Food systems are one of the major drivers of Nature loss and climate disruption, in all regions of the world. Agricultural and land use practices developed in a time when the human population was much smaller, and our industrial resource-extraction capabilities were more modest, are now putting future food security itself at risk.
Last month, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its 2025 report, with new findings from a breakthrough intercomparison modeling study, across 13 multidimensional food systems models, examining human health and the state of human activity against nine planetary boundaries. From the report:
The updated planetary health diet (PHD) … allows flexibility and is compatible with many foods, cultures, dietary patterns, traditions, and individual preferences. The PHD also provides nutritional adequacy and diminishes the risks of non-communicable diseases… A shift to the PHD in relevant national context could avert approximately 15 million deaths per year (27% of total deaths worldwide).
Non-communicable diseases—including but not limited to those related to diets—kill 43 million people per year, globally. It is projected that 430 million people, and possibly more than half a billion (as incidence of NCDs is projected to worsen), will lose their lives prematurely to NCDs over the next 10 years.
The Climate Value Exchange and partners in the Climate Action and Food Systems Alliance (CAFSA) value food systems as critical structural tools for the restoration and resilience of ecosystems, biodiversity, and watersheds, and so of the climate system itself. Food systems connect to nearly all of the Sustainable Development Goals, which are meant to define the “safe operating space” between the “floor” of human need to sustain health and wellbeing and the “ceiling” of planetary boundaries.
Ellen Cecilie Wright, Senior Science Officer at EAT, described the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission report as “a human-centered food systems study”, with the aim of highlighting:
the seriousness of the situation—that currently only 1% of the global population is in this safe space, where their food needs are met and their human rights are met, while operating within safe environmental limits—and to promote individual health and wellbeing through affordable, just, and rights-based pathways to sustainable food systems.
The EAT-Lancet Commission proposes eight priority solutions, based on scientific analysis, to achieve a just, sustainable, and healthy food system. We group them here according to CAFSA priorities:
- Access: (1) create food environments to increase demand for healthy diets, ensuring they are more accessible and affordable; (2) protect and promote healthy traditional diets;
- Ecosystem health: (3) implement sustainable and ecological intensification practices; (4) apply strong regulations to prevent loss of remaining intact ecosystems;
- Efficiency: (5) improve infrastructure, management, and consumer behaviour change to reduce food loss and waste;
- Justice: (6) secure decent working conditions; (7) ensure meaningful representation for all; and (8) recognise and protect marginalised groups.
The opportunity to choose and to be sustainably engaged in decent work is an important priority for ensuring the transition to sustainable systems. Sustainable Development Goal 8 recognizes that Decent Work is a right that can shape whole societies for the better, and create conditions for better economic opportunity and generalized prosperity. For instance, shifting away from child labor ensures there is more work for everyone, with fairer wages and better protection of basic rights, and public health, safety, and security.
Food systems are driving the breach of five of nine planetary boundaries, while other vital signs of planetary health are increasingly out of line with sustainability in the short, medium, and long terms. According to the new EAT-Lancet Commission findings:
Comparing 2050 values with the current state (as of 2020), a shift to healthy diets in isolation could lead to a 15% reduction in agricultural emissions, compared with a 20% reduction when all three actions are implemented simultaneously with improvements in productivity and food loss and waste.
Headline findings cited by the Commission:
- Shifting global diets could prevent up to 15 million premature deaths per year.
- Food systems are the largest contributor to the transgression of five planetary boundaries.
- Food systems currently account for roughly 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions globally. Transforming food systems could cut these emissions by more than half.
- Fewer than 1% of the world’s population is currently in the ‘safe and just space’, where people’s rights and food needs are met within planetary boundaries.
- The wealthiest 30% of people drive more than 70% of food-related environmental impacts.
From an African perspective, the transformation of food systems is both an urgent necessity and a significant opportunity. Africa faces the dual challenge of rapid population growth and increasing vulnerability to climate change, which threaten food security and livelihoods. Traditional agricultural practices, though deeply rooted in cultural identity, often lack the support and innovation needed to remain sustainable under current environmental pressures.
The EAT-Lancet Commission’s emphasis on healthy, culturally adaptable diets aligns with Africa’s diverse food traditions, many of which are inherently plant-based and nutrient-rich. Adopting the Planetary Health Diet could help curb the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, which are rising across the continent due to urbanization and dietary shifts. Moreover, prioritizing ecosystem health through sustainable farming and preserving intact ecosystems is vital for protecting Africa’s rich biodiversity.
Dr. Michael Terungwa David, founder of the Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) and Africa Program Manager for Climate Civics, observed:
The 2025 EAT-Lancet report underscores that transforming food systems is not just a global imperative but a timely opportunity for Africa to align its traditional diets with sustainable, health-driven practices. By investing in climate-smart agriculture and decent work, we can build resilient food systems that promote justice, protect ecosystems, and improve public health across the continent.
Ensuring access to decent work, especially in rural areas, is essential to empower smallholder farmers, reduce poverty, and eliminate exploitative practices like child labour. With the right policies, infrastructure investment, and inclusive governance, Africa can lead a transition to a just, climate-resilient, and healthy food system.
As the COP30 round of UN Climate Change negotiations opens in Belém, Brazil, it is worth noting that food systems are implicitly or explicitly on the table in several key areas of work:
- The Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Agriculture
- Matters relating to Finance
- Matters relating to Adaptation
- Action for Climate Empowerment
- The Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform
- Review of NDCs and NAPs, along with other national and cooperative climate action planning and implementation platforms
Food systems link human health and wellbeing, in every community in the world, to Earth’s climate system and the benefits of thriving and sustainable ecosystems. As discussed in today’s 3rd session of the COP30 round of Earth Diplomacy Leadership workshops, on food systems and Nature, prioritizing food system benefits across practical areas of the formal process, and to spur local sustainable development, will improve livelihoods, expand access to nutrition and health, and reduce threats to economic and political stability.
Health-building sustainable food systems are both important contributors to and benefits of climate-resilient development. There is no nation whose best future is not made more likely through timely investment in shared access to inclusive, affordable food systems aligned with human rights and planetary health.
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