2024 update: The “EAT Brief for Healthcare Professionals” is a 2-page flyer with just very key points that could be very helpful for busy professionals.
* Note: on page 2 there is a very important point that would have been ideal on page 1 to consider throughout as ‘a food’ is never sustainable, it always depends on the system it comes from.
“Focusing on sustainably grown [and should say and processed] food to provide healthy foods and beverages from sustainable food systems to a high standard.”
This report is based on an extensive evidence-based review conducted by the EAT-Lancet Commission. “EAT is a non-profit dedicated to transforming our global food system through sound science, impatient disruption and novel partnerships.
EAT is a non-profit founded by the Stordalen Foundation, Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Wellcome Trust to catalyze a food system transformation.” EAT is governed by a Board of Trustees as well as an Advisory Board consisting of representatives from academic partner institutions and “experts from the food service industry, politics, international development, finance, civil society and media.”
The conclusion from the report:
The global adoption of healthy diets from sustainable food systems would safeguard our planet and improve the health of billions. How food is produced, what is consumed, and how much is lost or wasted all heavily shape the health of both people and the planet.
The EAT-Lancet Commission presents an integrated global framework and for the first time, provides quantitative scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production. The Commission shows that feeding 10 billion people a healthy diet within safe planetary boundaries for food production by 2050 is both possible and necessary. The data are both sufficient and strong enough to warrant immediate action.
This peer-reviewed article was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in May 2020 and has a pay wall to access the full article. Studies used in the review were drawn from eight electronic databases which are identified in the abstract. See our Emerging Research Summaryofthisstudyto access all the key messages.
Citation: Carino, Stefanie et al. Environmental Sustainability of Hospital Foodservices across the Food Supply Chain: A Systematic Review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 120, Issue 5, 825 – 873. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.01.001
This study was publish in a peer-reviewed, open access journal in 2019 and incorporates and a variety of diets. The information present in this article can be adapted to fit a multitude of geographic settings.
SecondBite was created in 2005 by Ian and Simone Carson as an initiative to end hunger and reduce food waste in their community and throughout Australia.
This case study shows how the hard work and determination of just two individuals can lead to a decrease in hunger and food waste and an indirect increase in food security for thousands of people by saving nutritious food from entering the landfill, and instead, entering the homes of many people who need it.
Lessons Learnt: surplus food from a variety of networks, such as grocery stores, can be used to reduce the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger, while also benefiting the environment through a reduction in food waste.
History
SecondBite was established in 2005 in hopes to make a difference in the hunger and food waste that is evolving in Australia. Ian and Simone gathered a group of friends and began to visit local markets in Melbourne and collect surplus food to donate and drop off at a local charities that have a food program established. This group continued to grow with increasing volunteers and staff, and luckily for the founders, created a national partnership with Coles in 2011, which helped the organization scale rapidly. Due to this partnership, the organization was able to scale across Australia to Sydney, Adelaide and Perth and eventually create more partnerships with organizations in Tasmania and NT.
What They Do
SecondBite works with many supermarkets and other organizations that create opportunity to offer a free-of-charge supply of nutritious, surplus food to local charities and non-profits. They distribute this food to over 1,000 communities across Australia, and are able to do a “direct deliver” in areas that are most efficient in doing so. With the help of over 600 volunteers and 75 staff members, SecondBite has successfully rescued and delivered an equivalent of 100 million meals.
Through the help of the community and partnerships, this organization was able to grow on a national scale and is making a direct impact on hunger within Australia due to the increase in availability of nutritious foods. Not only will this make a great change for the reduction of food waste across a network of suppliers, it will also have a major impact on the environment due to the decrease of wastage in the landfill. In addition, the organization was able to create a “Community Connect” model that allows supermarkets and charities to directly connect with one another, allowing for a more personable, sustainable and efficient system in food delivery and access. Although there is no one solution to end hunger, food security or waste, SecondBite believes it is a step in the right direction in making an impact in Australia and, eventually, the rest of the world.
Food for Thought Are there current food initiatives within your community that benefit from surplus nutritious food and networks? What impact can donating surplus food have on the environment? Society? How can Dietitians-Nutritionists support the development of these organizations and further add to their goals?
This case study is drawn from a Blog Post created by Jo Hunter Adams, a research associate in the School of Public Health & African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, and Jane Battersby, an associate Professor at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, and was posted on the Nutrition Connect’s website during the global pandemic.
Adams and Battersby explain how emerging innovation within a community to help find a solution during a crisis can result in “building back better food systems and nutrition” by local people for local people.
