Sustainable and Healthy Diets: the policy problem Corinna Hawkes & Tim Lang c.hawkes@wcrf.org ; t.lang@city.ac.uk

1. Sustainable and Healthy Diets:the policy problemCorinna Hawkes & Tim Langc.hawkes@wcrf.org; t.lang@city.ac.uk Talk to Wellcome seminar, London, April 22-23 2-14

2. Context

3. Policy problem raised by sustainable diets is one of competing analyses The food system is fine • Right economics • Wrong consumers • Wrong mindsets • Wrong bodies Solutions: • Change behaviour • Personalisation • Some tech fixes to increase resource efficiency / for specific food products Food system is in crisis • Physiology is fixed • Wrong environment • Wrong €$£ signals • Distorted culture Solutions: • Multiple complex acts • Population-level food policy • Reframe conditions

4. Northern EU Govts began to engage, 2006 ff

5. EU: supply focus on resource efficiency • UN Sustainable Consumption and Production • Marrakech process (post Rio 1992  Johannesburg 2002 CSD) http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/index.shtml • Focus on products / LifeCycleAnalysis (LCA) / Sustainable lifestyles • CAP slowly changing (situation normal) • Shift from paying for production to environmental goods • Climate change adaptation SEC(2009) 417: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/sfs/index_en.htm • EU Platform for Action on Diet, PA & Health (parallel to SCP) • focus on NCDs / Consumer information/ But weak so far on Sust’lConsumption in food; Food Information regulation (2011) / focus on ingredients not impact / years arguing Nutrition labels 4. Commercial focus on products not health: • Integrated Product Policy (IPP) focus on enviro’teg waste • http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ipp/integratedpp.htm • Focus on Carbon and Waste reduction as efficiency • Sustainable Food Consultation 2013 & Communiqué 2014: - the focus narrows (??? under pressure???)

6. Food Co.s: product focus + choice-edit? • International companies: • 2009: G30 top TNCs initiative Coca-Cola, Tesco, Unilever • 2002: SAI launched GroupeDanone, Nestlé, Unilever • 2010: World Economic Forum process (published 2011) • 2010: Barilla Centre’s double inverted pyramid • UK companies: • 2007: IGD Food Industry Sustainability Strategy Champions Group focus on low carbon + ethics • 3 retailers’ choice-edit M&S Plan A, Co-operative Group, Waitrose • Unilever, PepsiCo brand sustainability strategies • WRAP/BRC complex metric study 2013 • VERDICT: product-specific approach not overall diet

7. The elephant in the room: consumers • Policy attention is weak on consumers • Need to reduce consumption....not just switch it • “we can lower CO2 up to a point but in 10 years consumers will have to change” (global retailer) • Consumer change raises tricky policy problems: • Rich/poor (within LDCs and LDCs/rich societies) • Few eat ideal healthy diet, let alone sustainable diet • Price issues: are sustainable diets more expensive? • Choice culture - assumption that consumers lead • So far, there aren’t even weak policies • UN (FAO=WHO) refusal to include Sust Diet Guidelines for ICN2 • No EU sustainability food label (expressly taken out of enviro labels: white goods, yes; food, no) • No UK follow-up (yet) to Food 2030 or Green Food Project Principles

8. Food policy and behaviour change

9. Policy problem raised by sustainable diets is one of competing analyses The food system is fine • Right economics • Wrong consumers • Wrong mindsets • Wrong bodies Solutions: • Individual behaviour change • Personalisation • Some tech fixes to specific food products Food system is in crisis • Physiology is fixed • Wrong environment • Wrong €$£ signals • Distorted culture Solutions: • Multiple complex acts • Population-level food policy • Reframe conditions

10. Approach of public health-oriented food policy advocates • We all want individuals to eat diets consistent with healthy weights & good health • Consumer behaviour driven by • food environment • globalisation of food systems • Big Food • We need to “protect” people – especially kids, from onslaught • We need behaviour change for the food industry - there is evidence for comprehensive marketing restrictions, warning labels, taxes, school food restrictions • Individual-level approaches do not work • Behaviour change approaches are for wimps

11. Policy solution raised by healthy, sustainable diets is one of complementary analyses The “consumer” is part of the food system • Right Wrong economics • Wrong consumersConsumer behaviour shapes the food system but is also shaped by it • Wrong Environment is all about choice • Wrong €$£ signals both wrong and right Solutions– • Population-level food policy which aims to change (or maintain) behaviour among individuals • Understanding both food system behaviour and why consumers behave as they do • Interdisciplinary reframing

12. 1. Food policy framework for healthy diets

13. NOURISHINGframework – POLICY ACTIONS FOR BEHAVIOUR CHANGE AT MULTIPLE LEVELS

14. The evidence

15. The evidence problem • There is plenty of evidence…. • of the “problem” • that behaviour change is possible • to design effective policy solutions • But there are barriers to effective design, implementation and evaluation • Economics – cost; viability • Politics – “nanny state”; food industry • Governance – multisectoral action • “Medical” approach to evaluation - short-termism; metrics of success unclear • Perceived lack of evidence of effectiveness • Very high bar set for evidence Where is the demonstrable evidence of effects?

16. 2. An interdisciplinary approach to linking food system behaviour with consumer behaviour A preference lens – there are genetic preferences but we we learn most of preferences & habits from our environment, culture, choice architecture etc Implications for how policy works

18. Interdisciplinary reframing

19. Public policy must lead: the case for Sustainable Dietary Guidelines • Provide a rational basis to the general food policy framework which is good for public and supply • Bridge the gap between NCD and CO2e discourses • Provide C21st basis for public advice + supply chain • Shift policy debate from productionist approach • Recalibrate institutions around consumer needs • This is supposed to be a consumer society but consumers are not being helped

20. Our key points Many problems • Yawning gap between evidence and practice • Policy attention is (s)low; it rose 2007-08, then fell • Attention segmented by disciplinary foci • Consumers seen as “separate” to food and social systems • “Behaviour change” seen as “personal” not “policy” • Fear among politicians of placing ‘choice culture’ within health & environmental frameworks; consumers = voters What we need • Coherence & integration between disciplines/sectors/depts (& incentives) • Population-approach to healthy sustainable diets based on understanding of consumer behaviour and how policy works • Behaviour change at multiple levels & actors for health & sustainability • A long term view with clear shorter-term metrics to measure “what works”

21. THANK YOU For further information contact: Dr Corinna Hawkes Head of Policy and Public Affairs, WCRF International policy@wcrf.org and c.hawkes@wcrf.org @wcrfint @corinnahawkes facebook.com/wcrfint youtube.com/wcrfint wcrf.org/blog www.wcrf.org/policy_public_affairs