“Deliver future health and planetary benefits through holistic interventions,” says Sustain

17 Mar 2021 --- This year’s Fizz Free campaign, led by Sugar Smart (part of Sustain), focused on health and climate, highlighting the impacts of fizzy drinks on carbon footprint, land and biodiversity loss, water loss and plastic pollution. Following on from the campaign, Vera Zakharov, local action coordinator at Sustain, reflects on how holistic thinking goes beyond health and planetary health.

Planetary and personal health policies are not just competing agendas for policymakers to compromise on – the Sustainable Food Places network of food partnerships and alliances demonstrates daily through projects, activities and local policy work that the best interventions can deliver on both public health and ecological health. 

Zakharov maps out further opportunities to weave together public health and climate and nature protection agendas.

“Sustain mainly supports local practitioners, educators and policy-makers in the local authority, community and local enterprise sectors. Our work around educating and engaging these local sectors is essential, and we do this via policy papers, reports, and campaigns such as Sugar Smart. Our public-facing work is focused on supporting grassroots action to improve one’s local and national food systems and supporting more healthy, equitable and sustainable food supply chains,” she tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

Prioritizing public and ecological health 
In her few years working on the Sugar Smart campaign, Zakharov has witnessed council public health teams embrace and deliver on this holistic way of thinking.

Sustain has long advocated for holistic policies that address challenges around health, sustainability and justice in unison.“On a personal level, I observe daily the impact of the junk food industry on our environment as I walk past my local woodland and wildlife-rich urban fringes clogged by chocolate wrappers and empty soft drink bottles, only to be confronted by bus stop adverts for the same products a few paces down,” she explains. 

“But while the case has been made clear by the Lancet and others on the need to mitigate climate change for the sake of human health, there is less focus on the need to tackle the drivers of diet-related ill health for the sake of their planetary impacts as well. It seems about time.”

Spotlight on climate change 
In 2019, Sustain declared a climate and nature emergency. As part of its previous campaigns, including Sugar Smart, Sustain identified ways that its work can address the climate and nature. 

“This year, despite unprecedented challenges facing local authorities, we joined forces to promote our messages, reaching new audiences while also recognizing their role in doing more on climate.

There’s no better time to embrace this role than now, according to Zakharov, as the UK prepares to host the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November and as numerous councils themselves declare a climate and nature emergency. 

“It’s more important than ever that policies and interventions on public health also help us reach our climate and nature targets,” she continues. 

“Looking beyond Fizz Free February, there are other ways local practitioners, policymakers and community activists can join forces to improve both the health and sustainability of our food system.”

The refill “revolution”
Since the Sugar Smart Campaign launch, local areas have linked sugar reduction with increasing public drinking water access, including drinking fountains and water refill points in businesses and venues. 

UK campaigns in Bristol, Newcastle and Barnet, to name a few, have partnered up with local Refill teams to campaign on the many benefits of choosing tap water as the best hydration option. 

This has linked up public health practitioners with community environmental campaigners, bringing together a more diverse cohort of communities under a shared goal. It's the kind of synergy Sustain, and Sustainable Food Places see as central to a good food movement.

As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease and people reconnect with their public spaces, consumers can make up for lost time by getting back to work on the 50 Fountains Challenge and Refill, especially in the lead up to World Refill Day on June 16. 

Advertising policies
According to Zakharov, the success of the junk food ad ban on London’s transport network has led to similar policies implemented across a growing number of councils. In 2019, Sustain declared a climate and nature emergency.

More recently, Bristol has joined these ranks, becoming the first local authority outside of London to restrict ads and promotions for products that are high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS). 

Work on this policy has strengthened links between the council and the grassroots AdBlock Bristol campaign, which helped build a public mandate for the policy and has further encouraged the council to look at including ads that promote high carbon products such as cars. 

Meanwhile, the UK has proposed several policies to help keep the public more healthy, such as banning TV advertisements of HFSS foods after 9 pm.  

Removing HFSS foods from promotions and checkout counters has also been suggested but not yet put into effect. 

UK lobby group Action on Sugar concurs that pricing policies could be extended to other categories. 

Efforts to decrease obesity in the UK were recently highlighted for World Obesity Day earlier this month, with the government investing £100 million (US$139 million) to improve healthy weights. 

By Elizabeth Green