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Sustainable healthy diets

Guiding principles










​FAO and WHO. 2019. Sustainable healthy diets – Guiding principles. Rome.





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    Contribution of terrestrial animal source food to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health outcomes
    An evidence and policy overview on the state of knowledge and gaps
    2023
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    Diverse foods derived from livestock production systems, including grazing and pastoralist systems, and from the hunting of wild animals, provide high-quality proteins, important fatty acids and various vitamins and minerals – contributing to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health. Livestock species are adapted to a wide range of environments, including areas that are unsuitable for crop production. Globally, more than a billion people depend on livestock value chains for their livelihoods. Small-scale livestock farmers and pastoralists make up a large proportion of livestock producers. Well integrated livestock production increases the resilience of small-scale farming systems. Livestock also provide other important ecosystem services in landscape management, provide energy and help to improve soil fertility. Rangeland or grassland ecosystems occupy some 40 percent of the world’s terrestrial area. Livestock keepers raise grazing animals to transform grassland vegetation into food. Challenges related to high resource utilization and pollution, food–feed competition, greenhouse-gas emissions, antimicrobial resistance and animal welfare as well as zoonotic and food-borne diseases, accessibility and affordability need to be solved if agrifood systems are to become more sustainable. FAO’s Committee on Agriculture requested a comprehensive, science- and evidence-based global assessment of the contribution of livestock to food security, sustainable food systems, nutrition and healthy diets, considering environmental, economic and social sustainability. The assessment consists of four component documents. This first component document provides a holistic analysis of the contribution of terrestrial animal source food to healthy diets for improved nutrition and health outcomes over the course of people’s lives.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Consumers and Mediterranean diet: towards food systems transformation
    Webinar outcomes, 26 January 2023
    2023
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    During this webinar, organized by the SFS-MED Platform and held on 26 January 2023, stakeholders from across the Mediterranean shared experiences and successful cases from the consumer perspective, including on transparent information and consumer education and innovative pathways for sustainable public procurement. Panelists and speakers highlighted how consumers should be at the center of all elements of the food system, from food research to food production and procurement, as well as food industry, environments and marketing. The discussion was instrumental in demonstrating that empowering consumers to make informed food choices is key to enabling the transformation of Mediterranean food systems. In this context, the Mediterranean diet can be a strategic resource for driving transformative change, with its environmental, social, cultural, health and economic benefits. Education for sustainable consumption enables individuals and social groups to become actors of change by providing knowledge, values and skills to make environmentally friendly, ethically sound, and responsible decisions as consumers. Moreover, involving consumers in research and innovation processes (consumer-driven data) is needed to better understand their needs and preferences. Finally, targeted policy frameworks and multi-stakeholder partnerships can leverage public food procurement schemes to promote the Mediterranean diet, while supporting local economies and environmental sustainability.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Mediterranean food consumption patterns. Diet, environment, society, economy and health
    White Paper
    2015
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    This publication aims at contributing to the overall development of the Feeding Knowledge Programme, by reporting on the work done under its Priority 5: “Mediterranean food consumption patterns: diet, environment, society, economy and health”. The Feeding Knowledge Programme has been developed by CIHEAM-Bari, in cooperation with the Politecnico of Milan, in the framework of the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition, the theme of which is: Feeding the planet, energy for life. The Programme is part of t he intangible legacy of Expo Milan 2015. The objective of this document is to highlight the role that the current food consumption patterns play in food and nutrition security, public health, environment protection and socio-economic development in the Mediterranean region.The ultimate aim is to stimulate a multidisciplinary dialogue among the Euro-Mediterranean scientific community on the sustainability of current food consumption and production patterns in the Mediterranean region and beyond, and to identify the research activities and policy actions needed to move towards more sustainable Mediterranean food systems. The publication addresses several interdisciplinary and interdependent issues related to: food consumption patterns; sustainable diets; health implications of the current food consumption patterns; food environmental footprints; food production systems; food economics; food cultures and sociology; food losses and waste; and food system governance and policies.

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