Choosing foods in season, buying Fairtrade, owning an allotment, petitioning against plastic packaging – we all make decisions with sustainability in mind every day. With the global demand for fruit and vegetables increasing in recent years, we’re seeing an increase in healthier lifestyles in the West. But how can we increase the volume we produce to keep up with demand, whilst doing so sustainably? How can we as consumers eat a more sustainable diet?
Being a nutritionist, and someone who champions fruits and vegetables as an integral part of a healthy diet, I’d like to think I also do my bit for the planet. I buy plastic-free and local where possible, I shop at markets, batch cook and freeze meals. But then I also buy from supermarkets where I know certain foods are not grown locally and often encased in excessive packaging. When shopping and glancing at the fruit and veg labels, we regularly see blueberries from Chile, radishes from Morocco or peppers from Israel, it’s difficult not to question the sustainability of our supermarket fruit and veg. Many of us are already confused enough understanding what we should and shouldn’t eat. Layering environmental considerations on top can make it even more difficult.
Firstly, defining what is meant by a sustainable diet is difficult. The word itself is used in a number of ways, with three ‘pillars’ of sustainability generally being accepted: economic, social and environmental. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, fao.org) say that these diets must be nutritionally adequate for the health of a population and therefore, sustainable diets can be synonymous with healthy eating. Nevertheless, the British Dietetic Association (BDA, bda.uk.com) remind us that care needs to be taken as not all healthy food patterns are guaranteed to be sustainable, with many low environmental impact diets not necessarily being nutritionally adequate. Environmental sustainability does also have a range of considerations – land use, water usage, green-house gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity to name a few – with one priority often contradicting another. This just shows how complicated this topic is and how much there is to discuss.