Source: BBC Radio 4: Today Programme
URL: N/A
Date: 19/02/2013
Event: UNEP scientist: "there needs to be a lot more people thinking about their diet"
Attribution: BBC Radio 4
People:
Evan Davis: Now, do you want to help the world? The UN Environment Programme has some advice - become a demitarian. A demitarian is best described as "half a vegetarian". Halve your meat consumption, because by doing so you make a massive difference to the resources poured into agriculture. Animal rearing does use most of our crops. Well, as I say, this advice comes from a UN report, the lead author of which is Mark Sutton from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Good morning to you.
Mark Sutton: Good morning.
Evan Davis: And are you a demitarian?
Mark Sutton: Yes, absolutely. I think it comes out of the result of our environmental scientific work. And what our report has shown is that, really, food choices matter. And the amount of fertilisers going into the system's really dependent on how we run our food chains and adding animals in adds another step which means we've got more losses. So our report, which is called "Our Nutrient World", and it was commissioned by UNEP - it's showing that basically we need nutrients to make fertilisers to grow our food. So we need it for food security. But at the same time, it is leaking out into the environment, creating a web of environmental pollution problems - water pollution, air pollution, change to climate. And so the food choice really matters in this, and what we're saying is there needs to be a lot more people thinking about their diet. We need also an intergovernmental framework which will link in the whole nitrogen-phosphorus cycle - that's currently missing. So we've called for ten key actions of change that could be made, and one of those actions is our dietary choices.
Evan Davis: So how - what sort of diet are you on, then? How often do you tend to eat meat?
Mark Sutton: I'd say I probably tend to eat meat a couple of times a week. And I think it's really for everybody to think about, how they would like to do it themselves, think about their dietary choices, think about - it's about your own health but it's also about the environmental impact. So, for example, you might, say, not eat meat every day, or think about your portion sizes. So, here am I at UNEP this week, and we're having these conferences. They serve a buffet - it's up to you to choose how much you take. You might just take a small portion and then mix it with other things.
Evan Davis: And how are you filling the rest of your diet? Are you eating a lot more fish? Because there a whole lot of issues around fish, aren't there.
Mark Sutton: Yes, I think fish is important, you've got the whole sustainability issue, but also there's fish farming, which is increasingly using nutrients and potentially causing pollution as well. A lot more work is needed -
Evan Davis: Right...
Mark Sutton: - to assess that. But I think both from a fish perspective, a meat perspective - and we shouldn't also forget the dairy products here. What we're talking about is: when livestock, when animals are involved, you're adding that extra step into the food chain, which you've got a lot more losses into the environment. It means that there's opportunities there to manage agriculture better, but it also means that our consumption patterns have got a key role to play.
Evan Davis. Yeah. Mark Sutton, as I say lead author of this report for UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme, thank you.