The Necessary Transition Towards Healthier Diets: An Assessment of Replacing Meat and Refined Wheat Flour with a Mixture of Different Plant-Based Foods

Abstract

Currently, at least one third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the agricultural sector, with meat production making a particularly significant contribution. Therefore, alongside the ongoing efforts to transform transport and cut its emissions, it is essential to adopt urgent measures that limit GHG emissions from food production, consumption and distribution. Without them, the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 cannot be met, and the most severe impacts of climate change will not be avoided. In principle, lowering emissions from the global food system may appear simple, as no new technology (for example, electric cars or carbon-neutral fuels) is required to decarbonize transport. However, since meat consumption accounts for the majority of food related GHG emissions, it must be coupled with a sharp reduction in the large-scale production and consumption of animal foods. Encouragingly, a growing number of consumers already choose diets that are both healthy and environmentally sustainable. As meat reduction gains popularity in these groups, plant-based products are expanding in the marketplace, mainly in the form of snacks, pasta, pizzas and especially vegan or vegetarian burgers. Thus, almost spontaneously, components of the Westernized diet, rich in ultra-processed foods, salt, sugar and animal protein, are gradually being replaced by plant-derived nutrients that are healthier and more environmentally friendly. To accelerate this trend, legal measures could be introduced to improve the nutritional quality of widely consumed, low-nutrient snacks and to promote agricultural reforms that encourage the production of nutrient-dense legumes and pseudocereals.

1. Introduction

1.1. Current Panorama of Food Production and Consumption All over the World

According to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], obesity and other disorders related to the metabolic syndrome now constitute the deadliest global pandemic, claiming at least 2.8 million lives each year [2]. The crisis is no longer confined to high income nations; in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight worldwide, and 650 million of them were classified as obese [3]. Indeed, the WHO regards obesity as the most serious public health challenge of the twenty first century, noting that the majority of the population of the world lives in countries where overweight and obesity cause more deaths than undernutrition linked to insufficient food intake [4]. Alarmingly, the situation continues to deteriorate, as the global prevalence of obesity has tripled since 1975 [5]. At present, nearly one third of all people can be categorized as overweight or obese. Rates have increased across every age group, sex, country, ethnic background, and socioeconomic stratum, although prevalence remains highest among older adults and women [6].

Thus, an excessive or unbalanced dietary intake is associated with numerous chronic conditions, including coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and several forms of cancer. Because maintaining a preventive diet proves extremely difficult for many people, once a pathology develops, they often rely on multiple medications [7,8]. This dependence imposes very high costs on national health systems and markedly reduces quality of life for extended periods [9].

At the same time, environmental pressures such as water scarcity, soil degradation, and related challenges threaten food security worldwide and act as additional drivers of climate change [10]. Consequently, the functioning of the global food system itself represents a significant climate risk; ensuring its sustainability is crucial for safeguarding both urban populations and the agricultural landscapes that supply their food [11].

Replacing the ultra-processed foods that dominate the westernized diet, now consumed worldwide, with healthier and more organic products would deliver a dual benefit. First, it would lower the incidence of disorders linked to obesity; second, it would reduce environmental pressure. A food pattern centered on minimally processed, largely plant-based items limits demand for meat and industrially manufactured products, thereby cutting the volumes of waste and packaging generated by intensive processing [12]. At the global scale, today’s excessive and nutritionally unbalanced intake drives oversupply, energy-intensive manufacture, and complex waste management, all of which release avoidable carbon dioxide. In high-income economies, the prevailing menu depends heavily on meat, so shifting from animal to plant protein would both improve the health of citizens and curb greenhouse gas emissions associated with cattle raising. Moreover, farmland currently dedicated to crops for feed could be restored to natural vegetation, enhancing carbon sequestration and recovering ecosystem services [13].

