Experts sound alarm: food habits must change to help combat climate crisis

Experts sound alarm: food habits must change to help combat climate crisis

* QF’s Doha Debates’ recent #DearWorldLive examines potential solutions to planet’s worsening environmental challenges

Consumers, big businesses and governments must take action to lighten the burden that food production and consumption take on the world’s troubled environment, experts told Qatar Foundation (QF)’s Doha Debates’ #DearWorldLive programme.

With the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP26) just weeks away, the UN says 34% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from food production, processing and packaging. Food distribution and food waste take a further toll on the environment, contributing to the record number of droughts, floods, and famines in recent years, according to UN reports.

The fourth season of #DearWorldLive features three episodes devoted to finding solutions to the world’s climate crisis. In the first episode, 'Climate Change and the Future of Food', an environmentalist and a food industry advocate agreed — despite representing different sides of the issue — that individual and collective action must be taken to diminish food’s contribution to climate change.

Lana Weidgenant, a food-focused climate advocate with the youth-led Zero Hour movement, said government and big business leaders often say the right things, but fail to deliver when it matters. “I’ve seen a lot of talk by world