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According to a report by the EAT-Lancet Commission, “Food is the single strongest lever to optimise human health and environmental sustainability on Earth.” However, according to experts, there is an immense challenge in providing healthy diets from sustainable food systems to the ever-growing world population. Though global food production of calories has kept pace with population growth, there is a lack of sufficient food for more than 820 million people, while others consume low-quality food or too much food.

Importance of plant-based diet

Numerous studies have been conducted on the environmental impact of various diets. Most of these studies have concluded that a rich plant-based diet, with fewer animal source food items, ensures improved health as well as environmental benefits.

 Katherine D. McManus, Director, Department of Nutrition, Brigham and Women's Hospital and a teaching affiliate in Harvard Medical School in Boston, has stated in an official Harvard blog, “Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes and beans. It doesn’t mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. Rather, you are proportionately choosing more of your foods from plant sources.” She also stated that vegetarian diets have shown to support health, including a lower risk of developing coronary heart diseases, high blood pressure and diabetes.

The EAT-Lancet report also states that such a type of diet is a ‘win-win’ situation for all – the people and the planet. The report also stated that there has been no global consensus on the constitution of healthy diets and sustainable food production and whether planetary health diets can be achieved for a global population of 10 billion people by 2050. But if that target is to be achieved, there has to be a transformation to healthy diets.

According to the report, “This includes a more than doubling in the consumption of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts and a greater than 50% reduction in global consumption of less healthy foods such as added sugars and red meat.” However, according to available data and sources, a part of the global population depends on agropastoral livelihoods and animal protein from livestock. Moreover, many face significant burdens of undernutrition and it is difficult for them to obtain adequate amount of micronutrients from plant sources only. Experts suggest that in these conditions, the role of animal source food in people’s diet has to be carefully considered in each context, placed within local and regional realities.

India’s position

For a long time, India has been considered as the vegetarian capital of the world. According to government surveys, 23 to 37% of Indians are estimated to be vegetarian. According to a new research by US-based anthropologist Balmurli Natrajan and India-based economist Suraj Jacob, this number can be actually lower, at around 20%. However, in India there has been a gradual shift towards veganism. Though the absolute number of vegans are not available, veganism is increasing in India at an unprecedented rate. This can also be perceived as India’s step towards a healthy diet.

However, there is a twist in the tale. The call for a plant-based healthy diet can become a tool in the already tense political situation and also turn out to be an excess burden upon the undernourished population. According to experts, in India, there is a vast difference between what people wish to consume and what they have to consume because of innumerable barriers around caste, religion, culture, cost, geography, etc. Policymakers in India have traditionally pushed for a cereal-heavy vegetarian diet on a meat-eating population as a way of providing the cheapest sources of food.

Strategies

In order to secure healthy plant-based diet for all, a universal strategy should be adopted as suggested by the EAT-Lancet report. There has to be a national and international commitment to shift towards healthy diets and agricultural priorities have to be reoriented from producing high quantities of food to producing healthy food. This will need sustainable intensification of food production, increase in high-quality output, strong and co-ordinated governance over land and water bodies and reduction of food losses.