Sustainable and Healthy Diets:the policy problem

Corinna Hawkes & Tim Lang

c.hawkes@wcrf.org; t.lang@city.ac.uk

Talk to Wellcome seminar, London, April 22-23 2-14

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Context

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Policy problem raised by sustainable diets is one of competing analyses

The food system is fine• Right economics• Wrong consumers• Wrong mindsets• Wrong bodiesSolutions:• Change behaviour• Personalisation• Some tech fixes to increase

resource efficiency / for specific food products

Food system is in crisis• Physiology is fixed• Wrong environment• Wrong €$£ signals• Distorted cultureSolutions:• Multiple complex acts• Population-level food

policy• Reframe conditions

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Northern EU Govts began to engage, 2006 ff UK 2006 Sustainable Development Commission

(SDC) & National Consumer CouncilSustainable Consumption “I will if you will” – generic advice

Germany2008 -

German Council for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Shopping Basket: includes food – lists labels and schemes (3rd ed)

Netherlands2009

LNV Ministry – Policy outline for achieving Sustainable Food

Sustainable food production & consumer educ. campaigns

Sweden2009

National Food Administration (& Swedish EPA) – notification to EU (withdrawn 2011)

Environmentally friendly food choices

UK 2008-10 SDC, Cabinet Office, Council of Food Policy Advisors, & Defra

Recognition of need for new direction. Food 2030 makes sustainable healthy diet one of 6 goals

Netherlands 2011

Health Council for Ministry Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation

Guidelines Healthy Diet: Ecological Perspective

France 2011 INRA Agrimonde study Security focus but flags consumer change

UK 2012-13 Defra Green Food Project Outlines Principles for Sustainable Consumption

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EU: supply focus on resource efficiency1. UN Sustainable Consumption and Production

– Marrakech process (post Rio 1992 Johannesburg 2002 CSD) http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/index.shtml

– Focus on products / LifeCycleAnalysis (LCA) / Sustainable lifestyles

2. CAP slowly changing (situation normal)– Shift from paying for production to environmental goods– Climate change adaptation SEC(2009) 417: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/sfs/index_en.htm

3. EU Platform for Action on Diet, PA & Health (parallel to SCP)– focus on NCDs / Consumer information/ But weak so far on Sust’l

Consumption in food; Food Information regulation (2011) / focus on ingredients not impact / years arguing Nutrition labels

4. Commercial focus on products not health:– Integrated Product Policy (IPP) focus on enviro’t eg waste– http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ipp/integratedpp.htm

– Focus on Carbon and Waste reduction as efficiency

5. Sustainable Food Consultation 2013 & Communiqué 2014: - the focus narrows (??? under pressure???)

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Food Co.s: product focus + choice-edit?• International companies:

– 2009: G30 top TNCs initiative Coca-Cola, Tesco, Unilever

– 2002: SAI launched Groupe Danone, Nestlé, Unilever

– 2010: World Economic Forum process (published 2011)– 2010: Barilla Centre’s double inverted pyramid

• UK companies:– 2007: IGD Food Industry Sustainability Strategy

Champions Group focus on low carbon + ethics– 3 retailers’ choice-edit M&S Plan A, Co-operative Group, Waitrose

– Unilever, PepsiCo brand sustainability strategies– WRAP/BRC complex metric study 2013

• VERDICT: product-specific approach not overall diet

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The elephant in the room: consumers• Policy attention is weak on consumers• Need to reduce consumption....not just switch it

– “we can lower CO2 up to a point but in 10 years consumers will have to change” (global retailer)

• Consumer change raises tricky policy problems:– Rich/poor (within LDCs and LDCs/rich societies)– Few eat ideal healthy diet, let alone sustainable diet– Price issues: are sustainable diets more expensive?– Choice culture - assumption that consumers lead

• So far, there aren’t even weak policies– UN (FAO=WHO) refusal to include Sust Diet Guidelines for ICN2– No EU sustainability food label (expressly taken out of enviro labels:

white goods, yes; food, no)– No UK follow-up (yet) to Food 2030 or Green Food Project Principles

