Sustainable food systems are possible, even in the 21st century

Aotearoa New Zealand as a nation relies on international trade, and in the food system this trade is particularly important for food security and economic prosperity.

We need to think critically about the way our food systems, and trade, affect the health of people and the planet. Our current food system isn’t adequately serving the nutritional needs of our population, and it continues to threaten the future of our land, water, and climate.

The dominant view of food is still as an economic commodity grown/raised/harvested primarily for export. And an unintended consequence of our relatively open market is that it has favoured the import of cheap, heavily processed and unhealthy foods.

Our food system needs rebalancing to make sure that, alongside meeting economic goals, it’s also supporting health and wellbeing for New Zealanders, and the environment.

New Zealand has alarmingly high rates of dietary-related disease: the second highest rates of childhood obesity in the OECD, at 12.5 percent; more than half our children under five have tooth decay, largely blamed on sugary drinks; about 1.5 million people have obesity; and about six percent of adults living in New Zealand have diabetes, and the number is increasing.

These conditions are considerably more common among lower-income and other sectors of the community who have not been served well by our health systems and our institutions.

Some are suffering from poor health as a result of poor nutrition, and at the same time, many are going hungry.

The latest NZ Health Survey reveals that one in four children in New Zealand live in households where food runs out; this increased significantly from the previous year (2022/23) where the proportion was one in five.

The well-off aren’t eating well enough either, with more than 90 percent of children and adults not getting the recommended daily intake of vegetables (five or more servings of vegetables each day).

Research has also found that more than a half of packaged products in our supermarkets are unhealthy, and almost 70 percent are ‘ultra-processed’. These products now make up a huge proportion of our diets.

Foods that are highly processed tend to be energy-dense, deceivingly high in salt, sugars, and/or saturated or trans fats, which contribute significantly to the risk of unhealthy weight, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and several cancers. There is also strong evidence emerging that overconsumption of highly processed food and drinks is linked to poor mental health outcomes.

What’s bad for us is also likely to be bad for the environment. Intensive food processing is highly energy-intensive and dependent on fossil fuels, especially because of the sector’s heavy use of plastic packaging.

Major corporations such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé are consistently among the world’s biggest plastic polluters of land and marine ecosystems. Coca-Cola alone used nearly three million tonnes of virgin fossil fuel-based plastic in 2022.

Manufacturing of highly processed foods also relies heavily on large-scale commodity crop production, intensive meat and dairy production and destructive fishing methods, which are leading drivers of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, pressure on water resources, and soil degradation, globally.

What I’m seeing in my own research is that food and drink imports into New Zealand are getting more ultra-processed. Over the last 35 years since before the inception of the World Trade Organisation, the proportion of our food and drink imports that is heavily processed and high in salt, fats, and sugars has been steadily increasing.

For things such as sweetened drinks, snack foods, ice cream, and artificial food additives, the volumes coming in, per person per year, are going up at an alarming rate.

Highly processed foods high in salt, fats, and sugars are cheap to produce, transport and have long shelf lives, so they tend to be the most affordable option available, which is one reason they are often favoured by people with fewer resources – thus widening health disparities.

They’re also often aggressively marketed because their low unit cost means they have to sell more volume to turn profits.

Fresh food, meanwhile, costs more and more, making it hard for the average New Zealander to have a healthy, balanced diet – and it is likely to cost even more as climate change is expected to bring more extreme weather, threatening our agricultural sector.

The latter is making big strides toward environmentally friendly production, but still has a long way to go to reduce its environmental footprint.

We need more sustainable food systems, and trade has an important role to play. I am part of the international and inter-disciplinary Health-International Investment Agreements collaboration, which has analysed the first-of-their-kind introduction of Sustainable Food Systems cooperation chapters in European Union’s Agreements with New Zealand, Chile and Australia.

The recently ratified NZ-EU free trade agreement was the first time sustainable food systems had been recognised as a common trade goal, in its own stand-alone chapter. We believe this represents a significant step forward in integrating the international trade and health policy spheres, and for the prioritisation of planetary health in economic policy in general.

It remains to be seen whether the implementation of this agreement will create meaningful progress in supporting healthy and sustainable food systems.

Positively, the text shows convergence/agreement between the partners, in how they jointly prioritise several areas of environmental sustainability of food systems, including organic and regenerative agriculture; chemical pesticides and fertilisers; greenhouse gas emissions; carbon sinks; biodiversity loss; sustainable processing, transport, wholesale, retail, and food services; food loss and waste; indigenous knowledge, participation and leadership; and healthy and sustainable diets.

Though it is definitely a sign of progress, it has some obvious limitations. From my reading, negotiating parties involved are focused on promoting certain products and practices that are deemed more sustainable, but not curbing the production, trade and consumption of products, and practices that harm human health and the environment.

Sustainable (and healthy) food systems are possible, even in the 21st Century, and it is encouraging that the EU and NZ (and Chile and Australia) are demonstrating some commitment to them.

This presents an opportunity for New Zealand, which should be at the vanguard of promoting and progressing the sustainable food systems chapter – food and our ‘clean green’ image are critical to our national economic prosperity.

We can’t afford to drag our heels.

The health of our nation also depends on taking a holistic approach to sustainable food systems, and for our trade policy to acknowledge, and start to address, our relationship with over-consumption.