“The biggest, untapped potential is to transition from unhealthy to healthy diets,” Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study, told POLITICO.
According to the experts, animal-based consumption and food waste need to be “radically” reduced — in line with the latest recommendations from the EU’s top climate science advisory body — in a shift to more plant-based and locally produced diets.
Effective measures also include front-of-pack nutrition labeling, taxing unhealthy food, and safety nets to keep healthy food affordable for the poorest people.
In addition, it’s necessary to change how we produce food by moving away from the current monoculture-oriented system, which relies heavily on chemical inputs and fossil fuels. “Sustainable agricultural practices are proven, exist and function,” Rockström said.
“There’s no other transition,” he added, “we have come to the end of the road.”
The European Commission has pushed to put farming and food on a more sustainable footing. But the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy — part of the broader Green Deal agenda — has misfired due to a lack of political focus and growing opposition by the farming and agribusiness lobbies.