Sustainable Diets: a development challenge?
The term “Sustainable Diets” (SD) entered the public health lexicon in 1987, but its translation into reality is proving slow. In its most pared-down formulation, SD means good nutrition with low carbon emissions. In more complex forms, it means eating within environmental limits while eating well for health and in a manner appropriate to economic, social and cultural circumstances. Whichever version of SD is adopted, policy-makers have been surprisingly reluctant to translate the term into public advice. Tim Lang (Centre for Food Policy, City University London) explores the advantages and threats posed by this obvious and rational direction for public health nutrition and for food systems re-design. He asks specifically whether developing countries could and should adopt the pursuit of new national sustainable dietary guidelines and argues that the adoption of sustainable diets as an overarching population goal offers a combination of radical and reasonable drivers for development.
Tim Lang (Centre for Food Policy, City University London) about Sustainable Diets in the a seminar organised by the SOAS Food, Nutrition and Health in Development Cluster, November 15, 2016.