Reconnecting food production and consumption through redesigning food systems to support healthy diets

Balancing the social and environmental costs of food production with the needs of future populations in the face of climate change is the greatest challenge that agriculture is facing in the 21st century. The modification of eating habits towards more environmentally friendly and healthy diets is a key lever to meet this challenge. In 2019, the EAT-Lancet commission defined a universal guideline diet that should allow 9 billion people across the globe to eat healthily while respecting planetary boundaries.

In an attempt to reconnect cropping systems to such diets, we developed an innovative approach and designed a decision-making model to assist in the planning and optimization of cropping systems. This model evaluates their ability to supply a specific food system in accordance with the diet recommended by the EAT-Lancet Commission, while comparing vegan, ovo-lacto vegetarian, and omnivorous diets and minimizing the import and export of commodities.

Results show that longer and more diverse crop rotations are more likely to comply with the EAT-Lancet dietary requirements, especially if grazing animals are integrated within rotations. Integrated crop-livestock systems including temporary pasture and forage cover crops minimize the excess and deficit of all commodities (food and feed supplies), while reaching the required amount of daily calories and meeting the requirements in each food category. Crop rotations typically need to include rapeseed to provide oil for human consumption and oilseed meals for livestock, as well as a legume crop for pulses and several cereals. The model allows testing a wider range of dietary recommendations or assessing the impact of specific agro-ecological practices. It supports the design of multi-objective crop rotations aligned with dietary guidelines. By reconnecting food production and consumption following a healthy diet, the model provides practical solutions to sustain all three pillars of sustainability for future food systems.