The commission argues our current global food production, distribution and consumption patterns are driving environmental damage, worsening our health and undermining some human rights. When examined across nine planetary boundaries, our food system probably violates six of them:
- Climate change: violation (global food system may be responsible for 30% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions)
- Novel entities (pesticides, antimicrobial use): unclear if a violation is occurring because we are not measuring changes in this domain systematically
- Stratospheric ozone depletion: no violation
- Atmospheric aerosol loading: no violation
- Ocean acidification: no violation
- Biogeocemical flows: violation (nitogen more than phosphorus)
- Freshwater change: violation (but the domain closest to dropping below the violation threshold)
- Land system change: violation
- Biosphere integrity: violation
Here are some suggested food distributions that would be consistent with the planetary health diet assuming an energy intake of 2400 kilocalories (kcal)/day:
| Food group | Flexitarian food intake (grams per day) | Vegan food intake (grams per day) |
| GrainsA | 196 | 196 |
| RootsB | 50 | 50 |
| VegetablesC | 300 | 500 |
| Fruits | 200 | 300 |
| LegumesD | 75 | 100 |
| Nuts and seeds | 50 | 50 |
| OilsE | 46 | 54 |
| Sugar | 30 | 30 |
| Red meat | 15 | |
| Poultry | 30 | |
| Milk | 250 | |
| Eggs | 15 | |
| FishF | 30 | |
| Other | 10 | 10 |
Beyond the direct affect of poor diets on health, the Commission highlights the lack of attention on the indirect effects of our food systems on health:
- Climate change (heat stress, extreme weather events)
- Air pollution (agriculture accounts for 20% of the world’s mortality due to poor air quality [650,000 deaths])
- Water pollution (primarily nitrogen pollution)
- Pesticides linked to Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and possibly infertility
- Antimicrobial resistance (cattle and pigs make up about 43% of the mammalian biomass on the planet [humans account for another 38%] and domestic poultry account for 70% of the avian biomass). The commission argues that adopting the planetary health diet could reduce antimicrobial use by over 40%.
“New evidence, including dose–response relationships, has added substantial support for the health benefits of the PHD described in the 2019 EAT–Lancet Commission. This evidence further supports emphasising whole grains over refined grains and potatoes, plant sources of protein (eg, legumes, pulses, and nuts) over red meat (unprocessed or processed), and unsaturated plant oils over saturated fats; including generous amounts of fruits and vegetables, and moderate amounts of dairy, fish, eggs, and poultry; and limiting free or added sugars and salt.”
The Commission outlines several human rights associated with a sustainable and just food system:
- Right to food
- Foundation
- Cost of Healthy Diet
- Intake of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
- Harm
- Food Insecurity
- Diet Quality
- Low Birthweight
- Unsafe Drinking Water
- Obesity
- Anemia
- Diets High in Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
- Foundation
- Right to a healthy environment
- Foundation
- Temperature Change
- Nitrogen Leaching from Agriculture
- Harm
- Health Risk from Unsafe Water Source
- Health Risk from High Temperature
- Foundation
- Right to decent work
- Foundation
- Food System Employment
- Food System Worker Wages
- Average Household Income
- Access to Collective Bargaining
- Harm
- Child Labor
- Gender Wage Gap
- Foundation
- Individual and collective agency
- Foundation
- Freedom of Expression
- Non-discrimination
- Concentration of Top 4 Firms
- Foundation
The Commission included a list of solutions and associated actions
- Shift to healthy diets
- Use taxes and subsidies to shift affordability of unhealthier foods towards the affordability of healthier foods
- Combine advertisement restrictions with mandatory warning labels on unhealthy foods
- Increase purchasing power for households in the lowest quintile through different social protection measures
- Protect and promote healthy traditional diets
- Recognize and include traditional healthy foods and diets in food-based dietary guidelines and public procurement programs
- Support local markets, including the development of value chains, to promote consumer demand of underused, healthy and locally produced crops
- Implement sustainable and ecological intensification
- Ensure producers have access to enhanced governance over land, sea, production inputs, agricultural training and extension, peer-knowledge networks and markets
- Mitigate power imbalances between producers and corporations by supporting producer coalitions, introducing subsidies for sustainable practices, and regulating corporate control, global trade and financialization
- Increase public and private sector investments to cover the transition costs, research and development processes of sustainable and ecological intensification practices
- Halt agricultural conversion of intact ecosystems
- Combine regulatory measures, such as protection of natural ecosystems, suspension of logging concessions, and implementation of land-use zoning, with coordination mechanisms to reduce land expansion leakage
- Invest in community management of local ecosystems, including indigenous communities, to promote stewardship of land and water, and balance conversation and use of ecosystems
- Reduce food loss and waste. Use fiscal and regulatory policy incentives, as well as circular economy mechanisms and technologies to
- Improve storage, logistics, and supply chain data and analytics, especially in low-income settings
- Reduce retail and consumer waste through improved awareness, education and skills, especially in high-income settings
- Recycle nutrients and energy, prioritizing animal feed and on-farm waste recovery
- Secure decent work
- Guarantee payment of updated living wages for all and close the gender pay gap
- Provide training in skills that can enhance redeployment in the context of a food systems transition (especially for youth, women and the current labor force)
- Improve enforcement of legislation, in society and food system workplaces specifically, against
- Gender-based violence and sexual harassment
- Occupational health conditions
- Child labor
- Ensure meaningful voice and representation
- Ensure the existence of enabling mechanisms for collective bargaining by agrifood system workers and farmers
- Develop legal and regulatory frameworks to limit market concentration and ensure transparency in lobbying
- Improve transparency, accountability, representation and access to information through supporting civil society, enabling social audits to hold actors accountable, and increasing women’s representation in positions of influence
- Recognize and protect marginalized groups
- Implement a range of social protection policies that can provide benefits for those at risk, including mothers, people with low-income, older people and disabled people
- Procure and implement healthy and sustainable meals in schools and other institutions
- Protect basic human rights of people in conflict areas
Full commission report, J Rockstrom, SH Thilsted, WC Willett, et al., The Lancet, 2025.10.11