Feeding the Planet Without Breaking It
Nora Gau
How can humanity feed a growing global population without undermining the ecological systems that sustain life? The EAT-Lancet Report offers a scientifically grounded vision for healthy diets within planetary boundaries. Researchers from the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH) reflect on its relevance - from biodiversity and plant resilience to pollution, food systems, and human behaviour.
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The EAT-Lancet Report: Science for Food Within Planetary Limits
Published in 2019 by the EAT-Lancet Commission and with a major update in 2025, the EAT-Lancet Report has become one of the most influential scientific reference points in debates about the future of global food systems. Written by an international panel of leading experts in nutrition, environmental science, agriculture, climate research, and public health, the report brings together evidence across disciplines to address a pressing global challenge: how to feed a rapidly growing population without exceeding the planet’s ecological limits.
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Nora GauFood production is the main driver of biodiversity loss. Protecting diversity requires halting the expansion of agriculture into untouched natural areas.
Franz Essl, ecologist and biodiversity researcher at the University of ViennaRead the full interview here
What’s Going Wrong: Food Systems in Crisis
The diagnosis is clear. Current food systems are failing on two fronts. They contribute substantially to climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, freshwater depletion, and pollution, while at the same time undermining human health through malnutrition, diet-related diseases, and unequal access to food. In short, the way we produce and consume food today threatens both planetary stability and human well-being.
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Nora GauClosing nutrient cycles, as urged by the EAT-Lancet report, is vital. Yet nutrients are often recycled with pollutants, for example via sewage sludge. Without strict source control, the circular economy may shift problems rather than solve them.
Thilo Hofmann, environmental scientist and co-director of the ECH at the University of ViennaRead the full interview here
A Way Forward: From Planetary Health Diets to Systemic Change
To address this crisis, the Commission proposes the Planetary Health Diet: a largely plant-based dietary pattern designed to promote human health while remaining within planetary boundaries. But dietary change alone is not enough. The report calls for profound transformations across the entire food system, including agricultural practices, nutrient and resource cycles, land use, food waste reduction, and governance structures. Closing nutrient cycles, protecting ecosystems, and rethinking incentives in food production and trade are central to this vision.
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From an economic perspective, the challenge is not whether healthier and more sustainable diets are affordable, but whether policies are willing to correct incentives so that they become the rational choice.
Alexandra Brausmann, environmental economist at the University of ViennaRead the full interview here
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Food, Health and the Planet
Although the EAT-Lancet Report focuses on food systems, the issues it raises go far beyond nutrition. The challenges it addresses cannot be understood or resolved within the boundaries of any single discipline. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource use, and human behaviour intersect most visibly in the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed. Addressing these interconnected pressures requires an integrated scientific perspective that brings together environmental sciences, ecology, chemistry, systems biology, psychology, and the social sciences. It is precisely this interdisciplinary approach that also shapes the vision and work of the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH).
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derknopfdruecker.comThe EAT-Lancet Report outlines a bold vision for sustainable food systems requiring major lifestyle changes. Turning this vision into effective policy and real behavioural change depends on insights from the social and behavioural sciences.
Sabine Pahl, environmental psychologist at the University of Vienna and Co-Director of the ECHRead the full interview here
A Starting Point for Dialogue
In the quoted interviews, ECH researchers reflect on the EAT-Lancet Report from their respective fields - highlighting where it provides clarity, where tensions remain, and why interdisciplinary research is essential for navigating the complex links between food, health, and the planet.
Their voices serve as an invitation: to read the report not as a prescriptive blueprint, but as a starting point for dialogue, critical reflection, and collaborative action across disciplines and societies.
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Wolfram WeckwerthThe EAT‑Lancet report defines a ‘safe operating space’ for food systems, but that global framework must be translated into individual behaviour. That’s what our platform is for: turning planetary health principles into data‑driven, personalised nutrition.
Wolfram Weckwerth, biochemist and systems biologist at the University of ViennaRead the full interview here
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