[MUSIC] Hello, in this brief lecture, I will talk about sustainable food and beverages, and the sustainability of your complete diet. The method we apply for measuring sustainability is called life-cycle assessment. My name is Henrik Saxe, and I'm an Associate Professor at the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen. Life-cycle assessment, also known as cradle-to-grave analysis, is a method to assess the environmental impact associated with all the stages of a product's lifespan, from cradle-to-grave. For food that is, from extraction of raw materials and agricultural production, food processing, packaging, distribution, storage, shopping, more storage, cooking, eating, and drinking, to waste, disposal, incineration or recycling. The purpose of life-cycle assessment is to compare the full range of environmental effects of products and services by quantifying all the inputs and outputs from material flows and energy and assessing how these flows affect the environment. This information is used to improve processes, support policy, and provide a sound basis for informed decisions. When you shop at the supermarket or order food at a restaurant, you're actually choosing your diet. Your diet choice does not only affect your health, it also affects the environment. The life-cycle of all products including food and beverages impact the environment on a global scale through the green house effect and climate change. Through degradation of stratospheric ozone, depletion of non-renewable resources, and on a regional scale through acidification, enrichment with nutrients, toxicity in ecosystems and humans, for chemical air pollution, such as particulates and ozone. And finally, on a local scale, through clearing of land and loss of soil and habitats and depletion of water resources. Food and beverage production impact the environment significantly but let me make this clear. Greenhouse gases from ruminants are not like emissions from the industrial sector in general. Fossil, carbon dioxide, makes up a much smaller share than that of other industrial production. Cattle and manure emit methane, a greenhouse gas that is 23 times stronger than CO2. Manure and agricultural soils emit nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Using life-cycle assessment we find that different fruits and beverages affect the environment differently. In general, animal based products have the largest impact on our environment. In this figure, you can see that beef, in particular red meat, has the largest impact, followed by fish, eggs, coffee, wine, and sweets. This ranking is done according to eight environmental impact categories, ranging from global warming to land use. The reason that animal based products top the ranking is, as mentioned, that ruminants emit methane and manure causes nitrous oxide emission. The core of the problem lies in the fact that domestic animals eat many times their weight before the resulting meat from the animals reaches our dinner tables. In fact, domestic animals consume 90% of the soy production in the US, 80% of the maize, and 70% of the grain. In Europe, domestic animals consume 60% of all grain, and EU imports 70% of its protein feed. It takes 100,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of beef, and only 900 liters to produce one kilogram of wheat. In this table, red dots signify high environmental impact, green dots low environmental impact, and yellow dots intermediate impact. The size of the dots indicate the size of the impact. The less impacting categories include fruits and vegetables, wheat bread, potatoes and beer. Note the similarity between the food pyramid and what we could call the environmental pyramid. What nutrition experts recommend we eat less of because of our health is also what we should eat less of in order to protect and preserve the environment. The most healthy foods are fortunately also those with the least environmental impact, those at the bottom of the food pyramid and the bottom of the environmental pyramid of table. This 3D graph shows how the aforementioned eight impact categories from global warming to land use shown on the y-axis are affected by all of us, by we, the consumers. While obvious consumptions such as water, heating, electricity, and cars shown on the X axis in the forefront of this figure, only count for small relative impacts. Food production to satisfy our consumption is our single most impacting activity, as you see when you follow the red dots. The relative environmental impact of private consumption of each impact category shown on the Z axis sums up to 100%. The private consumption is responsible for approximately half of society's total environmental impact. The other half is caused by industry and activities outside the control or we the private consumers. What we eat matters, actually, globally our consumption of food and beverages affect climate change more than the entire transport sector. But since we have to eat and drink, the question is, does a change in our diets affect our environmental impact to a significant degree? Is it worth it, environmentally speaking? In the following, I'll analyze what happens when you replace an average western diet with a healthier, and more sustainable New Nordic diet. Is such a dietary shift an effective tool in relation to environmental protection? And are there are any socio-economic benefits to society? An assessment of the price consumers pay for either the average western diet or the new Nordic diet shows that animal based products are the cheapest to buy. However, they also have the largest environmental impact. In this study, 16 environmental impact categories have been summed up by monetizing and adding all environmental impacts. The surcharge the consumer has to pay for the healthy and low environmental impact of the New Nordic diet is €216 per person a year. while the monetized savings on the environmental impacts total only €151. The graph shows how vegetables, fruit, and berries dominate the cost on the New Nordic diet, when animal-based products dominate the environmental impact of both diets. So one question you may ask when you look at this rather complex slide is, are the savings in an environmental impact when choosing New Nordic diet, worth it? When you have to pay €260 for a €151 reduced value of the environmental impacts. You may think that the answer is no but then you forget about the health benefits of a New Nordic diet. Health benefits that can also be monetized. If the reduced occurrence of six diet related non communicable diseases are included in the assessment, that is cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, stomach cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer. Then the total value of health averages related to the choice of New Nordic diet amounts to €273. So yes, replacing the average western diet with a New Nordic diet does have socio-economic benefits. In fact, it doubles your investment in better food. So, let me summarize this in another way. For every additional Euro, a dollar, a pound, you spend on the Nordic diet over your typical Western diet, saves you €2, or pounds, or dollars. By switching diets, you consume 30% to 40% less meat, and you substitute much of your red meat with white meat. The environmental benefits and health benefits combined makes up the savings. And as a final reminder and guideline, I would like you to remember that 90% of the environmental benefits are caused by what you put on your plate which food items. The New Nordic diet offers less meat and more vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts, whole grain products, and fish. Where your food originates from only count for 10% of the environmental impact. Transport is not important. And choosing organic food has little effect on your health and sometimes, even a negative effect on the environment. The standard New Nordic diet reduces environmental impact on climate change, with 35%, compared with the average Western diet. While the vegetarian version of the New Nordic diet reduces the impact by 67% and that is with the same protein and energy content of all diets. Vegetarian or not, selecting the New Nordic diet will reduce your impact on the environment, compared to what you eat today. And this palatable, healthy and sustainable choice carries profound socio-economic benefits. In fact you should consider your diet choice as the overlooked instrument in environmental protection. An instrument with a potential to fix our broken food system. Thank you for listening. [MUSIC]
