Health and Sustainable Food Systems

Katie Maginnis for TEI

When discussing issues of food security and sustainability, many people mention the phrase “think globally, act locally.” This may be a good place to start, but it’s more complicated than that, says Kalidas Shetty, Professor of Food Science. In order to create more sustainable food systems, we need to take an integrative approach. As Shetty explains, “What we’re seeing already is that food, health, energy, environment, and of course water and sanitation – they all connect. If we don’t understand that, we cannot address the issue.”

For instance, the “green revolution” of the 1970s involved farming methods that were “highly dependent on monoculture and petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides,” says Shetty. While this movement was somewhat successful in providing food to the hungry, the nutritional and environmental drawbacks were not considered. Regarding nutrition, the foods that emerged from the green revolution were primarily based on refined carbohydrates and lipids. As a result, the worldwide epidemic of malnourishment has rapidly shifted to global calorie-excess diseases, such as Type II Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In terms of calories, Shetty says, “we are now producing enough food for 12 billion people, and our population is 6.7 billion.”

To address this epidemic, Shetty believes that “food diversity, traditional foods, and local foods are among the logical and best ways to achieve food security, health, and environmental sustainability.” With this in mind, Shetty has spent the past three years creating a research institute of food systems biology in Mangalore, India. This is a targeted location, considering the fact that nearly 40 percent of the 140 million people in India have Type II Diabetes, most likely due to diet.

“My goal now is trying to group all the foods in a geographic environment that have evolved there for a long time,” Shetty explains. In a study published last year in the Journal of Medicinal Food, Shetty examined the effects of a traditional diet on Native Americans, an ethnic group of whom 70 percent are diabetics in some specific communities. As he explains, “indigenous communities in this country are totally uprooted from their traditional food diversity.”

By comparing the current diet of fried bread and refined sugar with the traditional “three sisters” – native corn, beans, and pumpkin, Shetty found evidence supporting his ideas. Overall, the traditional foods had much higher protective ingredients to potentially combat Type II Diabetes and hypertension. “Just switching back to a diet that’s their own, on which they have built a spiritual base,” is beneficial, he says. “Here we give the scientific rationale.”

In addition to this study, Shetty is researching the potential benefits of traditional “Soul Food” elements originating from West Africa. From the perspective of a microbiologist, he is applying the concept of “redox biology” to this food system. As Shetty explains, “The rationale for redox biology is that environmental breakdown and human disease are interconnected, and emerge due to cellular breakdowns in dominant oxygen-based higher organisms.” By studying foods on a cellular level, especially those that have been linked to good health in West Africans, he hopes to develop food systems that will fight Type II Diabetes and heart disease in African-Americans.

With respect to environmental quality, Shetty is hopeful: “We are seeing more integrated farming systems that use natural fertilizer and more sustainable production systems. Over time the ecology and soil biology is better.” While he suggests that we return to a local agricultural system based on traditional foods, Shetty also approves of developing new technologies. “No one is calling for us to live like hermits,” he says. “We can bring new technologies in and integrate them with the logic of the Earth.” If we keep in mind the connections that food systems have to health and the environment, Shetty says, “we will have a better rationale to move forward in a more sustainable manner.” With a barrel of oil projected to stay in the range of $150 for some time, we will be forced to accept this reality.