On our plate today. Healthy, sustainable food choices - LiveWell Final recommendations
Posted on February, 10 2015
LiveWell for LIFE is a pioneering project which aims to contribute towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food supply chain, and demonstrate what sustainable diet could look like for different European countries. ‘On our plate today: healthy, sustainable food choices’ is the project’s final report.
Funded by the European Commission (EC) LIFE+ programme, LiveWell for LIFE is a ground-breaking project that not only set out to show how low carbon diets can help achieve a reduction of at least 25% in greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food supply chain but also showed how these can be healthy, nutritious and affordable. ‘On our plate today: healthy, sustainable food choices’ is the project’s final report.
The project also aimed to influence policies and practices to ease the adoption of low-carbon diets in the EU – and in particular in our pilot countries: France, Spain and Sweden – and ultimately, to put the issue of sustainable diets on the EU policy agenda.
LiveWell for LIFE’s work is based on collaboration with a Network of European Food Stakeholders made up from policy-makers, representatives of the retail industry, farmers, food manufacturers, the health sector, academics and civil society, who gave input at each stage of the project. Together, we successfully did the following:
- We demonstrated, through the development of the LiveWell Plate, that by making some surprisingly simple tweaks to daily eating choices, those choices would improve national health, remain affordable and reduce the impact of our eating habits on the climate.
- We identified a list of 24 key opportunities for and barriers to the adoption of sustainable healthy diets in the EU which consumers, policy makers and business may experience.
- We found a range of available and feasible EU policy options to encourage a shift towards more sustainable and low carbon diets.
- We carried out an economic impact assessment of the adoption of sustainable diets by 2020 according to various scenarios.
- We asked our Network of European Food Stakeholders to develop pathways towards the adoption of sustainable diets.
We call on the entire food chain to support these eight policy recommendations to help encourage healthy and sustainable diets.
Read and download the report
By eating more vegetables, fruit and carbohydrates, less meat and processed foods we will not only be healthier but also reduce the impact of food production on the planet.
© Shutterstock
By eating more vegetables, fruit and carbohydrates, less meat and processed foods we will not only be healthier but also reduce the impact of food production on the planet.
© Shutterstock