corsus presentation on the environmental impact of the DGE dietary recommendations

On 6 November 2024, the fourth annual conference of the Centre for Nutrition, Food and Sustainable Supply Systems took place at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. Under this year’s motto More plant, less animal! – Food communication between crises, consensus and conflict, scientists from various disciplines presented their latest findings on sustainable food systems and food communication. In his presentation, Julian Quandt – Senior Consultant at corsus – presented initial findings on the assessment of the environmental impact of nutrition in Germany in comparison to the dietary recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) and the Planetary Health Diet of the EAT Lancet Commission.

Food plays the biggest role in exceeding many planetary boundaries. It is therefore an enormous lever for reducing environmental impacts. A sustainable transformation of the food system would help to achieve Germany’s existing targets, such as greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045.

In this context, Julian Quandt shows in his presentation how great the potential is to reduce environmental impacts globally and nationally by changing our diet. Initial estimates carried out by corsus on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency show that diet leads to greenhouse gas emissions of around 5 kgCO2-eq. per person per day. A large proportion of these emissions (around 72%) come from the consumption of animal products. If people in Germany were to eat according to the updated recommendations of the DGE, these emissions could be reduced by around half. This would save around 74 million tonnes of CO2 eq. per year and also roughly halve the amount of land required for food production. Even if the land used for food production for nutrition in Germany is not only occupied in Germany, this would also contribute to achieving the land-related environmental targets in Germany. Around 51% of agricultural land in Germany is used for the provision of animal feed and around 25% for the production of plant-based foodstuffs. In addition to land use, a change in diet in line with the new DGE orientation values would also protect biodiversity and halve the biodiversity footprint of food in Germany.

Here, too, it can be seen that the high consumption of animal-based foods accounts for around three quarters of the biodiversity footprint. A comparison of the DGE dietary recommendations with the Planetary Health Diet also shows that the updated DGE recommendations are likely to be within the planetary boundaries, with one exception: the consumption of water. In addition to reducing the environmental impact, a diet in line with the updated DGE recommendations is also beneficial to health. German citizens currently consume around 32% more energy than recommended. This is reflected, for example, in current statistics on obesity.

Further work as part of the ModErn project (Modelling the ecological effects of the revised DGE dietary recommendations), which corsus has been working on since the beginning of 2024 on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency, will further differentiate and substantiate the initial estimates now available. Scenarios are also being developed to show the potential environmental impact of the updated DGE recommendations and to assess the extent to which the planetary boundaries will be adhered to.

However, a look at the current average diet also shows that it is far from being in line with the DGE’s dietary recommendations. In addition to further differentiating the guideline values, it is therefore particularly important to develop strategies for increasing the consumption of more environmentally friendly and health-promoting foods.