Our briefing paper for Size of Wales and WWF-Cymru assesses the viability of adapting school meals in Wales to be more closely aligned with WWF-UK’s Livewell diet, and to contain ingredients that are deforestation and conversion-free.
The research explores the feasibility and benefits of rolling out this diet by identifying key environmental and socio-economic impacts and providing recommendations to support uptake.
More than half of global forest loss and land conversion is attributable to the production of agricultural commodities and forestry products. In addition, the food system generates 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [2]. At the same time, the UK is facing a national health crisis, with over a fifth of the UK’s children obese by the time they leave primary school.
Public food procurement is a policy instrument with transformative potential for improving environmental and socio-economic outcomes of food consumption and production. WWF-UK’s ‘Livewell’ diet aims to guide this transition by meeting UK nutritional recommendations and dietary guidelines, minimising GHG emissions and broader environmental impacts, and ensuring social acceptability.
Our briefing paper identified five forest-risk commodities commonly found in school dishes (beef, soy-fed chicken, dairy, palm oil, and cacao) and assessed each against potential replacement ingredients based on their: carbon impact; nutritional value; cost; wider social and environmental impacts; and impact on tropical deforestation.
We identified key changes to the procurement of school food that could be adopted now, while acknowledging that the best options may evolve as new evidence emerges and food production practices improve.
[2] IPCC (2022) Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/
