Promoting dietary guidelines and environmental sustainability in China

Since 2015, the Chinese government has started actively promoting the Chinese Dietary Guidelines (CDGs), which target not only health but also sustainable food consumption and production. This paper first illustrates the deviations of Chinese people's diets from the CDGs; it then explores how reducing the deviations can influence environmental sustainability (i.e., greenhouse gas emission, energy use, and blue water footprint), and lastly, it investigates key driving factors behind the deviations. Our results demonstrate that the overall impact of reducing the deviations (i.e., reducing meat/egg consumption and increasing fruit/vegetable/dairy consumption) can improve both diet quality and environmental sustainability. The results also imply that reducing cereal and fruit prices may facilitate achievement of both the CDGs' targets and environmental sustainability by reducing meat consumption and increasing fruit consumption. If the recommendation of the CDGs is followed with additional environmental costs, it will be important to discuss how to minimize them.