O&P Sustainability Director Haigan Murray talks about the potential of functional plant oils and powders in sustainable food production and the preventable diseases epidemic.
Advocating a healthy diet derived from a sustainable food system and the balancing of HEALTH, PLANET AND FOOD are particular passions of my colleagues and I.
What we eat has the potential to optimize our health and influence environmental sustainability, and yet current food production and consumption threatens both our health and our planet. In 2019 over 800 million people suffer insufficient food, even more consume low-quality food and more again consume too much food. We now understand that an unhealthy diet is a greater risk to human health than unsafe sex, alcohol, drug and tobacco use combined.
- 69% of all deaths globally each year are a result of preventable diseases.Centers for Disease Control, 2017
- Largely preventable non-communicable diseases; cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and mental health disorders are responsible for 36 million deaths each year. WHO, 2017
- Poor diet (low in whole grains, fruit, nuts, seeds and fish oils and high in salt and sugar) is a factor in 1 in 5 deaths around the world. Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 2017
- Diet is the second highest risk factor for early death, after smoking. Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 2017
Living in Bali I can appreciate the principals of Tri Hita Karana, “the three causes” that are the pillars of Balinese culture and traditions; the achieving of balance or harmony between peoples, the natural environment and spirituality. As a global citizen it’s pretty obvious to me we that have much to balance. Food production is now the largest driver of environmental degradation and I have witnessed first-hand where tropical agricultural expansion is destroying natural habitats along with a tragic loss of species and the rise of human land conflicts and cultural displacement.
In South East Asia a vast palm oil landscape has impacted bio-diversity as it efficiently produces a useful edible oil to feed an expanding global demand. Palm oil development is responsible for much of the high deforestation rates in Indonesia, as much as 50% on the island of Borneo between 2005 and 2015 and 65% of forest cover loss in Riau, Sumatra over the past 25 years.
In 2014 when I founded the social impact enterprise Coconut Knowledge Center (http://coconutknowledgecenter.com)my team and I set our course as an agent of change; to embed the smallholder coconut farmer into the future of plant based sustainable food, to ensure that this versatile source of plant-based food and beverages, clean energy and bio-diversity has a voice, as the world grapples with the global challenges of food security and wellness.
O&P supports Coconut Knowledge Center in blended conservation and sustainable coconut agricultural landscape projects, through a market facing role as the off-taker of the plant oils and ingredients derived from the coconut bio-diversity landscape.
By contributing low-tech appropriate technology to cold-expressed plant oils and to sun dried produce like green banana flour, we can establish a robust traceable supply chain that mitigates food loss at harvest. High-quality natural plant oils and dried produce are further converted through low temperature high-tech processing into easy to use plant oil powders with wide functional applications. The social implications of this low tech to high tech extraction and drying strategy are poverty alleviation, dignity through wellness and food loss prevention.
At O&P we believe that a balanced Plant Powered future is possible. Many published studies conclude that a diet rich in plant-based foods and less animal sourced foods yields improved health and environmental benefits. Market research has demonstrated consumers are willing to make healthy and ethical purchasing decisions when given the correct information.
“Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%. A diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits”
Prof. Walter Willett MD
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Reaching the 50% reduction in global food loss and waste, as per the targets of the SDGs, requires action and innovation within smallholder andlarge scale agri-systems. Post-harvest infrastructure strengthening in developing countries and increasing pre-competitive collaboration along the supply chain will make the most difference.
Within the demands of a growing global population, feeding people from the existing agricultural landscape within minimal food loss is mission critical. Zero-expansion of new agricultural land (derived from natural ecosystems and forests), restoring and reforesting degraded land, increasing productivity and nutritional values from land areas combined with a reduction in food waste can enable a sustainable food future, a better balance of HEALTH, PLANET AND FOOD. Failure is not an option.
It takes a village!
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