Healthy Food for All: How do We Make Healthy Diets Accessible and Affordable for All?: A Framework for Action - Perspectives Issue No. 39

Unhealthy diets exact a high health cost, cause environmental destruction, increase the risk of pandemic outbreaks and lead to massive greenhouse gas emissions and global food insecurity. That is why a shift towards more resilient, healthy and climate-friendly food-systems is urgently needed. This is especially true for countries in the Global North, where diets rely excessively on animal-based proteins. Unfortunately, healthy diets are neither accessible nor affordable for more than half of the world population. Governments, the private sector, farmers and consumers must all take action in order to implement transformative and ambitious changes in the food system. A shift to more plant-rich diets and more sustainable agricultural practices is a crucial condition to achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. This is only realistic if ample financial incentives from governments and the private sector also are in place to help farmers and food producers transition to resilient, healthier and more climate-friendly practices. Furthermore, a greater emphasis on providing information and transparency to consumers, so they can make informed decisions, is crucial to allowing them to play their role in supporting a new, fairer food system.