Amid Ukraine war, scientists say it’s time to give this plant-based global diet another look

Name: India halts wheat exports as food security threatened by heatwave, Ukraine war
Uploaded: 2022-11-14T16:01:07.000Z
Duration: 1 min 29 s
Description: India halts wheat exports as food security threatened by heatwave, Ukraine war

Chinese-Dutch joint study says conflict and climate change make the EAT-Lancet food plan more advisable

Climate-friendly planetary health diet would cut meat consumption and waste, ease food shortages and improve food production

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Amid war, food shortages and global warming, a new joint Chinese-Dutch study says a plant-based global food plan could be the answer. Photo: AFP

Ling Xinin Beijing

Published: 12:01am, 15 Nov 2022

A new joint study by researchers in China and the Netherlands has shown that moving towards plant-based diets could help Europeans fight emerging food shortages and rising food prices caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

The findings are related to a meal plan known as the EAT-Lancet’s planetary health diet, which was first proposed in 2019.

01:29

India halts wheat exports as food security threatened by heatwave, Ukraine war

According to a paper published in the journal Nature Food on Tuesday, shifting to such a diet – mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and a small amount of meat – could help the European region reduce its reliance on food exports from Russia and Ukraine.

“We found that a shift to the planetary health diet in the European Union and the United Kingdom would save a large proportion of crops, mainly by reducing the overconsumption of additive sugar and animal products,” researchers from China Agricultural University in Beijing and Leiden University in the Netherlands said in the paper.

Results from research modelling showed that the food savings alone would be sufficient to compensate for losses of almost all Ukraine and Russia food exports, they said.

Together, Ukraine and Russia supplied 64 per cent and 28 per cent of global sunflower oil and wheat exports, respectively, in 2021. While Ukraine is often described as Europe’s breadbasket, Russia is a major producer and exporter of essentials like barley and fertilisers in the global market.