15.01.2022

Thoughts around food

Dear reader,

One of life’s annual rituals is to indulge in lots of food over the Christmas period and then try to lose these extra festive pounds in January. Either that or we resolve to change our eating habits entirely in the new year. The media even encourages such resolutions. This year, Coop and Migros both featured Veganuary in the first edition of their magazines for the year. The campaign, originally started in the UK, calls for people to cut out animal products for the whole of January. This promotion was also backed up by a survey in which Coop found that more than a quarter of Swiss people are ‘subsitarians’ (article in German). This means that plant-based alternatives are increasingly being favoured over meat and milk. "SonntagsZeitung" reported on ‘The rise of the climatarians’ (article in German). When choosing their diet, climatarians always keep their ecological footprint in mind and only eat foods that cause minimal or no harm to the environment.

The call to eat more healthily and with a more responsible, ecologically friendly approach is absolutely the right one, but it is easier to say than do. There are many hurdles in the way. What does a healthy, comprehensively sustainable diet actually look like? The objective is to find a fact-based approach, not a new religion. A while ago, this phrase was coined: ‘Der Einkauf im Bioladen ersetzt den Kirchgang’ (shopping in the organic store is replacing going to church). English writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton, born in 1874, said: ‘When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.’ Nutritional psychologist Thomas Ellrott from the University of Göttingen aptly summarises these mechanisms relating to food. Clearly the stomach is not just the way to someone’s heart but also the way to understand their world view. What is served up on our plates is not purely a result of objective analysis. Our diets serve as a means of moral distinction (article in German). According to Ellrott, diet strengthens the formation of our identity. Therefore, from a psychological perspective, buying organic products and refraining from eating meat are acts committed in the pursuit of moral superiority. ‘Plenus venter non studet libenter’, roughly meaning ‘a full stomach does not study gladly’, is therefore not the case here. Quite the contrary, in fact: we sit well-fed in the home office and study a lot around our food.

However, not everyone can afford expensive organic products or plant-based substitutes. This was something new German Minister for Food and Agriculture Cem Özdemir learnt when he called for higher food prices: social organisations and those receiving Hartz IV benefits are concerned about more pressure on the poor (article in German). Understanding for this issue was even shown in the Veganuary edition of the Coop magazine with the weekly deals on the back page. ‘Going completely meat free is not always feasible’, "SonntagsZeitung" remarked pointedly. "There is strongly discounted chicken breast from Slovenia and Austrian minced beef for half the price on offer." This raises an important point: comprehensively sustainable nutrition can only be achieved when all relevant factors have been taken into account. This includes as well the social factor. If sustainability is a luxury, it cannot be comprehensive. Comprehensively sustainable nutrition includes the ecological, economic and social dimensions of this issue.

It is a complex topic, and simple answers often turn out to be wrong. People’s attitudes and cultural habits play a role in what is on the menu. As foodaktuell reports, consumers often perceive vegetarian products negatively (article in German). Many falsely believe that tofu and vegetarian sausages are less environmentally friendly and unhealthier than meat. And Migros is taking grasshoppers back off its shelves due to lack of demand. For the majority of customers, the idea of eating insects doesn’t make their mouths water. The "Washington Post" is now also raising awareness that tinned fish can be very healthy for you thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids it contains. This helps with high blood pressure and inflammation. Cultural attitudes shunning tinned food or crops enriched with micronutrients are a hurdle and can be deceiving.

January is a time for saving, and managing the contents of your fridge and cupboards is the order of the day. After all, food waste is not only bad for the environment but also for your wallet (article in German). Here is some useful information in that regard: not all food that is past its expiry date belongs in the bin. A working group with representatives from the scientific community, charities and the food industry has put together an information leaflet showing how long a particular food item can be safely consumed past its use-by date (leaflet in German). You can still enjoy your yoghurt just as much 14 days after its use-by date.

But we still haven’t answered the question about what the best diet is. As well as "SonntagsZeitung", the site "Heidi.news", based in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, has also recently dealt with this question. Are the climatarians on the right track, who, according to the "SonntagsZeitung", simply put, eat everything that is good for the planet? This means eating little meat, sugar, refined cereal products or processed foods, a moderate amount of eggs, poultry and dairy products, and lots of vegetables, fruit, whole wheat products, nuts and fish. Both articles base the ecological implications of food on the EAT-Lancet report, which swiss-food has also already summarised. One thing is clear: those who would like to have more plant products such as fruit and vegetables on the world’s plates are also dependent on the corresponding cultivation tools. And this includes digital solutions, all forms of crop protection, new fertilizers and modern breeding methods such as genome editing. Climate change will alter the cultivation of crops worldwide and make it more difficult in many places. If farmers are to produce more under these conditions, they need to have access to the whole range of tools available. In all respects, resource-efficient nutrition systems will also have to rely on laboratory-based solutions and alternative proteins such as algae, insects and cultured meat. In brief: innovative technologies are indispensable.

The diet of the future should ensure all people have access to the nutrients they need and be healthy for the planet. The authors of the book ‘Une écologie de l'alimentation’ (An Ecology of Nutrition) by the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems quoted by "Heidi.news" remind us that one of the decisive challenges in transforming food systems is including different social and cultural groups in discussions. People who cannot afford to have a balanced, sustainable diet cannot be forgotten and ignored. In other words: those with full bellies need to study not only around their own well-being, but to include others.

swiss-food.ch is continuing to focus on these topics in 2022. Environmentally friendly and climate-friendly food needs sustainable management at all levels of the food production value chain, starting with the farmer, continuing through processing and retail, and finally ending with the consumer. January alone is too short. What is required is consistent change over a longer period of time.

We wish you all the best and enjoyable hours in the new year!

The swiss-food editorial team