Given the current growth in the consumption of meat from intensive livestock systems, this production model is clearly unviable and unsustainable. The concerns extend beyond its documented harm to human health; large-scale industrial farming also accelerates biodiversity loss across vast regions and makes a major contribution to climate change. Livestock-oriented agriculture already accounts for roughly one third of global greenhouse gas emissions [14]. Moreover, total agricultural output has more than doubled since 1970, and with land-use change included, agriculture is now responsible for about one quarter of all emissions [15]. Dietary patterns are therefore a key driver of climate change: as per-capita incomes rise and populations urbanize, traditional menus centered on staple starches, legumes, and vegetables are increasingly replaced by energy-intensive foods such as refined sugars, fats, oils, and meat [15,16].

1.2. Current Perspectives for Measures Planned to Reduce Emissions from the World Food System in the Coming Decades

It is important to note that, despite significant governmental efforts to promote renewable energy in transport, policy measures aimed at reducing the climate impact of food and agriculture remain virtually absent [17]. Yet meeting the Paris Agreement targets [18] will require a sharp decline in emissions from the global food system over the coming decades, in parallel with the ongoing transformation of the transport sector [19].

Given the scale of current food sector emissions, any meaningful reduction must combine several strategies: modifying dietary patterns in both quantity and composition, cutting the vast amounts of food that are wasted, and improving agricultural practices [20]. Rationalizing diets at a global level would yield substantial greenhouse gas savings because foods of animal origin generate far more emissions than plant products. Excessive consumption of protein and meat calories not only harms public health but also amplifies pollution, since foods derived from animals generally demand more resources and impose a greater environmental burden than those from plants. For example, beef generates the highest emissions, with greenhouse gases per kilogram roughly ten times higher than chicken and up to twenty times higher than plant foods such as nuts, seeds, or legumes [21]. Figure 1 illustrates the emission intensity range (form low to high environmental impact) of representative animal and plant foods that dominate the Westernized diet, a pattern typically low in vegetables and rich in animal protein, ultra-processed items, sugar, and salt [22]. The average CO₂ emissions in modern diet (2500 cal/day) can be estimated to be between 2000 and 15,000 g of CO₂ equivalent per day. Within this context, beef production stands out as the leading source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas [23], and its CO₂ equivalent emissions could be reduced only partially to 50%, if the meat is raised under a low environmental impact.

The rationalization of global dietary patterns could be achieved relatively easily because it requires no new technology; the main challenge is altering cultural habits that are deeply embedded in local customs [24]. It is therefore both feasible and urgent to identify dietary models and production practices compatible with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate targets. In this context, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems has proposed the Planetary Health Diet as an optimal pattern for both people and the environment [25]. The commission argues that a projected world population of ten billion can be nourished within the biophysical limits assigned to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, provided that intake of animal protein is cut by at least half and consumption of vegetables, legumes, and nuts is doubled [20,26].

The Planetary Health Diet is a worldwide reference for adults; it counteracts the harmful effects of the westernized diet. Figure 2 illustrates the concept as a plate half filled with fruits and vegetables. The other half consists mainly of whole grains, plant proteins (beans, lentils, pulses, nuts), and unsaturated plant oils, complemented by modest amounts of meat and dairy plus small quantities of added sugars and starchy vegetables. This framework is sufficiently flexible to accommodate diverse nutritional needs, personal preferences, and cultural traditions, including fully vegetarian patterns [25]. Global adoption of the Planetary Health Diet would yield substantial reductions in agricultural GHG emissions in at least 101 countries [27]. The average CO₂ emissions for a Planetary Health Diet (2500 cal/day) can be estimated to be between 500 and 3000 g of CO₂ equivalent per day. Comparison with the modern diet represents a percentage of reduction in CO₂ equivalent emissions around 30 to 80%. A simple calculation using these numbers and the amount of population in the first level world can give a rough idea of the magnitude on CO₂ emissions that the shift in the diet represents. In fact, dietary change may prove more decisive than any other single measure for meeting the climate targets set for 2050 [28,29,30,31].

Consequently, the transition from animal-based to plant-based foods should begin as soon as possible, because products of animal origin demand more resources and generate a larger environmental footprint than those of plant origin.

