The 2025 Commission is a major update that expands the scope from a focus on “healthy diets from sustainable food systems” to “healthy, sustainable, and just food systems.” The key additions are:
No. This is a misconception. The Planetary Health Diet (PHD) is not a one-size-fits-all prescription but a flexible dietary pattern designed to support optimal health across diverse populations and contexts.
It emphasizes a diet rich in plants—whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes form the foundation—while allowing for modest amounts of animal-sourced foods, including dairy, fish, and meat, depending on cultural preferences. Red and processed meat is limited due to strong evidence of health risks.
The core principle is adaptability: the PHD can align with local food cultures while encouraging nearly universal increases in consumption of whole grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, alongside regionally appropriate reductions in meat intake. It’s often described as “flexitarian”—plant-forward, diverse, and adaptable—while setting healthy boundaries against both under- and over-consumption.
The planetary health diet (PHD) is based entirely on the direct effects of different diets on human health, not on environmental criteria. The diet’s name arose from the evidence suggesting that its adoption would reduce the environmental impacts and nutritional deficiencies of most current diets.
This estimate comes from a new, comprehensive analysis. Researchers created a “PHD index” score that measures how closely a person’s diet aligns with the PHD pattern. They then analyzed data from over 200,000 people followed for more than 30 years. By combining the powerful link between alignment with the PHD (i.e. higher PHDI scores) and lower mortality with data on current global diets, they calculated that achieving a high alignment with the PHD globally could prevent about 15 million premature deaths annually. This estimate did not even include the additional benefits from reducing overweight and obesity, meaning the true potential is likely even higher.
Our analysis shows that the global food system is the dominant driver of transgression for five of the six breached planetary boundaries: land-system change, biosphere integrity, freshwater change, and biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus pollution). It is also responsible for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change and has a notable impact on ocean acidification. No other human activity exerts such widespread and intense pressure on the Earth’s systems.
Food system boundaries are science-based targets representing the food system share of the safe operating space within planetary boundaries. This “safe operating space” is based on earth systems science (water, carbon, nutrient cycles), and aims to keep climate, biodiversity, water, and land systems within a space (stocks and flows for nutrients and energy) for humanity. The commission examines all nine planetary boundaries: (1) Climate, (2) Biodiversity, (3) Land, (4) Freshwater, (5) Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), (6) Ocean Acidification, (7) Ozone, (8) Aerosol Pollution, and (9) Novel Entities (Chemical, biological, and material pollution).
These food system boundaries are based on the available evidence representing the degree of contribution needed for the food system to return or remain within planetary boundaries, estimates of minimum environmental impacts from food systems that are hard to abate (ie, through optimisation modelling across sectors), and estimates of reduced Earth system impact while also retaining productive agricultural systems.
Globally, around 775 kcal per capita per day is lost or wasted, representing approximately 20% of agricultural land use. When we waste food, we also waste all the resources that went into producing it (land, water, energy, and fertiliser) and generate unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. More than 10% (1.9 Gt CO2e per year) of global food system emissions are attributed to food that is lost or wasted. Halving food loss and waste is a powerful lever to reduce the environmental footprint.
Both. A fair food system requires that everyone everywhere has their rights to food, a healthy environment, and decent work realised. This implies that everyone have the right to access to affordable, healthy, culturally appropriate, and sustainably produced food; that everyone have the right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment; and that everyone have the right to work in just and favourable conditions; to be free to choose their work, with a salary that allows them to live and support a family; and to receive equal pay.
The Commission emphasizes that everyone has the right to a stable environment. It recognizes a deeply unjust that the overconsumption of many of us, imposes environmental instability and degradation on others, often those with the least ability to adapt.
Evidence shows that in many places the Planetary Health Diet is already more affordable than a diet high in animal products. To make the PHD affordable globally it is critical for governments to lift people out of poverty. We recognise that in a just food system, increasing the purchasing power, especially of the poorest parts of the population, is more important than reducing food prices. Among the billions of people who cannot afford a healthy diet, farmers, fishers, and other food systems workers are highly represented.
Our modelling shows that the transformation we propose could lead to a less resource- and labour-intensive and slightly less costly food system overall. The multi-model ensemble projects a moderate reduction (8%) in average agricultural producer prices for the EAT-Lancet scenario by 2050 compared with the business-as-usual scenario, which could lead to lower food prices. However, targeted policies are essential to ensure affordability and ensure living incomes for farmers, including:
We recognize this transformation has profound implications on different agricultural sectors. A “just transition” is required. Our models project that a shift to healthy diets would lead to a 36% reduction in livestock labour demand by 2050 compared with the business-as-usual scenario. This means:
Key actions include ensuring payment of a living wage (currently, 32% of the food system workforce earns below this level), protecting the right to collective bargaining (2.6 billion people lack access to it), eliminating child and forced labour, and improving occupational safety. This requires strong regulations, enforcement, and corporate accountability throughout supply chains.
The social foundations are the conditions that enable the rights to food, a healthy environment, and decent work to be met. The Commission specifies the threshold for each of the social foundations and estimates the number of people falling below the social foundations globally.
Your choices matter. You can:
The Commission’s modelling confirms that a transformation is biophysically and technically possible. It is not idealistic, but essential. The report states that “achieving access to healthy diets for all, which are produced, processed, distributed, and consumed fairly within planetary boundaries, largely remains biophysically possible.” The question is one of political will and social choice. Substantial financial resources, estimated between US$200 billion and $500 billion per year, are needed, but evidence suggests investments would rapidly shift to economic benefits of at least $5 trillion per year. The cost of inaction, in human lives, environmental degradation, and economic damage, is far greater than the cost of action.