Metrics of sustainable diets and food systems
Jessica Fanzo
Abstract
Policy makers and consumers are challenging the scientific community to come up with ways to measure the environmental impact of the foods we eat. This Brief describes a challenging and innovative research agenda implemented by Bioversity and its partners to describe and measure sustainable diets and food systems. The Brief builds on the early work of FAO and Bioversity in understanding sustainable diets and identifies the rich cultural history of our food and the very real concerns about access and cost is not lost in our mission to improve dietary quality for the poor with the ultimate goal of improving nutrition and health. The study of sustainable diets is as relevant to the challenges of undernutrition as it is with dietary transition and nutrition related chronic diseases and obesity.