Nevertheless, policies that encourage a reduction in meat consumption can face two major objections. First, many health professionals and large segments of the public believe that meat guarantees superior dietary quality, especially with respect to protein and essential minerals and amino acid [32]. Second, constructing a calorie-balanced, nutritionally adequate menu based mainly on plant foods, as envisaged in the Planetary Health Diet, demands more forethought than the prevailing Westernized pattern, which still dominates the eating habits of most people. The pressures of urban living therefore pose a significant barrier to adopting healthy plant-centered diets such as the planetary, Mediterranean, DASH, or Harvard plate models [33]. The Westernized diet, which underlies both widespread health problems and excessive greenhouse gas emissions, is thus not merely a matter of individual preference; it also reflects practical constraints that limit alternative choices within modern lifestyles [34]. Even so, interest is growing in substituting meat and refined wheat flour with commonly called smart foods that offer higher nutritional and environmental value [35,36,37].

2. Some Possible Measures to Move Towards a Healthier and More Sustainable Future

2.1. Implement New Strategies to Increase the Proportion of Plant Foods in the Diet of the Current Urban Population, Within the Concept of "Smart Food"

To increase the proportion of plant foods in the diets of urban populations, it is essential to design strategies that genuinely fit modern city life. The poor nutritional quality of the Westernized diet arises largely from the challenge of accommodating healthy eating within demanding work schedules. Consequently, city dwellers often turn to a wide range of snacks, Italian pasta and pizzas as quick substitutes for a main meal. These items are typically highly processed and provide minimal nutritional value, serving mainly as time-saving replacements. They therefore play a significant role in the poor quality of the current Westernized diet [38,39,40].

However, a promising strategy would be to leverage these fast-food formats to enhance the nutritional quality of meals consumed under current lifestyle constraints. Significant gains could be achieved by upgrading the nutritional profile of popular snacks and pasta dishes [41,42,43]. For example, an innovative baked and UVB-irradiated snack made from Pleurotus eryngiums, an edible mushroom native to the Mediterranean basin, has been proposed as a convenient vehicle for increasing nutrient intake [44]. In line with this approach, many research efforts now focus on fortifying snacks with essential vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and dietary fiber [45,46,47,48]. Parallel studies have improved the nutritional value of pasta and pizza by incorporating whole-grain flours, legumes, and other functional ingredients [49,50,51]. Replacing conventional snacks and pasta with these nutrient-dense alternatives appears feasible, given the widespread acceptance of such foods. In the United States, for instance, nearly one quarter of daily energy intake comes from snacks [41]; upgrading their composition would therefore deliver a substantial improvement in overall diet quality and, by extension, public health.

These healthy snacks would rely mainly on plant-based ingredients, the most effective option for improving both human and planetary health. They should integrate easily into meals that also include a variety of vegetables, thereby aligning daily intake with the Planetary Health Diet, the Harvard plate, or the DASH model, each closely linked to the traditional Mediterranean pattern [33]. Pasta products reformulated with unconventional flours and functional components in place of refined wheat likewise become healthy snack alternatives [49,50,51,52,53,54]. Many authors classify such items as “Smart Food” because they benefit consumers by delivering essential nutrients, benefit the planet through lower environmental impact, and benefit farmers by creating new markets and potentially higher revenues [53,54,55,56,57]. The Smart Food concept therefore represents a future-oriented blueprint for food systems that provide healthy diets, preserve natural resources, and remain economically viable for producers [58,59,60,61].

Production and consumption of vegetable and vegan burgers can follow the same Smart Food approach, replacing large amounts of meat with a diverse range of plant ingredients. These burgers are increasingly common in fast-food chains as alternatives to classic beef patties. Formulations typically employ tofu, seitan, lentils, and other legumes that provide amino acids comparable to those in meat but with much lower fat content while preserving sensory qualities similar to conventional hamburgers [62,63,64]. Their rapid market acceptance has even sparked controversy within the European Union over the naming of these meat-substitute products [65].

