Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting

Benjamin S Halpern^{1

2}, Richard S Cottrell^{3

4}, Julia L Blanchard^{3

4}, Lex Bouwman^{5

6

7}, Halley E Froehlich^{8

9

10}, Jessica A Gephart^{11

12}, Nis Sand Jacobsen¹³, Caitlin D Kuempel⁸, Peter B McIntyre¹⁴, Marc Metian¹⁵, Daniel D Moran¹⁶, Kirsty L Nash^{3

4}, Johannes Többen¹⁶, David R Williams^{2

17}

Affiliations

¹ National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101; halpern@nceas.ucsb.edu.
² Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
³ Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, TAS, Australia.
⁴ Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, TAS, Australia.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁷ PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2500 GH The Hague, The Netherlands.
⁸ National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
⁹ Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
¹⁰ Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
¹¹ National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Annapolis, MD 21401.
¹² Department of Environmental Science, American University, Washington, DC 20016.
¹³ National Research Council, Washington, DC, 20001.
¹⁴ Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
¹⁵ Radioecology Laboratory, International Atomic Energy Agency-Environment Laboratories (IAEA-EL), MC 98000, Principality of Monaco.
¹⁶ Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7491, Norway.
¹⁷ Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.

PMID: 31506376
PMCID: PMC6744877
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1913308116

Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting

Benjamin S Halpern et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019.

. 2019 Sep 10;116(37):18152-18156.

doi: 10.1073/pnas.1913308116.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101; halpern@nceas.ucsb.edu.
² Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
³ Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, TAS, Australia.
⁴ Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, TAS, Australia.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁷ PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2500 GH The Hague, The Netherlands.
⁸ National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
⁹ Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
¹⁰ Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
¹¹ National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Annapolis, MD 21401.
¹² Department of Environmental Science, American University, Washington, DC 20016.
¹³ National Research Council, Washington, DC, 20001.
¹⁴ Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
¹⁵ Radioecology Laboratory, International Atomic Energy Agency-Environment Laboratories (IAEA-EL), MC 98000, Principality of Monaco.
¹⁶ Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7491, Norway.
¹⁷ Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.

PMID: 31506376
PMCID: PMC6744877
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1913308116

Erratum in

Correction to Supporting Information for Halpern et al., Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting.
[No authors listed] [No authors listed] Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 14;117(28):16705. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2011873117. Epub 2020 Jul 6. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020. PMID: 32631988 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

None — The web of food impacts and interactions is challenging to map, let alone fully assess. We must address the holes in food assessment studies and the paucity of linkages among foods in these assessments to fully understand the cumulative impact of food production. Image credit: Shutterstock/Olga Klochanko.

**Fig. 1.**
Comparative food impact studies published in the last 10 years are skewed in favor of a handful of topics. Coverage here was calculated as the number of studies that included each food type and associated stressors and/or impacts. See Table S1 for details. Full data are available in Ext. Data S3. GHG, greenhouse gases.

**Fig. 2.**
Among different nations, the proportions of food from crops, livestock, milk, and eggs (warm colors) and various underassessed foods (cool colors) varies widely. Countries are grouped by continent or global region, and only those with greater than 10% underassessed food are shown. The key to the three-letter country codes is provided in Ext. Data S2. Comm., commercial; IUU, illegal, unreported, and unregulated; Prop., proportion; Unrep., unreported.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Poore J., Nemecek T., Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360, 987–992 (2018). - PubMed
1. Hilborn R., et al. , The environmental cost of animal source foods. Front. Ecol. Environ. 16, 329–335 (2018).
1. Tilman D., Clark M., Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature 515, 518–522 (2014). - PubMed
1. Froehlich H. E., et al. , Avoiding the ecological limits of forage fish for fed aquaculture. Nat. Sustain. 1, 298–303 (2018).
1. Fluet-Chouinard E., Funge-Smith S., McIntyre P. B., Global hidden harvest of freshwater fish revealed by household surveys. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1157623–7628.. (2018). - PMC - PubMed

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Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting

Affiliations

Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting

Authors

Affiliations

Erratum in

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources