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| Titel |
Food transitions in last 50 years and related environmental implications |
| VerfasserIn |
P. Pradhan, D. E. Reusser, J. P. Kropp |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250064505
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Food production is an important driver for global change processes such as land use change
and green-house-gas emissions. We analyzed a global, long term data set on food
consumption per country to identify typical patterns of diets for the last 50 years. From
changes in these patterns, we derived food transitions on a global scale. Subsequently we
assessed the environmental consequences from green-house-gas (GHG) emission and
anthropogenic inputs.
More specifically, we applied Self Organizing Maps (SOM) to identify the dietary
patterns based on supply of 12 food groups from FAOSTAT dataset for a period
1961-2007. Using the data on energy output/input ratio for crop production and
agricultural emission, we estimated fossil energy and GHG emission associated with the
diets.
We found 16 typical consumption patterns consisting of high, moderate, low and lowest
calorie supply with varied food compositions. The high calorie diets are associated with a
higher supply of cereals, animal-products, vegetable-oils and sugar-sweeteners featuring a
total supply greater than 2800 kcal/cap/day. During the last 50 years, we observed food
transitions from lower calories diets to higher calories diets. On the one hand, food transition
towards affluent diet, sometime with shortcuts, occurred in developing countries. On the other
hand, developed countries increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Some of the
developing countries are also stagnated in the low consumption level during the
last 50 years. The high calorie diets also embed higher fossil energy (1800-3500
kcal/cap/day) and are associated with higher GHG emissions (3.7-6.1 kg CO2 eq/cap/day).
However, their non-CO2 GHG emission intensities per kilo calorie of food are relatively
low.
Changes in dietary patterns are a part of the global change processes. Identification of
past transitions is way to predict possible future transitions. This in turn supports policy
processes and negotiations in the fields of climate change, water management and
development goals. |
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