It will be a big issue in the future to combine diets with the planetary boundaries. Not only unhealthy eating habits should be reduced through education and transparency of ingredients. Also, the environmental impact will play a role to keep food production possible in the future. The aim of this report is to investigate how the environmental impact of diets over time changed. The focus will be on German food recommendations. Food plates from the German Nutrition Society (DGE) from 1955 until today will be analyzed as possible diets, that are seen as practicable and healthy from the respective time perspective. The environmental impact can be externalities like GHG emissions, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, et cetera. The report stays broader with the externalities and will use a literature analysis to find out how a diet in general can be seen both as healthy and environmentally friendly rather than focusing on one outcome.
Not only is climate change influencing food production. Additionally, the food sector is the main accelerator of climate change, responsible for 10-12 % of total human greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increasing crop production is made possible through a higher yield per hectare, but agriculture today is more and more reliant on fertilizer and pesticide use which is accelerating biodiversity loss: Agriculture influences the phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, leading to water pollution and eutrophication. Pesticide use and monoculture jeopardize pollinators and biodiversity.
Food recommendations by the German Nutrition Society (DGE) have been well developed over time, but give a more superficial impression of a healthy diet. Sustainability aspects are rather randomly implemented what shows that health and sustainability correlate. The diet can still be improved in GHG emissions, for example. However, consumption patterns in today’s societies are still far away from the diet recommendations (too high in animal products, too low in vegetable consumption). This so-called “western diet” is a driver of civilization diseases, biodiversity loss, and GHG emissions.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Conceptual framework
2.1 Definition of Food Security
2.2 Food Security and malnutrition
2.3 Energy, Water, and Food-nexus
2.4 Food recommendations and their impact
3. Methodology
3.1 Scoping Review
3.2 Review Protocol
4. Analysis & Results
4.1 Data on food consumption
4.1.1 Tables
4.2 The Energy need for different food groups
4.3 The DGE’s Food Plates and their externalities
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Objectives and Research Focus
This report investigates the evolving environmental impacts of dietary recommendations provided by the German Nutrition Society (DGE) from 1955 to the present. The primary research question addresses the environmental footprint associated with these recommended food plates, specifically examining how dietary shifts correlate with sustainability, energy consumption, and ecological externalities.
- Analysis of DGE food recommendations over several decades.
- Evaluation of the energy-food-individual nexus.
- Assessment of environmental externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use.
- Comparison of German dietary guidelines with the "planetary health diet."
- Investigation of the gap between official recommendations and actual consumption patterns.
Excerpt from the Book
The Energy need for different food groups
As described in the Methods section, a scoping review was made to find methods on how to calculate externalities such as carbon footprints for the different food groups (Compare the review protocol in the methodology section). The most promising method is the life cycle assessment (LCA), or additionally meta-studies, that mostly reviewed and compiled LCAs by other authors.
In general, diets high in meat and dairy consumption were considered as rather harming the environment and biodiversity. Diets like the Atlantic diet, high in vegetables and fish, and additionally local and seasonal consumption (Vaz-Velho et al., 2016), or the Mediterranean diet are considered as both healthy and sustainable mostly due to their low share of meat and dairy products (González-García et al., 2018; Esteve-Llorens et al., 2019).
Not analyzing a diet, but the meat production sector, Petrovic et al. (2015) find that meat has considerably higher GHG emissions than plant-based products. The study did not only consider the livestock production and feeding but also all the energy and material needed in the actual processing of meat-based products, e.g. for cleaning, machine maintenance, packaging, etc.
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: This chapter highlights the challenge of feeding a growing global population while adhering to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and mitigating the environmental impacts of the food sector.
Conceptual framework: This section defines food security in relation to energy security and planetary boundaries, incorporating the nutrition sphere to analyze the broader context of health and environment.
Methodology: The chapter outlines a scoping literature review approach to identify energy demands and environmental externalities associated with various food groups.
Analysis & Results: This section presents collected BMEL data on German consumption patterns and evaluates the energy-intensive nature of specific food groups compared to DGE guidelines.
Discussion: This chapter reflects on the complexity of dietary communication and the discrepancy between recommended consumption and the realities of modern "western" diets.
Conclusions: The final chapter summarizes the findings, noting that while DGE recommendations have evolved, society remains far from sustainable consumption patterns that would reduce biodiversity loss and GHG emissions.
Keywords
Food Security, DGE, Planetary Boundaries, Sustainability, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Nexus, Nutrition, Dietary Patterns, Food Plates, Environmental Externalities, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Western Diet, Resource Efficiency, Food Consumption.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research report?
The report examines the environmental sustainability of official German dietary recommendations (DGE food plates) from 1955 to 2019, specifically analyzing their energy requirements and environmental externalities.
What are the central themes of the work?
The work focuses on the intersection of nutrition, energy security, and environmental protection, analyzing how food production and individual consumption choices impact global sustainability.
What is the primary research question?
The research asks: What environmental impact do food plates by the DGE have?
Which scientific method is utilized in this study?
The author conducts a scoping literature review, utilizing existing life cycle assessments (LCAs) and official statistics from the German Federal Ministry of Nutrition and Agriculture (BMEL).
What topics are covered in the main body of the report?
The report covers the historical development of DGE food plates, the analysis of average German food consumption, and a comparison between German nutritional guidelines and the global "planetary health diet."
Which keywords best characterize this publication?
Key terms include Food Security, Sustainability, DGE, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Nexus, and Planetary Boundaries.
How does the author define Food Security in the context of this study?
Food security is defined as a condition where diets are chosen and sustained that require minimal energy for production, ensuring they remain within planetary boundaries and are supported by the energy system.
How do current meat consumption patterns in Germany compare to DGE recommendations?
The findings indicate that actual meat consumption is significantly higher—roughly double to four times the amount—than the daily benchmarks recommended by the German Nutrition Society.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Pascal Schneider (Autor:in), 2020, Diets and Sustainability. Comparing officially recommended diets and their environmental impacts, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/514854
