Expert discussion on the environmental impact of nutrition

The project ModErn – Modeling the Ecological Effects of the Revised DGE Dietary Recommendations – examines the environmental impact of nutrition and how this would change if everyone followed the dietary recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) or the recommendations of the Planetary Health Diet 2.0 of the Eat Lancet Commission. As part of the project, which corsus is carrying out on behalf of the German Environment Agency (UBA), an expert discussion was held on December 9, 2025, to present and discuss the results. The expert discussion was moderated by Dr. Krishan Gairola, with Dr. Ulrike Eberle and Felix Lücking presenting the results.

Nutrition, i.e. what we eat and how it is produced, has a major impact on the environment, and it has long been known that changes in food production and consumption habits are necessary in order to stay within our planet’s carrying capacity. Nutrition has a particularly significant impact on biodiversity, land use, freshwater use, geochemical material flows, and climate change. In order to assess the contribution that compliance with the new DGE recommendations (Food-based Dietary Guidelines, FBDG) could make to reducing environmental impacts and staying within planetary boundaries, corsus assessed the ecological impacts of current nutrition in Germany as part of the ModErn project. Scenarios were used to illustrate how environmental impacts would change if the dietary recommendations of the DGE or those of the Eat Lancet Commission were followed. In addition, further scenarios were used to examine how additional optimizations could be achieved in order to comply with planetary boundaries.

The results have now been presented and discussed with experts from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain. The results show that the DGE recommendations would lead to significant reductions in environmental impact, as would the recommendations of the Eat Lancet Commission. Only in terms of their impact on water scarcity do the two dietary recommendations fare worse than the current average diet in Germany. This is mainly because the recommendations recommend significantly more fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds than are currently consumed. Since many of these products require a lot of water or come from regions where water is a scarce commodity, the water footprint increases. However, this could be changed by consuming fewer citrus fruits, almonds, or cashews. Seeds such as sunflower seeds or flax seeds, or fruits such as apples or pears, have a significantly lower impact in terms of water use than the products mentioned above.

During the afternoon of the one-day expert discussion, there was a lively debate about the conclusions that could be drawn from the results. The participants agreed that consumption should not exceed the recommendations of nutrition experts, as this is neither good for health nor the environment.

The project will run until April 2026. The results will be published afterwards.

We would like to thank all participants for their time and valuable contributions!

ModErn – Modeling the ecological effects of the revised DGE nutritional recommendations is commissioned by the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA, funding code: 3723 36 101 0; duration: February 2024 to April 2026).

The Factsheet „Nachhaltige Ernährung konkret: Mit den neuen Empfehlungen der DGE auch für die „planetare Gesundheit“ sorgen“ from the Federal Environment Agency, which presents the results of the initial preliminary assessment in more detail, can be found here (in German only).