Smart Food therefore links a healthy, environmentally sustainable diet with farming systems capable of producing nutrient-dense ingredients in an economically viable manner. At present, however, agricultural production is dominated by a narrow set of crops—mainly wheat, maize, barley, and soybeans—that supply most nutrients for both people and livestock. This supply is controlled by a few large corporations that provide low-quality products at very low prices, limiting dietary diversity and hindering the expansion of alternative Smart Food crops.

However, this supply strategy delivers only limited nutritional value for the billions of citizens who depend on it in many different food formats. The deficit in essential amino acids and micronutrients is clear, given the narrow set of plant sources employed and the heavy reliance on refined wheat flour. Meat therefore remains a dominant feature of the Westernized diet because it supplies indispensable nutrients that could, in principle, be obtained from plant foods. Abrupt measures that simply slash meat intake could lower the availability of critical nutrients, especially essential amino acids, currently provided by animal products.

Consequently, any plan to reduce meat consumption must both raise the overall intake of plant foods and improve their amino-acid profile. This improvement can be achieved by replacing refined wheat flour with a wider range of legumes, which complement cereal proteins and furnish key micronutrients. Substituting meat with diverse pulses would not only cut greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the sustainability of agricultural production but also strengthen public health by providing the vitamins and minerals required for an adequate diet.

At present, the idea of a healthy diet is usually framed in terms of calories and macronutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Yet micronutrients, which include trace minerals, vitamins, and enzyme cofactors, act as biocatalysts that enable proper assimilation of those macronutrients. Adequate intake of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats alone is therefore insufficient; health also depends on obtaining appropriate quantities of micronutrients. Numerous studies have linked deficiencies in specific micronutrients to a wide range of pathologies. Plant-based foods offer a clear advantage in this regard, as they often contain larger and more diverse supplies of essential micronutrients than commonly consumed meats.

Public authorities should therefore give high priority to improving the nutritional quality of widely consumed plant-based items such as vegetable and vegan burgers, snack products, and convenience pastas and pizzas, which are particularly popular among younger urban consumers. A straightforward first step would be to replace refined wheat flour with whole grains blended with pseudocereals and legumes. Such reformulations would markedly enhance the nutritional profile by supplying all essential amino acids together with significant amounts of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Production lines for plant-based burgers, snacks, and pasta could incorporate, alongside wheat, a broad range of grains, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, and millet, together with pseudocereals such as quinoa, chia, amaranth, and buckwheat. Most important, a variety of legumes (for example, lentils, chickpeas, black or white beans, pinto beans, broad beans, soy, lupins, or peanuts) should be included, since the amino-acid complementarity between cereals and legumes provides a full profile of indispensable amino acids as well as additional fiber and micronutrients.

Numerous studies have documented innovative applications of legumes in familiar formats such as burgers, pasta, and bakery items [44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,62,63,64]. Because these products resemble foods that consumers already recognize, they are commercially attractive. Unlike current equivalents, legume-based versions supply a complete profile of essential amino acids, comparable to meat, while containing far less saturated fat and considerably more dietary fiber. This composition is expected to improve health outcomes and reduce obesity among consumers. Encouragingly, several of these products are already on the market. In Spain, for instance, the Pastas Gallo company sells noodles, spaghetti, macaroni, spirals, and pizza bases made entirely from chickpeas, lentils, or peas. A range of legume-rich snacks also aims to balance essential amino acids, including Falafel in Israel, Doushabao in China, Bindaetteok in Korea, Butsi in the Philippines, Mame daifuku in Japan, Batagor in Indonesia, Bolani in Afghanistan, as well as Pé-de-moleque, Acarajé, and Arrumadinho in Brazil.

Although these products are very popular in their countries of origin, they are neither widely known nor readily available internationally. The same applies to the traditional Mediterranean diet, which offers thousands of recipes that combine legumes with other functional ingredients; however, modern urban lifestyles make regular preparation of such dishes difficult. The most practical strategy is therefore to incorporate legumes and other functional ingredients into food categories that are already consumed on a massive scale, namely vegetable and vegan burgers, snack products, and convenience pasta. To realize this potential, public authorities at all levels should actively support commercial initiatives that promote Smart Food, given its clear environmental advantages and its capacity to improve public health.

