Dietary change as part of a sustainable food system
Dietary change has been promoted in climate policy discussions as one of the possible means to reduce climate impacts from the agri-food sector. The FoodMinimum project examined how a large-scale dietary change would impact the climate, the intake of nutrients and the agri-food sector and evaluated policy means that could support the change.
A diet that is climate-friendly and follows the nutrition recommendations can be achieved in a number of ways. However, all of them require a clear reduction in meat consumption. In addition, in the case of diets containing products of animal origin, determined efforts are required to maintain and increase carbon stocks in agricultural land. A climate-friendly dietary change would revolutionise the agri-food industry, but the value of production could be kept at the current level. A controlled change would require new value chains and investments. Public sector steering could support the change with strong strategic objectives and combinations of economic and informational policy measures.