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Linkages between Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 125982

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Armando Perez-Cueto

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Guest Editor

Department of Food Science, Section for Food Design and Consumer Behaviour – Future Consumer Lab, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
Interests: plant-based food consumption; consumer behaviour; food choice; nudging; healthy and sustainable foods; nutritional epidemiology; public health nutrition; taste & texture; meal sciences; gastronomy; vegan
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Hans De Steur

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Guest Editor

Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Interests: food-nutrition linkages; consumer and stakeholder analysis; economics of novel foods and technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue is to discuss the overlapping and complementary linkages between food security, nutrition and sustainability. Often, these aspects have been studied separately. However, consensus is now that a healthy diet is actually a sustainable diet (mainly rich in foods of plant origin). Global warming is changing food production and hence alters food security in both developed and developing countries. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals cannot overlook the role of the food sector, where some of the production systems have been detrimental to the environment at large and the population health in general.

Evidence supports a turn towards more plant-based diets for health, environmental and ethical reasons. In developed countries, large focus has been given to animal rights and animal welfare issues, while still poverty alleviation and climate-related migration is creating a new picture for food security. From a modern/global consumer perspective the role of social media in creating awareness and behavioural change towards sustainable and healthier diets has been under-studied. Consumers have been creating a demand for foods that are healthy and sustainable, hence a 20 billion US dollars plant-based foods market (foreseen by 2020) is booming.

We welcome contributions addressing the following topics:

Sustainable nutrition and evaluation of environmental footprint of different dietary patterns (meta analyses, systematic reviews or original research papers).
Alternative/Innovative and sustainable food systems contributing to food security (including public health, nutrition aspects).
Behavioural interventions measuring the effect of making sustainable and healthy choices the easier for average consumers (original research papers).
How changes in the food chain can contribute to sustainable food consumption.
The role of social media in encouraging the adoption of sustainable diets (vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian).
Consumer studies based on questionnaires or on qualitative data explaining the rapid shift towards plant-based foods and adoption of related lifestyles (e.g. veganism).
Economics of sustainable food consumption

Dr. Armando Perez-Cueto
Dr. Hans De Steur
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable nutrition
food security
social media
plant-based

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 250 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Household Food Security in Fish Farming Communities in Ghana

by Akua S. Akuffo and Kwamena K. Quagrainie

Sustainability 2019, 11(10), 2807; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11102807 - 16 May 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 8277

Abstract

The Government of Ghana and international NGOs have been encouraging the adoption of fish farming to alleviate poverty and food insecurity through training workshops, financial contributions and creation of a fisheries ministry. Nevertheless, there is no study on how these efforts have influenced the household’s welfare, particularly their nutritional quality. Based on this, our objective is to identify the ways through which fish farming impacts the household’s nutritional quality. We hypothesize that engaging in fish farming will increase steady income flow and access to fish for the household’s direct consumption. We adopted the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach in a logit framework to achieve this objective and address the endogeneity from the bias of self -selection by creating a statistically similar-looking control group. The results suggest that fish farming households have higher nutritional quality and frequency of food consumed than the non-fish farming households through direct consumption. The probability of adopting fish farming increases with wealth, location, ecological zone and household size but decreases with household income per capita. The average effect of adopting fish farming on household nutritional quality is 15.5 Food Consumption Score points. Policies that encourage women to engage in not only fish processing, but production as well are advised. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linkages between Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability)

Review

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 377 KiB

Open AccessReview

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

by Bingli Clark Chai, Johannes Reidar van der Voort, Kristina Grofelnik, Helga Gudny Eliasdottir, Ines Klöss and Federico J. A. Perez-Cueto

Sustainability 2019, 11(15), 4110; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11154110 - 30 Jul 2019

Cited by 165 | Viewed by 106449

Abstract

The food that we consume has a large impact on our environment. The impact varies significantly between different diets. The aim of this systematic review is to address the question: Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet? A comparison of a vegan, vegetarian and omnivorous diets. This systematic review is based on 16 studies and 18 reviews. The included studies were selected by focusing directly on environmental impacts of human diets. Four electronic bibliographic databases, PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Web of Science were used to conduct a systematic literature search based on fixed inclusion and exclusion criteria. The durations of the studies ranged from 7 days to 27 years. Most were carried out in the US or Europe. Results from our review suggest that the vegan diet is the optimal diet for the environment because, out of all the compared diets, its production results in the lowest level of GHG emissions. Additionally, the reviewed studies indicate the possibility of achieving the same environmental impact as that of the vegan diet, without excluding the meat and dairy food groups, but rather, by reducing them substantially. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linkages between Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability)

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12 pages, 443 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Potential of Goat Meat in the Red Meat Industry

by Irene Rumbidzai Mazhangara, Eliton Chivandi, John Fisher Mupangwa and Voster Muchenje

Sustainability 2019, 11(13), 3671; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11133671 - 04 Jul 2019

Cited by 67 | Viewed by 10444

Abstract

Worldwide the consumption of chevon (goat meat) has increased largely due to its distinct nutritional attributes when compared to other red meats. In addition to being a good source of dietary protein for human beings, chevon comparatively has a lower total fat, saturated fatty acid and cholesterol content, which makes it a healthful product. Chevon’s health promoting chemical composition fulfils the expectations of consumers’ demand for healthful foods and thus explaining its growing popularity and increased demand. The increase in the popularity and demand of chevon is essential to contributing towards the increase in demand for animal-derived protein sources for human consumption, which is driven by an expansion in urban settlements, improving incomes, and the need for a better lifestyle. Despite chevon being established as lean red meat with low content of fat, cholesterol and saturated fatty acids, there are misconceptions regarding the perceived inferior quality of chevon compared to beef, pork or lamb among some consumers. This review seeks to provide evidence supporting the favorable nutritive characteristics of chevon and it being a healthful product that is poised to make a significant contribution to animal-derived foods for human consumption. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linkages between Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability)

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