Food and Sustainability: What We Can Learn from Earth’s Planetary Boundaries

This product is free for HEN DPG members.

This webinar was presented live on October 29, 2020.

Our food system has a larger environmental impact than perhaps any other human activity. In this one-hour webinar, Dr. Emery will present a close look at the ways food and agriculture affect planet Earth, the differences in environmental burdens between foods, and the effects of food production on global and local health. While the primary role of the food system is to provide a nutritious diet to the world’s population, different complete or healthy diets can have dramatically different impacts on the environment and unintended consequences for public health. Dr. Emery will highlight the scientific basis for the agriculture – environment connections and provide space for conversation and questions about the role of food and nutrition in global sustainability.

CPE Level: 1
CPEU: 2
Performance Indicators: 6.2.5, 7.2.6, 8.1.2

Learning Objectives

• What are the “planetary boundaries” and how can we use them to define ‘sustainability’ and sustainable diets?
• How does our food system contribute to the planetary boundaries?
• What are the biggest differences between food groups from an environmental perspective?

Speaker

Isaac Emery, Ph.D.

Isaac Emery is an environmental sustainability scientist and consultant with over a decade of experience in quantitative sustainability, systems thinking, and life cycle assessment. His recent work focuses on food and agriculture-based solutions to our most critical environmental problems. Dr. Emery is the founder and principal consultant of Informed Sustainability Consulting, where he partners with alternative protein companies and non-profit organizations to evaluate and communicate the role of novel foods and healthy diets in a sustainable society.

Isaac is also the lead sustainability analyst for the HSUS Forward Food program and a co-chair of the Food and Climate Alliance – an international network working to highlight plant-centric diets as a critical climate change solution. His past work includes public-facing reports on food sustainability issues as well as research projects on agriculture and energy with major universities, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. He has written over a dozen scientific papers and presented to a wide range of audiences on life cycle assessment and sustainable agricultural systems.