The complexities of food system change - the long view on vegetable consumption

Abstract

The food system is in a constant state of evolution. Every harvest
brings new challenges, prices and opportunities for farmers.
Likewise, consumer’s taste habits, practices, and preferences
all shift over time. Indeed, though the public perception is that
diets and food production is constant, they are ever changing.
For example, the amount of time (when, and how) that is spent
shopping, cooking, and eating has all drastically changed over
the last one hundred years1,2. Food fads and trends emerge
yearly; some of these become main stream food culture, though
most fade away becoming nostalgia. Likewise, farming, and food
processing methods have advanced rapidly. Thanks to the green
revolution, and advances in logistics and manufacturing the
globalised food system now provides safe, nutritious food to the
majority of the global population.
Food system change – in numbers
Professor Derek Oddy’s From Plain Fare to Fusion Food: British
Diet from 1890s to the 1990s (2003) describes the rapid
development, challenges, and changes of the food system over
the last 100 years3
. Through this long view, the dramatic changes
in what, where, and how much vegetable was produced, and
the typical quantities of vegetables eaten can be seen. In the
17th centuries vegetables were eaten in small quantity in a UK
peasant’s seasonal diet, with 56g a day of “Pease” being the
most common vegetable. Variety was low and hunger a seasonal
possibility. Quantity and quality of vegetables consumed began
rise from the 1890s to between 45g to 142g a day by 1930, with
varietal choice also improving. Post war, vegetable consumption
settled at typically between 157g to 185g per day (1950s-2000s),
with a greater variety of types of vegetable – available in now
‘convenient’ frozen and tinned forms– available to the consumer.
However, in recent years (2000+) vegetable consumption has
slightly declined, it is still higher than previous intakes – over a
330% increase in 300 years.
Change towards sustainable and healthy diets
Looking to the future, changes in food system will not only have
to address the rise in Obesity – for the health of citizens; but also
address the challenge of shifting in the global population towards
a sustainable diet – for the health of the planet. Part of this solution
includes an increase the consumption of vegetables, the recent
EAT-Lancet report Food in the Anthropocene proposing 300g
of vegetables a day4
. How to achieve this consumption change
remains to be seen. One possibility is continued generational
dietary change; another is income and inequality improvement.
Reynold and Bridle (2018) examined how diets change
over the life course, and how different generations have had
different dietary greenhouse gas emissions due to their dietary
composition5
. Reynolds and Bridle calculated GHGE related
to household consumption of selected foods by age of main
diary keeper split in to 10 year 'generations' 1910-2000 with
diets reported at 5 year intervals. They found that differences in
generational eating habits (such as meat, dairy and vegetable
consumption) do produce diets with different GHGE footprints.
The fruit and vegetable share of the diet (normalised for calories
intake) is increasing with each generation.
Specific attention must also be given to the fragmented and
contrasted dietary patterns of the most rich and poor income
groups. As shown in Reynolds et al (2019) healthy and lowerGHGE diets could be created in for all income groups,
but tailoring changes to income groups may make dietary
changes more achievable6
. Broadly, the changes needed were
similar across all groups; reducing animal-based products
and increasing plant-based foods but varied by specific foods
per income group and dietary pattern. Improving income and
reducing dietary inequality will thus assist in leading to a healthy
sustainable future.

