Global diets link environmental sustainability and human.pdfVIP

ARTICLE doi:10.1038/nature13959 Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health David Tilman1,2 Michael Clark1 Diets link environmental and human health. Rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. By 2050 these dietary trends, if unchecked, would be a major contributor to an estimated 80 per cent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production and to global land clearing. Moreover, these dietary shifts are greatly increasing the incidence of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic non-communicable diseases that lower global life expectancies. Alternative diets that offer substantial health benefits could, if widely adopted, reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, reduce land clearing and resultant species extinctions, and help prevent such diet-related chronic non-communicable diseases. The implementation of dietary solutions to the tightly linked diet–environment– health trilemma is a global challenge, and opportunity, of great environmental and public health importance. Agriculture is having increasingly strong global impacts on both the for 100 of the world’s more populous nations to analyse global dietary environment1–5 and human health, often driven by dietary changes6–9. trends and their drivers, then use this information to forecast future Global agriculture and food production release more than 25% of all diets should past trends continue. To quantify effects of alternative diets greenhouse gases (GHGs)2–4, pollute fresh and marine waters with agro- on mortality and on type II diabetes, cancer and chronic coronar