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Food policy and behaviour change

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Policy problem raised by sustainable diets is one of competing analyses

The food system is fine• Right economics• Wrong consumers• Wrong mindsets• Wrong bodiesSolutions:• Individual behaviour

change• Personalisation• Some tech fixes to specific

food products

Food system is in crisis• Physiology is fixed• Wrong environment• Wrong €$£ signals• Distorted cultureSolutions:• Multiple complex acts• Population-level food

policy• Reframe conditions

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Approach of public health-oriented food policy advocates

• We all want individuals to eat diets consistent with healthy weights & good health

• Consumer behaviour driven by

– food environment

– globalisation of food systems

– Big Food

• We need to “protect” people – especially kids, from onslaught

• We need behaviour change for the food industry - there is evidence for comprehensive marketing restrictions, warning labels, taxes, school food restrictions

• Individual-level approaches do not work

• Behaviour change approaches are for wimps

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Policy solution raised by healthy, sustainable diets is one of complementary analyses

The “consumer” is part of the food system • Right Wrong economics• Wrong consumersConsumer behaviour shapes the food system

but is also shaped by it• Wrong Environment is all about choice• Wrong €$£ signals both wrong and rightSolutions –

1. Population-level food policy which aims to change (or maintain) behaviour among individuals

2. Understanding both food system behaviour and why consumers behave as they do

3. Interdisciplinary reframing

1. FOOD POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR HEALTHY DIETS

NOURISHING FRAMEWORK – POLICY ACTIONS FOR BEHAVIOUR CHANGE AT MULTIPLE LEVELS

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The evidence

1. There is plenty of evidence….• of the “problem”• that behaviour change is possible• to design effective policy solutions

2. But there are barriers to effective design, implementation and evaluation• Economics – cost; viability• Politics – “nanny state”; food industry• Governance – multisectoral action• “Medical” approach to evaluation - short-

termism; metrics of success unclear• Perceived lack of evidence of effectiveness• Very high bar set for evidence

Where is the demonstrable

evidence of effects?

The evidence problem

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2. An interdisciplinary approach to linking food system behaviour with consumer behaviour

Implications for how policy works

A preference lens – there are genetic preferences but we we learn most of preferences & habits from our environment, culture, choice architecture etc

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Interdisciplinary reframingDiscipline/framework Policy solution

Classical economics Information

plus behavioural psychology

“Nudge”

plus public health Smarter health-oriented food policy – understands preferences as endogenous / “culture”; targeting populations based on understanding of individual behaviour; a long-term view; food systems amplification & interventions

plus environmental science

Smarter food policy – as above and joining up healthy & sustainable diets

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Public policy must lead: the case for Sustainable Dietary Guidelines

• Provide a rational basis to the general food policy framework which is good for public and supply

• Bridge the gap between NCD and CO2e discourses

• Provide C21st basis for public advice + supply chain

• Shift policy debate from productionist approach

• Recalibrate institutions around consumer needs

• This is supposed to be a consumer society but consumers are not being helped

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Our key pointsMany problems

• Yawning gap between evidence and practice

• Policy attention is (s)low; it rose 2007-08, then fell

• Attention segmented by disciplinary foci

• Consumers seen as “separate” to food and social systems

• “Behaviour change” seen as “personal” not “policy”

• Fear among politicians of placing ‘choice culture’ within health & environmental frameworks; consumers = voters

What we need

• Coherence & integration between disciplines/sectors/depts (& incentives)

• Population-approach to healthy sustainable diets based on understanding of consumer behaviour and how policy works

• Behaviour change at multiple levels & actors for health & sustainability

• A long term view with clear shorter-term metrics to measure “what works”

For further information contact:

THANK YOU

Dr Corinna HawkesHead of Policy and Public Affairs, WCRF International

policy@wcrf.org and c.hawkes@wcrf.org

@wcrfint @corinnahawkes facebook.com/wcrfint youtube.com/wcrfint wcrf.org/blog

www.wcrf.org/policy_public_affairs