Food systems largest violators of planetary limits: 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission

Warning that food systems are the largest contributor to the breaching of planetary boundaries, accounting for five of seven breached boundaries, the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy, Sustainable and Just Food Systems has, in a report, called for placing justice at the centre of all food systems transformations.

The EAT-Lancet Commission is a group of scientists who developed a planetary health diet (PHD) to foster a global shift toward healthy eating and sustainable food systems. The concept of “planetary boundaries” describes limits to the impacts of human activities on the Earth system – limits beyond which the environment will not be able to self-regulate.

The nine boundaries are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, biogeochemical flows in the nitrogen cycle, excess global freshwater use, land system change, the erosion of biosphere integrity, chemical pollution, and atmospheric aerosol loading.

India performed poorly in terms of nitrogen overloading and high levels of pesticide pollution, having moved away from the global requirement of having 50-60% of intact nature on land. This has resulted in a loss of ecological functioning on aspects ranging from pollination to organic carbon sequestration in the soils, the report stated. According to the report, less than 1% of the world’s population lives in a “safe and just space” where people’s rights and food needs are met within planetary boundaries.

Plant-rich diet

Food systems accounted for 30% of total greenhouse gases globally, and transforming these food systems could cut emissions by half. A key element of this transformation is a shift to the PHD, which emphasises a plant-rich diet, with almost 75% made up of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains. The rest includes moderate intakes of animal-source foods and limited added sugars, saturated fats, and salt. In India, however, dietary transformation is moving in the opposite direction, towards excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods, leading to an increase in obesity and anemia, and widening health inequalities that disproportionately affect the poor.

Noting that the wealthiest 30% of the people drive 70% of food-related environment impacts, the report called for embedding social justice in policy transformation, highlighting that agricultural policy should be judged not only on yield or efficiency but also on whether it delivers fair livelihoods, and trade policy should be assessed on how it affects producer welfare, while corporate accountability must include decent work and transparent supply chains.

The Commission highlighted the importance of everyone’s right to healthy food and called for making the PHD accessible and affordable using policy tools such as subsidies, taxes on unhealthy foods, and restrictions on marketing.