From quantity to quality — shifting thinking about food production

Food production already contributes around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Over the next three decades, as we figure out how to feed an extra two billion people globally, the pressure on our food systems will only increase. On top of this, much of the food eaten around the world is low in nutrient density and contains too many empty calories.

Nutrition is integral to sustainable development. It’s incorporated into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of health and wellbeing. Globally, nutrient density levels have, reportedly, been falling, although this is debated. We need robust research to understand the impact on nutrition from modifying our food systems.

Transforming our food production systems to optimise sustainability and nutrition is a huge goal. Local challenges and opportunities will require diverse approaches. Although global considerations are important, in New Zealand the approaches will be shaped by the Māori world view and knowledge as well as environmental, geographical and social realities.

The nutritional composition of produce is affected by many things. These include genetics (varieties/ cultivars), healthy soils, water, growing location, management practices, harvest time and postharvest handling and storage.

Over the past few years concepts like nutrition-sensitive agriculture have attempted to put nutrition at the heart of agricultural development. In New Zealand, the topic of regenerative agriculture has also been generating debate, promoted as a means to reverse climate change.

Regenerative agriculture includes a system of farming principles and practices that aim to increase biodiversity, enrich soil and optimise water use, among other things. Aside from a lack of clarity and scientific research around some aspects of regenerative agriculture, as we go forward it will be important to understand how changing agricultural practices affect the nutritional value of our foods.

Unlike soils in the USA, where the concept of regenerative agriculture emerged, our soils have not been depleted by continuous cropping. But maybe soils don’t need to be depleted for certain management practices to improve their composition and increase the nutritional value of our produce. Even with good soils, a plant may not take up nutrients if it’s grown too fast (plants that grow more slowly have more time to take up nutrients). Nutritional composition is also affected by the soil microbiome (the community of microorganisms that live in the soil).

A healthy diet involves more than just nutrient-dense produce. Even high nutrient density diets can lack selected nutrients. Vegetarians, for example, may be low in iron, zinc and vitamin B12. Food combinations are also significant for nutrition, with certain combinations able to meet nutritional needs, aid in nutrient absorption and/or ensure complete proteins in plant-based food combinations.

In 2019 the EAT-Lancet Commission proposed the mainly plant-based ‘Planetary Health Diet’ as a solution to our global environmental and health challenges. While this has spurred the development of a range of new plant-based protein sources, we will need to assess the nutrition and health impacts of new diet choices at a population level as they evolve.

Ensuring that all parts of our food system are optimal in terms of nutrition and sustainability will require an integrated approach based on science to help support the decisions we make, rather than just following trends.

At the grower end we will need to find real, practical solutions. Scientific research will be essential to guiding food producers, manufacturers and consumers to make optimum choices from both a sustainability and a health point-of-view. We will also need to measure impacts from changes to our food system practices and understand them in a dietary context to make sure we don’t introduce new problems, such as nutritional deficiencies.

Digital solutions will be vital too. For example, aligning food composition data (from the New Zealand Food Composition Database) with other datasets will allow us to develop metrics to guide local nutrition sensitive-agriculture practices and measure food quality, rather than just yield.

The development of new digital tools will allow consumers to make optimal food choices based on sustainability and health. These tools will open new doors to explore what we could grow locally with a changing climate — consider the peanut growing trial currently underway in Northland. Food manufacturers will benefit as well, by enabling them to design tasty, nutritious new food options with good sustainability footprints.