FOOD POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

It is imperative that human health is placed within the context of the health of the planet. This requires us to consider the impact of climate change on food production and the impact of food production on the ecology of the biosphere, both of which have significant implications for food policy.

Enormity of impact

It is widely acknowledged that food choices have an enormous environmental impact when it comes to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other green house gas (GHG) emissions, water usage and land degradation including soil loss and decreasing availability of arable land.

Greenhouse Gases and Food Production Carbon dioxide Methane - 21 times more global warming potential than CO2 Nitrous oxide - 310 times more global warming potential than CO2 Refrigerant gases - Refrigeration contributes to 18% of all domestic GHG emissions.19

GHG Emissions

According to the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) in 2007 the Australian agricultural sector accounts for more GHG emissions than transport and is only second to all stationary energy.

The largest contributor to GHG emissions within the agricultural sector is enteric fermentation from livestock (accounting for around 70% of methane emissions). In addition, around 85% of Australia's nitrous oxide emissions are from agriculture, mostly due to fertiliser and animal excreta.¹⁷

Water usage

According to a discussion paper by Julian Cribb & Associates, by 2050, it is estimated that seven billion out of nine billion people will face chronic-to-critical water shortages.

Food policy needs to include actions to reduce dependency on refrigeration through local food production, more appropriate food choices, improved food literacy and effective food storage techniques.

In fact, by 2025, water scarcity may inflict an annual loss of 350 million tonnes of food - roughly equivalent to losing today's global rice harvest or the entire US grain crop.¹⁸

Australia is particularly vulnerable to water shortages and food policy must consider the water usage involved in different agricultural systems and recommend foods that minimise water usage.

Land degradation

Around 10% of the world's arable area is affected by serious degradation, of which 300 million hectares is now not farmable. There is a continuing loss of about 5-10 million hectares a year and 80% of the remaining arable area is degraded to some degree. In addition, it is estimated that the world may be losing up to 1.1 billion tonnes of elemental nutrients a year, chiefly due to soil erosion.¹⁸

While these are global figures, they are issues from which Australia is not immune. Land degradation within Australia as a result of soil erosion, salinity and soil acidification all have serious implications for Australian agriculture. Food policy must support agricultural methods that will minimise and where possible reverse land degradation.

Food security

Globally over 800 million people are chronically undernourished because they do not have access to adequate food. In Australia, in the 1995 and 2001 National Health Surveys (NHS), around 5% of the adults reported that there had been times in the previous 12 months when they had run out of food and could not afford to buy more. Much of the health disadvantage experienced in rural and remote Australia is diet-based.

The impacts of climate change on food availability will exacerbate these problems. Reduced water, reduced agricultural land availability, land degradation, nutrient losses, dwindling natural food resources due to loss of biodiversity, contamination and disease, along with increasing use of food for biofuels, will mean that food will - and is - becoming scarcer.

According to Julian Cribb & Associates¹⁸ in the next two generations the world must raise food production 110% - off a smaller and more degraded soils base, with two-thirds the water, costlier and scarcer nutrients, using less resources and under the hammer of climate change.

A robust food policy framework is required to guide this growth in food production and ensure the inequities and inadequacies of the current system are not multiplied.

From paddock to plate

Every stage of the food chain needs to be considered when assessing the environmental impact of our food choices, including agriculture, manufacturing, refrigeration, transport, packaging, retail, home and waste.

Life Cycle Assessment

There is work currently being done in this area - known as Life Cycle Assessment and Input/Output Analysis- and the PHAA is keen to see more Australian data.

"Encouraging individuals to eat more efficiently (ie, descend) on the food chain, consuming less meat and more plant-based foods, may be one of the types of measures that will lead to increased sustainability and reduced environmental costs of food production systems." Reijnders & Soret, Am J Clin Nutr 2003

What we know from international data is:

• foods causing the least GHG emissions (<1kg GHG production/kg food product) are plant-based and unprocessed, and foods causing the greatest amount (>8kg/kg product) of emissions include domestic beef, tropical fruit (because it is transported by plane) and domestic cheese, with mid-range foods being those of mixed vegetable/animal origin, highly processed or extensively transported items [Sweden];²⁰
• total water requirement for foods (TWRF) increases dramatically as consumption of animal products increases, with beef having the greatest water footprint and vegetables and fruits having the lowest [China];²¹
• in terms of overall diets, within the same method of production, a greater consumption of animal products translates to a greater impact on the environment and chemical-conventional production methods have a greater impact than organic methods [Italy];22 and
• a person consuming an average American diet is responsible for emissions of around 1.5 tonnes more C0₂ each year compared to a person consuming a vegetarian diet - which on a national basis represents around 6% of total US GHG emissions or the difference between driving a saloon or hybrid car [United States].²³

While more research is needed in Australia to determine exact impacts, what is consistent across both the international and the limited Australian research^24,25 is the hierarchy of foods - with plant-based foods causing the least GHG emissions and animal based foods causing the most.

While the ideal diet in terms of environmental impacts may be organic and vegan, the PHAA acknowledges that this is not realistic for the majority of Australians. What may be realistic however is a food environment and food recommendations that emphasise whole, minimally processed and predominantly plant-based foods.

Food production methods

"Dietary shift [to a more plant-based diet] can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than "buying local." Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food." Weber & Mathews, Environ Sci Technology 2008

Food policy must also consider appropriate food production methods that limit environmental impacts, acknowledging that one size does not fit all. For instance, while organic produce that is locally grown is generally better for the environment than non-organic, this is not necessarily the case if it is highly processed and/or imported. So too, locally grown food generally reduces transport impacts and therefore has a positive environmental impact.

However, when considering produce that requires high water input for example, it may be the case that the environmental impact of shipping it from overseas is less than the environmental impact of growing it in Australia.

Food waste

The issue of waste in our food system needs to be urgently addressed. As much as half of all food grown is lost or wasted before and after it reaches the consumer²⁶ and according to new Victorian research, food and green matter make up 47% of the waste sent to landfill.²⁷ Australians are wasting all of the emissions generated in the growing, processing, storing, transporting, retailing and cooking of that food.

While addressing this will involve consumer education, there is also significant work that can be done at an industry level, for example through changes to supply chains and more accurate use of best by dating.

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