Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet .
Today,
the Barilla Center for Food
& Nutrition (BCFN) and the Worldwatch Institute's
Nourishing the Planet were proud to host " How do we feed (and also Nourish) a planet of 7 billion? " The
event featured notable speakers such as food waste activist and author of American
Wasteland , Jonathan Bloom ; founder of The 30 Project and
new member of the BCFN Advisory Board, Ellen Gustafson ;
publisher of " Edible Manhattan "
and author of Eat Here , Brian Halweil ; Stephanie Hanson ,
Director of Policy and Outreach for the One Acre Fund ; Kelly Hauser , Agriculture Policy Director for the One Campaign ;
and founder and director of Citizen Effect , Dan Morrison ,
among others, and marked the official launch of Eating Planet--Nutrition Today: A Challenge for Mankind and for the Planet .
During
the event, Samuel Fromartz , editor-in-chief of the Food & Environment Reporting
Network , moderated a discussion where speakers debated some of the
issues the addressed in the book: the paradoxes of the global food system, the
cultural value of food, production and consumption trends, and the effects of
individual eating habits on health and on the environment. "More than one-third
of the food produced today does not even reach people plates--about 1.3 billion
tons per year--placing unnecessary pressure on land, water, and soil resources,"
said Bloom. "All of us; producers, consumers, policy makers, and those in the
food industry need to make an effort to reduce the amount of food that is
wasted and its environmental impact."
Although
agriculture is more productive and efficient than ever before, more than 1
billion people worldwide remain chronically hungry, and another 1 billion
people are overweight or obese. "The fundamental problem continuing to cause
both hunger and obesity is that it is difficult, almost everywhere in the world
to access nutritious foods," said Gustafson. "In the developed world, food is
abundant, but the most abundant is usually the least nutritious and most
calorie dense. In the developing world, you can often still access soft drinks
or packaged processed foods, but not the diversity of healthy foods that are
needed for good nutrition."
Nourishing the Planet and BCFN hope for Eating Planet to contribute to sustainable food and agriculture development in many ways. "The study's conclusions represent a major step toward ensuring that agriculture contributes to health, environmental sustainability, income generation, and food security," said Paolo Barilla, Vice President of the Barilla Group . "The ingredients will vary by country and region, but there are some key components that will lead to healthier food systems everywhere."
Did you attend the book launch, or watch the livestream? Tell us about your experience below!
Click here to purchase a copy of Eating Planet .