Lessons Learnt: community kitchens can be sustainable both long and short-term and create resilience when including local farmers and growers and can be used as a sustainable safety net during times of crisis.
History
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, “at least 1 in 5 households were impact bay inadequate food supply and 1 in 3 children were stunted”. With the pandemic having a direct impact on food supply, whether due to lack of transportation or increase need from families, these numbers were bound to increase as the crisis continued. In Masiphumelele, Cape Town, South Africa, food security is prevalent and on the rise. In 2019, a survey was conducted in Masiphumelele and showed that 80-90% of residents had experienced food insecurity as well as 40% of residents had experienced hunger. Unfortunately, high rates of food insecurity can result in the increase of non-communicable disease such as diabetes, high blood pressure and vulnerability to child stunting.
Innovation and Solution in Response to COVID_19 Pandemic in Masiphumelele
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it impacted the food supply and quality for many places around the world, including Masiphumelele. With many businesses, schools, and establishments shut down and advising everyone to stay at home, the need for more food in the home had increased and so did the rates of food insecurity. In response to the pandemic, the community came together, and with help from private donors, three approaches were put forth to help supply households with access to nutritious meals:
Vouchers
Food parcels
Community kitchens
Even with support from NGOs, both the vouchers and food parcels were only sustainable for short term use, especially for existing retailers. However, the establishment of small, decentralized kitchens have proven to be a more long-term sustainable safety net for the pandemic and are able to provide support and nutritious meals for households within the community.
Food for Thought Are there any community kitchens in your community that can benefit from using local growers and farmers, volunteers, and support from local NGOs? Why are food vouchers and parcels not sustainable? In what ways do community kitchens contribute more sustainably to food systems? A sustainable food system does not rely on emergency food aid (e.g., vouchers and food parcels) as a long term strategy. Explore the Learning Module: What are Sustainable Food Systems and Diets.
This blog was created in June 2020 by Jo Hunter-Adams and Jane Battersby. This blog contains evidence-based content and experiences of those from the South Africa township.
We are an international group of collaborating dietetic educator who share our stories about integrating sustainable food systems into nutrition and dietetic curriculum.
Dietetic educators are being called to prepare future dietitians and nutritionists to contribute to SFS transformation.
Dietetic educators integrating Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) education into the curriculum have shared examples.
In preparation for a workshop at the World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, subsequently postponed due to COVID-19, an international group of collaborating dietetic educator shared their stories about integrating sustainable food systems into nutrition and dietetic curriculum. In lieu of a face-to-face workshop at the Congress, facilitators have created the online platform.
This content was put together to showcase effective mechanisms and innovative approaches through international case studies which aim to improve food system competency among students and describe how this may translate into improved outcomes.
In the link you will see that each workshop facilitator has a profile, inclusive of an explanation (video or otherwise) of their showcased teaching and learning activity as described above.
Food for Thought
If you are an educator training future nutrition and dietetic professionals, are you already including sustainable food systems content in the courses that you teach? — If yes, how and what? If not, why not?
Do any of the examples included provoke new ideas for you? — Could they be adapted to your setting?
Is/should this topic integrated into the core content of your program, or is/should this an elective/optional topic
Contact Information We welcome you to join us! Please contact liza.barbour@monash.edu (in Australia) if you would like to be added to the platform or if you have questions. If you have questions for any of the educators, their contact is included in the web platform. Please contact them directly.
In this section we recommend existing courses that help you deepen your knowledge about sustainable food systems (SFS). Some course availability may change over time. We have provided the main page link as well so you can browse topics.
In addition to courses, the Food EDU page under the Periodic Table of Food Initiative provides an open-access educational platform empowering leaders across the globe to advance human and planetary health. Through online courses, webinars, a networking hub and the Good Food Fellows program, Food EDU provides educational and professional development opportunities for scientists, policymakers, and food and health practitioners worldwide. Food EDU is building the capacity of scientific communities, and bridging gaps between research innovation and educational opportunities worldwide.
