A Healthy Diet and Sustainability

The health of the population is influenced essentially by its eating habits. At the same time, through their choice of food consumers have a major impact on food production in agriculture. Again, the type of food that is produced (animal or plant food) affects the environment (water, soil, air) in interaction with the type of production (intensive/extensive production, conventional farming/organic farming). The population`s diet is thus a material factor (a driver) for environmental pollution from food production. Among other things, the population`s diet also has an effect on the area required for production. Agricultural land is also exposed to increasing pressure for use in growing renewable raw materials for generating energy. Effects on the environment must be expected here as well. The type of agricultural production affects the costs of food. In addition, the costs of food differ in dependence on diet. Diet has a great influence on the costs of diet-related diseases. The essential objective of this project is to put a "sustainable" diet for the population into concrete terms. This means a diet that combines low health risks with persistently tolerable environmental pollution in production. The results will aim at recording quantitatively the connections between diet and its consequences for health with agricultural production, the associated effects on the environment and economical aspects. Scenario calculations will outline possible developments and will indicate measures for mitigation. The results will then be edited for a broad public and tried out in cooperation with project cooperation partners within the project duration. The project is based on the hypothesis that a "healthy" diet for the population is a significant key to sustainable agriculture. The central question that is dealt with here is: "Which synergies are possible between health, quality of life and sustainability?" The connection between global changes, climate changes and agriculture with health and the quality of life is shown. The essential innovation of the project lies in the holistic observation of the problem, the interlinking of different specialist fields and the combination of methodological approaches. The methodology chosen enables questions of healthcare, environmental pollution from farming, problems of climate and the energy industry to be linked to one another. Scenarios can be calculated through the quantitative description of these correlations and the effects of different strategies can be compared with one another.

The health of the population is influenced essentially by its eating habits. At the same time, through their choice of food consumers have a major impact on food production in agriculture. Again, the type of food that is produced (animal or plant food) affects the environment (water, soil, air) in interaction with the type of production (intensive/extensive production, conventional farming/organic farming). The population`s diet is thus a material factor (a driver) for environmental pollution from food production. Among other things, the population`s diet also has an effect on the area required for production. Agricultural land is also exposed to increasing pressure for use in growing renewable raw materials for generating energy. Effects on the environment must be expected here as well. The type of agricultural production affects the costs of food. In addition, the costs of food differ in dependence on diet. Diet has a great influence on the costs of diet-related diseases. The essential objective of this project is to put a "sustainable" diet for the population into concrete terms. This means a diet that combines low health risks with persistently tolerable environmental pollution in production. The results will aim at recording quantitatively the connections between diet and its consequences for health with agricultural production, the associated effects on the environment and economical aspects. Scenario calculations will outline possible developments and will indicate measures for mitigation. The results will then be edited for a broad public and tried out in cooperation with project cooperation partners within the project duration. The project is based on the hypothesis that a "healthy" diet for the population is a significant key to sustainable agriculture. The central question that is dealt with here is: "Which synergies are possible between health, quality of life and sustainability?" The connection between global changes, climate changes and agriculture with health and the quality of life is shown. The essential innovation of the project lies in the holistic observation of the problem, the interlinking of different specialist fields and the combination of methodological approaches. The methodology chosen enables questions of healthcare, environmental pollution from farming, problems of climate and the energy industry to be linked to one another. Scenarios can be calculated through the quantitative description of these correlations and the effects of different strategies can be compared with one another.