The power of the dish for demand-driven dietary shifts towards biodiversity restoration and sustainable food systems

Abstract

Abstract Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, half of habitat loss and the bulk of diet-related non-communicable disease, yet sustainability agendas continue to prioritise supply-side interventions over demand-side ones. We argue that dietary shifts constitute an underused, high-leverage instrument for simultaneously advancing climate, biodiversity, economic and public health objectives and that their systematic deprioritization in policy reflects governance gaps rather than limited evidence. Demand-side change does not substitute for transformation on the supply side. It is the complement that has received far less policy attention. Drawing on findings from four EU Horizon projects and the wider literature, we reframe diet as a cross-sectoral policy lever. We outline the coordinated fiscal, regulatory, procurement and industrial mechanisms required to operationalise demand-side transformation and identify the principal barriers that a credible sustainability agenda must now confront.