The People’s Meeting: Sustainable food choices

Sustainable food choices for health and the environment – an opportunity for the future

We should eat more vegetables and less meat both for our health and for the climate. For the first time, the Nordic nutritional recommendations are both about what food is good for our health – and for the environment.
The Nordic nutritional recommendations are the result of five years of work in which around 400 researchers from various academic fields participated. The report is one of the most widely read of those published by Nordic cooperation, and lays the foundation for national dietary guidelines in the Nordic countries and the Baltic states. Inga Þórsdóttir, professor of nutrition and one of the authors of the report, will present the recommendations and discuss how the diet can simultaneously contribute to a healthy body and a healthy environment.

Since the recommendations call for increased consumption of vegetables and grains, we will also shed light on the domestic production of these food groups – currently, Icelandic farmers can grow about 43% of vegetables and 1% of grain consumed in the country. Michael Lyngkjær, a plant expert at the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), will give a talk on the opportunities that lie in increasing and diversifying vegetable and grain cultivation in Iceland.
The event is part of the program of the democracy festival The People’s Meeting.

Participants:
Inga Þórsdóttir, professor of nutrition at the University of Iceland
Michael Lyngkjær, plant specialist at the Nordic Genetic Resource Center
Emily Jaimes Richey-Stavrand, circular economy representative of the Youth Environmentalist Association 
Moderator: Bryndís Eva Birgisdóttir, professor of nutrition at the University of Iceland