On January 15 in Oslo, the prestigious medical journal Lancet launched the results and recommendations of a commission it had established, the EAT-Lancet Commission , composed of 37 experts from 16 countries . Their report, “Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems” analyzes human diet and food production in light of the Paris Agreement, and the fact that food production contributes about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission recognizes the enormity of their goals : “humanity has never aimed to change the global food system on the scale envisioned in this Commission.”
The Lancet report recommends cutting meat consumption in half, greatly reducing food waste, and replacing resource-intensive farming methods with approaches that require less fertilizer, and replenish the soil. The authors estimate that wide-spread adoption of plant-based diets could reduce agricultural emissions by up to 80 percent, and changes in food production practices could cut an additional 10 percent in 2050. Excellent summaries of the article appeared from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and from Inside Climate News.
One of the recommendations of the EAT-Lancet Commission is to greatly reduce food waste. Coincidentally, a report released by Second Harvest Canada on January 17 is a thorough and detailed examination of that issue in Canada. “The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste” states that Canada is one of the most wasteful countries in the world, generating the food waste equivalent to $1,766 per household per year, with an estimated 58 per cent of all food produced in Canada lost or wasted. Through supply chain analysis, the report estimates that nearly $21 billion worth occurs during the processing and manufacturing process, and more than $10 billion worth at the consumer level. The report also estimates the environmental cost of such waste: food in landfills creates methane gas, the equivalent of 56.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. The report makes dozens of recommendations for industry and government in a 32-page “Roadmap” for farmers, producers, retailers, restaurant owners, and government . The Technical report of how calculations were made is here . A CBC summary is here . A White paper by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Characterization and Management of Food Waste in North America concurred with much of Second Harvest’s analysis when it was published in 2018.
On January 17, eight of Canada’s leading food manufacturers and retailers- (Kraft Heinz Canada, Loblaw Companies Ltd, Maple Leaf Foods, Metro Inc, Save-On-Foods, Sobeys Inc, Unilever Canada and Walmart Canada) – released a statement, committing themselves to cut food waste within their operations by 50% by the end of 2025, from 2016 levels. They will use the globally recognized Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard, which addresses this issue on a global scale.
In Canada, the 2019 Food Guide released on January 22, is the first update since 2007, and is intended as a consumer guide for a nutritious and healthy diet. To this end, it makes general recommendations about eating less meat and mostly plant-based foods, and has multiple recommendations for behaviour changes, such as “cook more often”, “eat with others” and “be aware of food marketing”.
