Sustainable food protein supply reconciling human and ecosystem health: A Leibniz Position

TLDR

Global health risks are linked to dietary choices, while animal‑based food production threatens environmental boundaries, underscoring the need to integrate knowledge to reconcile human and ecosystem health. The authors aim to outline viable solutions for reconciling healthy protein consumption with sustainable protein production through an interdisciplinary evidence base. They review protein roles for human and ecosystem health, assess production potentials and environmental impacts of plant, animal, insect, and fish sources, and advocate shifting from macronutrient metrics to whole‑diet analyses.

Abstract

Many global health risks are related to what and how much we eat. At the same time, the production of food, especially from animal origin, contributes to environmental change at a scale that threatens boundaries of a safe operating space for humanity. Here we outline viable solutions how to reconcile healthy protein consumption and sustainable protein production which requires a solid, interdisciplinary evidence base. We review the role of proteins for human and ecosystem health, including physiological effects of dietary proteins, production potentials from agricultural and aquaculture systems, environmental impacts of protein production, and mitigation potentials of transforming current production systems. Various protein sources from plant and animal origin, including insects and fish, are discussed in the light of their health and environmental implications. Integration of available knowledge is essential to move from a dual problem description ("healthy diets versus environment") towards approaches that frame the food challenge of reconciling human and ecosystem health in the context of planetary health. This endeavor requires a shifting focus from metrics at the level of macronutrients to whole diets and a better understanding of the full cascade of health effects caused by dietary proteins, including health risks from food-related environmental degradation.