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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">From: <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Times"><a href="mailto:eva.maintz@gmail.com" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">eva.maintz@gmail.com</a><span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts about the
lancet EAT-Report.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">I am currently working in a working group for sustainable
food in germany<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">and we are discussing EAT very intensively. I think it is a
important and<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">very useful paper in a lot of sences but with several weak
and criticable<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">points as yiu already mentiined. Our main concern from a
geman perspective<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">is the influence of the food industry as the health concerns
of highly<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">processed foods are not mentioned in a single sentence and
the allowed<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">amount of sugar ( which has the highest evidence of being
unhealthy food)<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">is quite high.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Richa, could you share the references you mentioned in your
email?<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Thanks a lot and greetings from germany<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Eva<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Xxx<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">From Radha Holla<span> </span><a href="mailto:holla.radha@gmail.com" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">holla.radha@gmail.com</a> <span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">I do agree with you, Kaaren, that a plant based diet may
reduce the impact of farming on the climate. However, not all plant based
agriculture does so. The cattle farms will be replaced by grain producing
industrial farms with the continued heavy use of chemicals. Secondly no where
does the EAT Lance report stress on the diversity-based farming systems of many
indigenous and poor communities across the world, which have little effect on
climate change, but rather mitigate it. This diversity based agriculture
includes not just mixed cropping, but also the use of animals for manure, for
energy and for food both as milk and meat. The animals and poultry forage
rather than being fed in feedlots. There are also studies that the meat of
foraging goats has lower effects on cholesterol than even chicken or other
white meat. One of the most damaging statements in the EAT Lancet report is on
achieving balance in use of nutrients - reduce the use of chemicals in
countries where industrial agriculture is practised, but increase them where it
is not. This seems to imply that diversity-based farming should start using
more chemicals. How is this going to help climate change. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">To me, what seems to be the thrust is to promote organic
food only as a niche product, which it is in most countries already, and
further trade by treating locally nutrient rich sources of food as unsuitable
and needing to be replaced by highly priced organic foods, including imported
food. The millets, which are a wonderful answer to climate change, are being
increasingly replaced in middle class families by foods such as quinoa, which
is a good food, but needs to be imported. Foods like amaranth leaves,
chenopodium leaves, beet leaves, colocasia leaves, etc. are hardly available in
the market except a few local markets, but spinach, broccoli, orange carrots,
brussels sprouts are all available. Why not pumpkin instead of orange carrots
in summer? The range of ingredients identified by the Eat Lancet report does
not take into consideration the nutritive value of local products like coconut
oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, but is only focusing on improving usage of olive
oil, which again needs to be imported.<span>
</span>Advertising with its beautiful colourful pics of imported fruits and
vegetables adds to this. There is no mention of the need to promote local
production for local consumption, to reduce the stress on land and water, to
consume what the season gives in abundance, to vary the diet to include all
foods - plants, grains, fruits (not just apples and pears), eggs, milk and meat
in a balance that does not negatively impact climate change while at the same
time, improves health and nutrition.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Xxxx<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">From: Sam Lanfranco<span> </span><span><a href="mailto:lanfran@yorku.ca" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">lanfran@yorku.ca</a> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">I think it is important to understand how the EAT Lancet
article went<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">wrong, and how it is being dealt with wrongly, as opposed to
what it got<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">wrong, or right. Food is essential to survival, not just to
health. Also,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">every part of the human food ecosystem (production,
processing,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">consumption, waste) links to other crucial issues such as
global warming,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">chemical pollution, food waste, and waste disposal, through
to issues of<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">small scale farming income and gender employment (e.g. most
African food<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">crops for local consumption are tended to by women).<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span>One would
think that being essential to survival and health, and the<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">impact on bigger natural and social ecosystem issues, would
make<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">understanding the food ecosystem a high priority. Instead
the food<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">ecosystem has been mainly a battle ground of special
interests, special<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">interests ranging from the massive multinational food
corporations where<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">the oligopolies in production, processing and distribution
have inordinate<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">market and political power, to those pushing one diet or
another. This is<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">frequently done irrespective of the local context, and
without stakeholder<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">participation in the dialogues whose policies will affect
them directly. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span>As a
development economist and farmer who has worked with Indian<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">colleagues for decades the Lancet article reads, to me, as
though the<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">writers had been seduced by a blend of smooth talking
self-interest South<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Asian charm on the part of their hosts, combined with a
limited<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">understanding of the local context in terms of the links
between food<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">practices, health, family income and wider environmental
concerns.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span>In my view
what the article should prompt is a deeper understanding of the<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">importance of engaging all of the stakeholders in
discussions around (a)<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">what are the lessons to be learned from the food ecosystem,
here for both<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">Indian best practices and for Indian problems (e.g. water,
poverty) and (b)<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span>what are the
knowledge translation and practice opportunities afforded by<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">contacts across different food ecosystems. To use the
article to push one<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">dietary solution or another does a disservice to both
ourselves and to the<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria">health of the planet, a planet whose health we rely on.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span><span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria"><span> </span></p>
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