Full text

p. 3 n° 42 # April 2019
The complexities of food system change -
the long view on vegetable consumption
References
1. Warde A, Cheng SL, Olsen W, Southerton D. Changes in the practice
of eating: a comparative analysis of time-use. Acta sociologica. 2007
Dec;50(4):363-85.
2. Gatley A, Caraher M, Lang T. A qualitative, cross cultural examination of
attitudes and behaviour in relation to cooking habits in France and Britain.
Appetite. 2014 Apr 1;75:71-81.
3. Oddy, Derek J. From plain fare to fusion food: British diet from the 1890s
to the 1990s. Boydell Press, 2003.
4. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen
S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A, Jonell M. Food in the
Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable
food systems. The Lancet. 2019 Feb 2;393(10170):447-92.
5. Reynolds C, Bridle , The greenhouse gas emission impacts of generational
and temporal change on the UK diet November 2018, Conference:
Livestock, Environment And People (LEAP) Conference, Oxford, https://www.
researchgate.net/publication/328738752_The_greenhouse_gas_emission_
impacts_of_generational_and_temporal_change_on_the_UK_diet
6. Reynolds CJ, Horgan GW, Whybrow S, Macdiarmid JI. Healthy and
sustainable diets that meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and
are affordable for different income groups in the UK. Public Health nutrition.
2019 Feb 20:1-5.
The food system is in a constant state of evolution. Every harvest
brings new challenges, prices and opportunities for farmers.
Likewise, consumer’s taste habits, practices, and preferences
all shift over time. Indeed, though the public perception is that
diets and food production is constant, they are ever changing.
For example, the amount of time (when, and how) that is spent
shopping, cooking, and eating has all drastically changed over
the last one hundred years1,2. Food fads and trends emerge
yearly; some of these become main stream food culture, though
most fade away becoming nostalgia. Likewise, farming, and food
processing methods have advanced rapidly. Thanks to the green
revolution, and advances in logistics and manufacturing the
globalised food system now provides safe, nutritious food to the
majority of the global population.
Food system change – in numbers
Professor Derek Oddy’s From Plain Fare to Fusion Food: British
Diet from 1890s to the 1990s (2003) describes the rapid
development, challenges, and changes of the food system over
the last 100 years3. Through this long view, the dramatic changes
in what, where, and how much vegetable was produced, and
the typical quantities of vegetables eaten can be seen. In the
17th centuries vegetables were eaten in small quantity in a UK
peasant’s seasonal diet, with 56g a day of “Pease” being the
most common vegetable. Variety was low and hunger a seasonal
possibility. Quantity and quality of vegetables consumed began
rise from the 1890s to between 45g to 142g a day by 1930, with
varietal choice also improving. Post war, vegetable consumption
settled at typically between 157g to 185g per day (1950s-2000s),
with a greater variety of types of vegetable – available in now
‘convenient’ frozen and tinned forms– available to the consumer.
However, in recent years (2000+) vegetable consumption has
slightly declined, it is still higher than previous intakes – over a
330% increase in 300 years.
Change towards sustainable and healthy diets
Looking to the future, changes in food system will not only have
to address the rise in Obesity – for the health of citizens; but also
address the challenge of shifting in the global population towards
a sustainable diet – for the health of the planet. Part of this solution
includes an increase the consumption of vegetables, the recent
EAT-Lancet report Food in the Anthropocene proposing 300g
of vegetables a day4. How to achieve this consumption change
remains to be seen. One possibility is continued generational
dietary change; another is income and inequality improvement.
Reynold and Bridle (2018) examined how diets change
over the life course, and how different generations have had
different dietary greenhouse gas emissions due to their dietary
composition5. Reynolds and Bridle calculated GHGE related
to household consumption of selected foods by age of main
diary keeper split in to 10 year 'generations' 1910-2000 with
diets reported at 5 year intervals. They found that differences in
generational eating habits (such as meat, dairy and vegetable
consumption) do produce diets with different GHGE footprints.
The fruit and vegetable share of the diet (normalised for calories
intake) is increasing with each generation.
Specic attention must also be given to the fragmented and
contrasted dietary patterns of the most rich and poor income
groups. As shown in Reynolds et al (2019) healthy and lower-
GHGE diets could be created in for all income groups,
but tailoring changes to income groups may make dietary
changes more achievable6. Broadly, the changes needed were
similar across all groups; reducing animal-based products
and increasing plant-based foods but varied by specic foods
per income group and dietary pattern. Improving income and
reducing dietary inequality will thus assist in leading to a healthy
sustainable future.
Christian Reynolds
Department of Geography, University of Shefeld, UNITED KINGDOM
© Shutterstock
Review Christian Reynolds’s presentation: Food systems and food choices