Sustainable Food Systems: There are 23 courses available on the FAO e-learning Academy under the theme of Sustainable Food Systems:
Tropical Agriculture Platform
Course 3: Gender-Responsive budgeting for agriculture and climate policies
Course 2: Building equitable and inclusive agrifood systems
Course 1: Addressing gender equality in climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture
Introduction: Achieving gender equality in climate change and agrifood systems
Social analysis for inclusive agrifood investments – Field experts
Social analysis for inclusive agrifood investments – Managers
Social analysis for inclusive agrifood investments – Introduction
Social analysis for inclusive agrifood investments – Practitioners
Agrifood system pathways to healthy diets: A stepwise approach
Transforming dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems
Sustainable food systems: Concept and framework
Sustainable food systems: Operationalizing the approach
Sustainable food systems: An introduction
Creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems – Reform
Creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems – Analysis
Developing gender-sensitive value chains
Sustainable Food Value Chains for Nutrition
SDG Indicator 2.4.1 – Sustainable Agriculture
SDG Indicators 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 – Labour productivity and income of small-scale food producersntals
Creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems – Fundamentals
Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems
Building a common vision for sustainable food and agriculture
→ Sustainable Diets: Fundamentals for Human and Planetary Health (paid)
Sustainable Diets: Fundamentals for Human and Planetary Health is a short course by MyNutriWeb that addresses healthy food and nutrition for all while averting dangerous climate change and restoring the balance of the natural world. The course brings together leading experts across every aspect of sustainable diets, integrating planetary and nutrition science, together with behaviour change tactics and specific considerations such as low-income groups, athletes, children and the older population. This course can help professionals to develop the confidence and knowledge necessary to incorporate sustainability into their practice.
Learn to achieve a HEALTHY PLATE and a HEALTHY PLANET and help your clients to do the same. Created by Gaples Institute & Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition. This 10-minute interactive learning experience will guide you toward simple dietary shifts that benefit people and the planet. It reflects the work of 37 leading health and climate scientists from 16 countries, using the best available evidence for optimal health.
→ United Nations Climate Change E-Learn (mixed free & paid)
Browse the United Nations Climate Change e-learn courses: these are a valuable resource for those looking to deepen their knowledge around specific climate change, sustainability and nutrition topics. These web-based short courses and tutorials are free of charge and range in length from 30 minutes to 12 hours. They are self paced, some with multiple language options, and systematically cover topics such as Sustainable Diet, Human Health and Climate Change, Water, Gender and Environment, and Introduction to Sustainable Finance. We suggest the following as good places to start:
→ Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN)Academy (mixed free & paid)
The PAN Academy is an online learning platform that makes nutrition education accessible to everyone. Nutrition has great power to influence health but, at the same time, nutrition education is often neglected in medical school curricula. PAN is on a mission to change this imbalance by offering nutritional science knowledge in the form of fun and engaging video lessons to medical students, physicians and healthcare professionals. With this know-how, they can become even better at supporting patients to make more informed food choices for their health.
PAN’s educational offerings are not only for medical professionals. Just about anyone interested in learning how healthy, whole food plant-based nutrition can save lives, treat and prevent the most deadly non-communicable diseases and mitigate climate change is invited to take the courses.
There are many free courses as well as courses that are for paid members-only.
→ CASCADES’ Sustainable Health Systems Courses (mixed free & paid)
CASCADES, (Creating a Sustainable Canadian Health System in a Climate Crisis) is a pan-Canadian health system that supports a healthy planet, is caring and equitable, and serves communities so that they thrive. Their programs connect you to a growing movement of change-makers while developing the skills required to advance climate action in healthcare.
They offer several free courses including a Fundamentals of Sustainable Health Systems Course for frontline staff, administrators, and leaders within care delivery, professional, and support organizations.
They also offer a suite of continuing professional development training programs for individuals in health systems working towards environmentally sustainable healthcare.
→ Healthy people, healthy planet: a flexitarian approach to sustainable healthy diets (self-study course)
Thisself-study continuing education course was developed by Christine McCullum-Gomez, PhD, RDN, LD with Today’s Dietitian and made complimentary through January 31, 2023 with support from Danone North America. It was approved by the Commission on Dietetic Registration to offer 2 Continuing Professional Education Units. The course is condensed into a 7-page overview of the EAT-Lancet Commission’s 2019 planetary health diet, which is a largely plant-based flexitarian diet, and includes research on benefits and barriers to achieving the diet. The course discusses the principles of a flexitarian diet, describes the nutritional advantages of a flexitarian diet, examines the health and environmental benefits of a flexitarian diet; and provides strategies Dietitian-Nutritionists (D-Ns) can use when counselling their clients on implementing a flexitarian diet. There is a short quiz and evaluation to receive the certificate.
Editor’s note: This course focuses on the consumption portion of sustainable diets through balancing plant and animal foods. The systems that our plants and animals come from are equally as important as the balance in our diets. As D-Ns we can also support sustainable production, packaging, and systems that are equitable for people. Refer to the Learning Modules (LMs) in this ICDA SFS Toolkit, especially LM3: How to Contribute to Sustainable Food Systems and Diets in Your Practice.
