on the production side, but in Sweden, mainly in the final consumption stage.

A halving of food wastage is in line with what we have already committed ourselves to reach the UN global sustainability goals. To achieve this requires better planning of the purchase, both in the restaurant and in the household, better labelling and packaging around the best-before date, and increased knowledge about how we can use the leftovers.

. Many nordic companies are already developing new products medc because of the more herbal and healthy choices. In Sweden decreased consumption of red meat by about 2 percent last year, and it is mainly the imported meat we eat less of. We also have tougher rules on animal welfare and antibiotic use than most other EU countries.

the Swedish dietary guidelines are going in the right direction, and we see an exciting development in the nordic gastronomy where many chefs and restaurants, as well as outdoor meal, go ahead in order to create the future of food. This is an excellent beginning. But to turn livsmedelsfrågan from one of today's greatest challenges to the most effective solution, so we must increase the pace radically.