8th AIEAA Conference, Pistoia, 13-14 June 2019

Despite past progress, approximately 3 billion people across the globe have low-quality diets. Nearly a quarter of all children under five years of age are stunted, more than 2 billion people have insufficient micronutrients. While undernourishment is concentrated in developing countries, the incidence of overweight and obesity is growing in every region. As a result, many economies are seriously underperforming, and diet-related chronic diseases are placing ever-greater demands on health care systems.

At the same time, environmental impacts of current food production and consumption patterns are rampant. The food system contributes to approximately 20-30% of greenhouse gases (GHG) total emissions, 15-25% from agriculture/land use change and 5-10% from packaging, transportation and waste disposal.

The situation is set to worsen dramatically over the next 20 years as powerful drivers of change such as population growth, climate change, diet transition towards animal products and urbanization converge on food systems. This concern is reflected by various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – namely, “Zero hunger” (SDG-2), “Good health and wellbeing” (SDG-3), and “Responsible consumption and production” (SGD-12), just to mention the most important ones – that try to address these issues. While these problems are of utmost urgency for low- and middle-income countries, they are also a stark concern for all countries.

Considerable challenges need to be addressed in order to have an effective and sustainable diet transition. In particular, food systems need to be harnessed so that they nourish rather than merely feed people. This alone will open up countless opportunities for interventions that decision makers can tailor to specific situations. Furthermore, priorities for action at national and international levels as well as detailed advice and guidance need to be identified in order to provide guidance to decision makers.

The 8^th AIEAA Congress will therefore focus on the conundrum represented by the interaction of economic development, nutrition and health, and sustainability. Sustainable diets are intended to address the increasing health and environmental concerns related to food production and consumption. Although many candidates for sustainable diets have emerged, a comprehensive analysis of these diets has not been done yet. A number of public policies have been proposed to promote healthy and environmentally sustainable diets at production and consumption levels, but the level of integration is still relatively low. New evidence is needed on the effectiveness of public policies for sustainable diets.