Environmental assessment of diets: overview and guidance on indicator choice
Review article, 2024
Comprehensive but interpretable assessment of the environmental performance of diets involves choosing a set of appropriate indicators. Current knowledge and data gaps on the origin of dietary foodstuffs restrict use of indicators relying on site-specific information. This Personal View summarises commonly used indicators for assessing the environmental performance of diets, briefly outlines their benefits and drawbacks, and provides recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that include the environmental assessment of diets. We then provide recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that use environmental assessments, such as health and nutrition experts, policy makers, decision makers, and private-sector and public-sector sustainability officers. We recommend that environmental assessment of diets should include indicators for at least the five following areas: climate change, biosphere integrity, blue water consumption, novel entities, and impacts on natural resources (especially wild fish stocks), to capture important environmental trade-offs. If more indicators can be handled in the assessment, indicators to capture impacts related to land use quantity and quality and green water consumption should be used. For ambitious assessments, indicators related to biogeochemical flows, stratospheric ozone depletion, and energy use can be added.
Author
Ylva Ran
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Christel Cederberg
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
Malin Jonell
Stockholm Resilience Centre
The Royal Swedish Academy of Science
Kristina Bergman
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
I. de Boer
Wageningen University and Research
Rasmus Einarsson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Johan O. Karlsson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Hanna Karlsson Potter
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Michael Martin
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
Geneviève S. Metson
Western University
Linköping University
Thomas Nemecek
Forschungsanstalt Agroscope Reckenholz-Tanikon
Kimberly A. Nicholas
Lund University
Åsa Strand
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
Pernilla Tidåker
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
H. M. G. van der Werf
National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE)
Davy Vanham
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, ISPRA
Hannah H.E. Van Zanten
Wageningen University and Research
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
F Verones
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Elin Röös
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
The Lancet Planetary Health
25425196 (eISSN)
Vol. 8 3 e172-e187Subject Categories
Other Environmental Engineering
Environmental Sciences
DOI
10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00006-8