Climate change is likely to mean less food availability, especially fruit and vegetables, reducing obesity in the developed world but leading to half a million extra deaths globally by 2050, according to a study reported in The Lancet.
Researchers from Oxford University and the International Food Policy Research Institute used computer modelling to predict the effects climate change could have on where and how food will be grown in 2050, and the knock-on effects this could have on diet and diet-related mortality.
The study found that climate change will slow progress on achieving global food security, decreasing food availability by approximately a third globally.
However, the study also found that the changes in diet due to climate change, particularly due to reductions in the availability of fruit and vegetables, would have an even larger health impact.
In fact, a decline in food supply was not always associated with negative health outcomes, as the prevalence of obesity in high income countries could decline, reducing the number of deaths by more than 260,000 in 2050.
But these gains are more than offset by increasing under-nutrition in the developing world, and reductions in the consumption of fruit and vegetables worldwide. Overall, the study finds that if no climate change mitigation is achieved, more than 500,000 additional deaths are to be expected in 2050 due to the changed diets.
Read more about Sustain's policies on sustainable diets here.
Published Friday 11 March 2016
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
