How can the world sustainably feed almost 10 billion people?

By Kevin Chiang

SFU alumnus Brent Loken, a former Trudeau Scholar, is one of 18 worldwide researchers who have just completed a new report that could transform the global food system to sustainably feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050.

In their report, “The Anthropocene: the EAT- Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets From Sustainable Food Systems,” the researchers present the first science-based “planetary health diet” that is healthy for both people and the planet. It recommends a diet that incorporates more plant-based foods and fewer animal-sourced foods.

Loken, an SFU PhD graduate from the School for Resource and Environmental Management (REM), is the director of science translation for EAT. The Oslo-based consortium is striving to transform the global food system to sustainably feed the world population.

Loken is returning to SFU on March 5 to discuss the report’s findings with experts from SFU, other universities, Chefs for Oceans and the Canadian Associations of Physicians for the Environment. They’re all participating in a colloquium, The Psychology of Change: Achieving a Transformation of The Global Food System, in a bid to find ways to motivate people to adopt a more sustainable diet.

The report, which proposes five strategies to achieve “a great food transformation,” says the world’s population will have to double its consumption of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts, and reduce its consumption of less healthy food, such as sugars and red meat, by more than 50 per cent.