Perspectives in Global Development: Spring 2022 Seminar SeriesHannan van Zanten, asociate professor at Wageningen University and visiting professor of global development at Cornell UniversityThe need to transform the food system to avoid exceeding the Earth’s biophysical limit is widely recognized. A redesign towards circular food systems is a promising solution to achieve healthy diets from sustainable food systems. In circular food systems the production of plant biomass for human consumption is prioritized, losses are prevented, by-products are re-used as fertilizer or animal feed, and farm animals are mainly kept to convert human inedible by-products and grass resources into valuable animal sourced foods (ASF). Farm animals are therefore largely decoupled from arable land use and could provide about a third of the proteins we need on a daily basis. Although the quantity of ASF produced in circular food systems is largely in line with dietary recommendations such as the EAT-Lancet or European Food-Based-Dietary-Guidelines, it doesn’t produce the specific ASF recommended. In particular, guidelines recommend larger quantities of poultry meat over beef and pork, while circular food systems produce mainly milk, dairy-beef and pork. Our results furthermore demonstrate that a redesign towards circular food systems will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and land use. This redesign could set current biomass production on a path towards staying within the planetary boundaries. In this seminar Dr. van Zanten will discuss if the proposed intake of animal protein in dietary guidelines are compatible with the adoption of circular food systems respecting the environment.About the speakerDr. Hannah van Zanten is an Associate Professor at the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University and Visiting Professor at Cornell University. It is her ambition to unravel how circular food systems can contribute to producing healthy foods for a growing population within the c
