Here’s some food for thought: What will we you be eating in 2050? Will your diet have changed much 27 years from now? I’ll be 85 then, and I’m hoping I’ve cut back on junk food somewhat by then – if I’m alive. On the other hand, I think I was hoping to do that 27 years ago!
But that’s me. Your story will be different (and hopefully healthier). There’s a much broader picture to be considered here when it comes to the year 2050. That year is a focal point for the United Nations (UN).
Specifically, 2050 is the focus of the UN food roadmap. The food roadmap aims to ensure a rising world population is adequately fed while staving off global warming. In 2050, the population is expected to have passed the 10 billion mark. There are currently around eight billion people in the world, so that represents close to a 25 per cent increase.
So how can we sustain a population of 10 billion while saving the planet? What foods will we need to give up? Which will we need to eat more of? And which new foods will we have to take on?
Food of the future
According to the UN roadmap, the ideal diet of 2050 will include more fish, more chicken and less beef. Many of you will recognise these as recommendations for a healthier individual lifestyle. As it turns out, they’ll help save the health of the planet as well.
The big problem with beef is methane emissions. This gas that comes from both ends of a cow is a huge contributor to rising temperatures.
That’s not to say the UN expects us to give up our steak sandwiches overnight. When it comes to cows and other ruminant animals – sheep, goats, moose, camels and deer – the UN’s aim is efficiency.
That can be achieved through a number of measures, including intensifying production in extensive systems, and promoting fattening livestock solutions. The UN’s food roadmap also advocates:
- developing more digestible feeds
- improving valuation of crop residues and avoiding their burning
- planting pastures with improved grasses and legumes
- providing seasonal feed supplementation (including but not limited to lipids)
- adopting new feed solutions such as seaweed.
Each of those will help make red meat production more sustainable. Having said that, the UN is also encouraging a switch towards more fish and chicken.
Only the beginning
These strategies represent only a small part of the UN’s food vision, the first part of which was unveiled at COP28. In what will be a three-volume roadmap, volume one, presented in Dubai, presents a “global vision”.
Volumes two and three will be presented at COP29 in 2024 and COP30 in 2025. Volume two will involve “moving from a global to a regional view and from a vision to costing and financing”. A year later, volume three will entail “establishing country action plans, monitoring and accountability”.
When it comes to planning meals, thinking ahead to 2050 might be a bit of a stretch. However, a gradual shift from red to white meat could do you a world of good. And it will probably result in you doing good for the world.
What do you think about the UN’s food vision for 2050? Would you be prepared to make a shift away from red meat? Let us know via the comments section below.