EAT Lancet

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/fulltext

How do our actual diets compare to EAT Lancet? From our world in data, really good interactive visual resource

the Commission proposes a universal reference diet that would result in significant health benefits while ensuring that global food systems operate within sustainable boundaries for five crucial Earth systems: climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater use, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and land use change. The diet aims to achieve health characterized not just by an absence of disease, but by complete physical, mental, and social well-being.

19 Commissioners and 18 coauthors from 16 different countries

Unfortunately, the authors conclude that agriculture necessarily consumes a high proportion of global water resources in a way that removes the water from flow, given the need to grow plants for food. As a result, reductions in water consumption most likely need to be made in other areas.

if we conserve 50% of the land on Earth as intact ecosystems, we may be able to preserve 80% of pre-industrial species and remain within sustainable boundaries for land use.

the massive study advises that we will need to largely decarbonize our energy systems, dramatically improve the efficiency of fertilizer use, urgently stop further biodiversity loss, stop expanding agricultural land and regenerate degraded areas, adopt a Half-Earth strategy, halve the current levels of food loss and waste, and intensify food production in a sustainable manner.

In order to achieve these changes and feed a global population of 10 billion people by 2050, humans will need to shift to a largely plant-based diet, as plant foods have lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower water and land use requirements. Furthermore, many of the sustainability problems associated with animal products are inherent and cannot be addressed through increased efficiencies in other areas.