Overeating, food waste, obesity and climate change.

It is well documented that the beef and dairy industries contribute to rising level of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as CO₂ and methane and these increases are responsible for the planet's current Climate Emergency.  Eating a plant based diet (vegan) will do a huge amount to reduce CO₂ and methane emissions but this alone will not save the world as some vegans will have you believe. It is not as simple as switching your beef burger for a veggie burger and to truly tackle Climate Change we need to make major changes to how we produce and prepare our food and we need to tackle one main issue urgently:

The world's population over-eats and/or wastes way too much food

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states that the average kilocalorie (kcal) consumption per person in the US is 3,800 calories.¹  Whilst differences in gender, age and activity levels will alter the exact amount each person should consume, on average daily consumption should be around 1,800 -2,150 kcal.

Not all these calories are eaten. These are figures for kcals entering the household and a good chunk of these will be food that is wasted, food that is never eaten and gets thrown out either before or after preparation.  From an environmental point of view it doesn't really matter if the kcals are eaten in excess or wasted - they have still been produced over and above what is needed.  CO₂ and methane will have been added to the atmosphere for no reason, materials wasted in packaging and energy expended in production, transportation, refrigeration, cooking etc.  All WASTED.

And it is not just the US. Of the 172 countries listed in the report ¹, 152 have a population that is consuming on average more than 2,150 kcal per person per day.  The UK average is 3,450 (20th in the world) and France is 3,530 (12th).

This has not always been the case and back in the 1850s kcal intake was much lower.  Whilst there has always been some people throughout history who have over-consumed the most rapid increase globally has been seen in the last 50 years and it is estimated to only get worse especially as developing countries become more affluent and industrialised. Look at the rapid increase in kcal intake in China since 1950.

Fig. 1 Food consumption in the US, France, UK and China (1800 - 2013) ²

The above figures are taken from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The World Health Organization has looked at recent figures since 1964 as can be seen below.  This time the figures only include eaten food, not food wasted.  Add in wasted food at today's levels and the figures would be even higher for 2015 and the future estimations.

Fig. 2 Global and regional food consumption per person (kcal per person per day) ³

 

	1964-66	2015	Estimated for 2030
World	2358	2940	3050
Industrialised Countries	2947	2850	2980
Developing Countries	2054	2850	2980

We are living in a world where on average many people are consuming (eating or wasting) TWICE the amount of kcals they need which leads to a large amount of unnecessary environmental damage - increased CO₂ and methane levels, more landfill, more packaging, more energy use etc.  It is leading to increasing levels of obesity which itself has an impact on the environment - larger people need larger clothes, their cars use more fuel and they are more likely to suffer health problems with the associated treatments having an impact on the environment (medication, sterile packaging, hospital stays etc etc).

This is not sustainable but obesity is not an easy subject to tackle.

Overeating and obesity are emotive subjects.  People will give you any number of reasons why they eat what they do and will often say it is their right to eat what the want. Sophie Hagen, a Danish comedian, has recently talked about how she is happy with her weight and fat should not be seen as bad.⁴ In one way she is right - no-one has a right to categorise a fat person as a bad person, no more than a person who drives a diesel car is a bad person or someone who leaves all their electrical items on is a bad person - but being fat, like driving a diesel car or wasting electricity are all bad for the environment.  The bottom line is that our population as a whole needs to completely change the way we eat to bring food consumption back to a sustainable level - a diet for life where overeating and food waste are a thing of the past.  

If everyone were to eat the right level of calories and from nutrient rich "real" food (not heavily processed) and were to not waste food we would see a reduction in environmental damage (greenhouse gas emissions, packaging, energy usage).  Sophie also talks about the fact that being thin in associated with beautiful and fat is associated with being ugly, lazy, stupid and bad.  This has to stop.  Body size and beauty should never be connected and Sophie is right about not categorising fat people as bad because castigation is never the right way to go about addressing an issue, what-ever that issue is.  Tell people to stop overeating is like telling people to not think about lump of lard.  You're thinking about a lump of lard aren't you, now?  Negativity needs to be replaced with positive messages.

Our planet cannot support an increasing population that also overeats.  We no longer have the luxury of being able to eat what we want, whenever we want to.  Our diets have to change. Now instead of NOT thinking about that lump of lard how about thinking of all the positives about not overeating - less money spent of food, better health prospects ... and less environmental impact.

We live in a world where it is not politically correct to call people fat or obese or anything that specifically draws attention to their weight.  But their size is often a result of overeating so for the sake of the planet, let's concentrate on that term - overeating. Let's make overeating the bad guy, not being fat.

I will outline in a later post ways the world can become sustainable with regard to the food we all eat.  In the meantime can I ask if you had previously connected how much food you eat or waste with Climate Change and would you be willing to change what and how much you eat for the benefit of the planet?

Sources:

1. List of countries by food energy intake:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake#cite_note-4

2. Food per Person:

https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person#empirical-view

3. Global and regional food consumption patterns and trends:
https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/3_foodconsumption/en/

4. Sophie Hagen: Fat is a neutral word - I want us to reclaim it

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/apr/22/sofie-hagen-fat-is-a-neutral-word-i-want-us-to-reclaim-it