What is EAT

Today’s global food system is failing both people and planet. While over 800 million people – more than one in 10 worldwide – suffer from undernutrition, one third of all food produced goes to waste. Levels of overweight and obesity continue to increase, now affecting more than 2 billion children and adults. Unhealthy diets have become a leading risk factor for disease globally and the main driver of the epidemic of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease; putting an enormous and rapidly growing burden on healthcare systems.

How we grow, process, transport, consume and waste food is also driving our global environmental crises. The agricultural sector is the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and a major contributor to deforestation, species extinction, and the depletion of both marine systems and fresh water resources. As hunger rises – powered significantly by climate change – greater pressure mounts on an already overstretched, inefficient and unsustainable food system, further accelerating climate change and ecological decline.

It is the interlinkages between these great threats that define their urgent potency – but also provide us our greatest opportunities for action. Just as the challenges are intimately intertwined, our actions must be integrated across sectors, disciplines and continents. A core premise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is that we will never achieve the future we want by repeating past mistakes, nor by working in silos. To end malnutrition in all its forms, we must holistically address all food-related challenges. This is the premise for how EAT works.