At present, humanity needs 1.75 Earths to cover its consumption. A Swiss consumer even needs 2.85 Earths. According to the EAT-Lancet Commission we need a “planetary health diet”, a nutrition plan that is both healthy and does not deprive the planet of more resources than it can provide. Our current food production is not resource-efficient and therefore is not sustainable. In order to be able to provide healthy nutrition to ten billion people by the year 2050 and not excessively burden the planet, we need new technologies in a wide variety of areas.

A nutrition plan for the planet

The meal plan of the “planetary health diet” looks different, especially for Europeans and Americans. In concrete terms, this means less meat - especially from animals whose feed production is in competition with human food - and less sugar or potatoes. These will be replaced with more vegetables, fruits, legumes and nuts. But the production of more plant-based foods also means using up more land. Biodiversity should be preserved on land on which nothing further will actually be built. As a result, more must be produced on the same or even decreasing acreage. This requires technical innovations and specialized knowledge at all levels of production and consumption.

Facilitate and allow future technologies

According to the "Food Trend Report" from the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, hotly discussed topics include green genetic engineering, laboratory-derived alternative protein sources to meat, more automation and networking in sales, augmented reality retail, and individualized menus and meals based on one’s DNA. What all technologies have in common is a more efficient use of available resources. Other topics being discussed include “Animal-free” dairy products or the extraction of flavorings from plastic waste. In addition to the technologies of the future, we also need to work on the problems of the present. The includes, for example, closing the so-called “micronutrient gap”.

Improve access to vitamins

Some two billion people have a “micronutrient gap,” In other words, they have insufficient access to adequate sources of vitamins and minerals. The EAT Lancet Report therefore estimates that vegetable and fruit production must be doubled by 2050 to enable a healthy, balanced diet for the entire world population. Today, only a fraction of the world's population consumes the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. In addition to increased fruit and vegetable production, dietary supplements and fortified foods will also play an increasingly important role. The best example of this is so-called “golden rice”. Rice fortified with vitamin A was recently approved in the Philippines, and in the future could save millions of children from vitamin A deficiency and associated blindness or death.

Many of these solutions listed as examples will require that people are able to overcome previous ways of thinking. “Natural is good, artificial is dangerous”, as the most simplistic of narratives, has worn out its welcome by now. Truly sustainable solutions can definitely come from the laboratory - in other words, “lab-based sustainability”.