Longer Courses (~weeks)
→→Class Central (Course fees for Certificate)
Browse Class Centralfor more in depth distance courses offered as MOOCS (massive open online courses) from various universities around the world. This is a database of free online courses run by a small company with a mission to make education accessible. The listing contains 100+ courses relating to the UN SDGs, several of which are of direct relevance to health and sustainability. Details vary by course but most run for 4-8 weeks and have instructors who provide feedback. Some are not accessible from all geographic regions, and while auditing is generally free, payment is required to receive an official certification. We suggest the following as good places to start.
Credit Courses
The following distance-education courses are offer credit. We will add courses and update links as we learn about more high quality learning opportunities.
→→→ Sustainable Nutrition CAS – Bern University of Applied Sciences (2023 Aug) (German)
A sustainable food system should give the entire world population access to safe and needs-based nutrition with fairly produced food produced taking into account planetary boundaries. This requires nutritionists who help shape the transformation of the nutrition system. The CAS Sustainable Nutrition looks at global perspectives and Swiss contexts, and enables you to derive concrete nutritional recommendations for a healthy and sustainable diet in Switzerland. For this purpose, exemplary challenges are deepened and solutions are discussed that you can network with your traditional professional field or carry into new occupational fields.
The target audiences for this course are nutritionists, food scientists, and other actors in the Swiss food system with a tertiary degree and nutrition background.
The course will be held: November 2023 to June 2024
Seven two-day blocks each on Fridays/Saturdays (one block per month)
Lesson times: usually from 9.15 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Provides 12 ECTS credits, with a workload of 360 hours (incl. study days).
Cost: 5,800 CHF
Location: Bern campus
→→→ EFAD Sustainability in Dietetics (FREE learning modules at your own pace)
European Federation of the Associations of Dietitians (EFAD) has built this course upon dietitians’ voices and the rationale that it would be useful for dietitians to increase knowledge and have practical materials and resources to embed sustainability in their dietetic practice. In our modern world, we all need to contribute to reducing the global impact of climate change and consider social and economic aspects related to food choice and intake. Dietitians have a role in promoting sustainable and healthy diets.
Over the four modules of self-directed learning, 16 leading experts explain some of the complex concepts of sustainability and provide tools to translate knowledge into practice via lectures, case studies, sustainable meals and recipes as well as additional links and resources.
MODULE 1: Sustainable Food Systems and Diets MODULE 2: Strategies towards Sustainable Diets MODULE 3: The Food Cycle MODULE 4: Sustainability in Dietetic Practice
→→→ Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (Paid Courses)
Several food systems related courses are offered by Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation. The following is a list of examples from one page. Visit other pages to see more options on agriculture and climate:
2022 Sep – Feeding Cities: Improving Food Systems in Urban Areas
2022 Oct – Global One Health: towards Human, Animal and Plant Health
2023 Feb – Food Systems for Healthier and Sustainable Diets
2023 Mar – Governance and Food Safety in International Food Chains
2023 May – Making Agriculture Work for Food and Nutrition Security
→→→ Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (Paid Courses)
Stand-alone Courses in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability – Distance Courses in the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development focused on leadership and innovation for sustainability. They educate, research, and collaborate with the aim of providing methodological support for organizations that want to work strategically with sustainability, and in doing so contributing to society’s transition towards sustainability. Courses include:
Advanced Leadership for Sustainability, 15 credits
Behaviour Change for Sustainability, 6-7.5 credits
Enabling green and sustainable transitions, 7,5 credits
Foundations for Strategic Sustainable Development, 7,5 credits
Social Sustainability in Product- and Service Development, 7,5 credits
Sustainable Transport Systems, 7,5 credits
Introduction to Sustainable Product Development, 3 credits
Understanding green and sustainable transitions, 7,5 credits
In 2015, the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were put forward by the United Nations, designed to transform our world towards the accomplishment of inclusive and sustainable development (United Nations, 2020).
Each of the following briefs explore possible roles for Dietitian-Nutritionists (D-N) for each of the key UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) listed. Briefs describe how D-N are impacted from – and are/can be impacted by – the work of D-N. The briefs are intended to help increase your awareness of the SDGs, provide an overview of what is currently being done to meet each goal, and how D-N can contribute.
We have included the most immediately relevant SDG in this section, and we are working towards creating briefs for the remaining goals in the near future. Please refer to theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals websitefor more information on all 17 goals and the infographic section of this toolkit for more visual representations of each brief.
* The original text for these briefs were developed by students of the Nutrition in Global Health and Development class at Acadia University and edited by the ICDA SFS toolkit team.
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