Overview
- The review, published in Frontiers in Science by researchers including Paul Behrens and Jeff Holly, frames obesity and climate change as outcomes of the same profit-driven food system.
- Food production accounts for roughly 25% to 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is a leading driver of land clearance, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
- The authors say current food and land-use trajectories could push warming past 1.5°C and potentially beyond 2°C even if fossil fuel emissions stopped immediately.
- Obesity already affects more than one billion people and could contribute to about half of the global population being overweight or obese by 2035, with costs projected to exceed $4 trillion.
- Proposed measures include subsidies for healthier foods, taxes and warning labels on unhealthy products, limits on marketing to children, and using public procurement to shift demand, with caution that drugs and surgery do not address systemic drivers or equity concerns.