2.2. Reduce the Environmental Impact of Food Production

According to United Nations estimations [66], food production accounts for roughly one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Countries that aim to lead in climate-change mitigation must therefore adopt measures for the food sector comparable to the steps already being taken to curb fossil-fuel use. Within the European Union (EU) an intense debate is under way on the role carbon-neutral fuels might play in the transition envisaged by the European Green Deal, whose ultimate goal is to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent [67]. Draft legislation now targets a 55 percent cut in passenger-car emissions and a 50 percent reduction for vans by 2030 [68].

The Green Deal also pledges to “lead a global transition towards competitive sustainability from farm to fork” [69], thereby improving the environmental performance of food production as part of a broader effort to reduce the overall environmental impact of human activity (see Figure 3). Yet, despite this stated aim, the European Union has so far introduced no specific actions in the food sector, even though the Green Deal lists among its principal objectives the improvement of citizens’ well-being and health by ensuring access to healthy and affordable food while enhancing biodiversity [70].

In fact, this green plan (Figure 3) considers dedicating adequate financing to obtain a green transition, empowering European industry and small- and medium-sized companies, boosting the circular economy, creating a sustainable food system, and preserving biodiversity. The absence of concrete food-sector policies among the member states of the European Union may reflect cultural barriers to a circular food economy, limited consumer awareness, and low business engagement [71]. By contrast, firm deadlines have been set for phasing out internal-combustion engines in favor of electric powertrains, even though full consensus on the optimal technology is still lacking [72].

Unlike the decarbonization of transport, rationalizing food supply chains to improve public health and environmental safety does not depend on new technologies or additional scientific breakthroughs. What is required is the introduction of coherent policies at local, national, and global levels that promote dietary models with less meat and refined wheat and greater use of legumes and pseudocereals. Policy action, cultural change, and financial incentives therefore represent the main levers for overcoming the current inertia and advancing the Smart Food agenda on a worldwide scale.

While a growing segment of the population recognizes the value of adding legumes and other functional ingredients to popular plant-based burgers, pasta and snack foods in order to improve diet quality, enhance health and curb obesity, voluntary private initiatives alone cannot address the urgency of the challenge. The climate emergency and the worsening health of millions call for swift action by public authorities. In the European Union, food production accounts for almost one third of the ecological footprint of the region and uses more than half of its biocapacity; about a quarter of the biocapacity embodied in EU food consumption comes from outside the Union. Citizens of the EU-27 therefore withdraw more resources from nature than local ecosystems can regenerate, which underscores the need for stronger food and trade policies that can guide a transition to sustainable food systems in Europe [73].

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 remain in force, and Goal 2 calls on every country to secure food security and sound nutrition through sustainable food systems [74]. After nearly ten years, progress is still limited. Failure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement would accelerate environmental degradation and expose an ever larger share of the global population to malnutrition and preventable diseases linked to metabolic syndrome.

Consequently, measures on food-related emissions that parallel those already applied to transport are now unavoidable. In this case, no new technology is needed; rather, policy makers in the most developed nations must establish regulations that foster a Smart Food system capable of keeping emissions on track for net-zero by 2050. This aligns with the European Commission objective of leading a global shift toward competitive sustainability “from farm to fork” under the Green Deal. Improving the environmental performance of food production is therefore essential for reducing the overall impact of human activity.

Strong action is needed without delay to curb the consumption of animal-derived foods. Production of these foods uses more than three quarters of global agricultural land and generates about two thirds of agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions, yet supplies only forty percent of the protein people consume each year. The main reason is the heavy reliance on, and low efficiency of, converting crops into animal feed. Raising cattle or sheep for meat can emit up to 250 times more greenhouse gases per gram of protein than producing legumes that deliver the same amount of protein [75].

Given the urgency of current environmental and public-health challenges and the absence of concrete food policies from the European Commission, the Union could look to recent reforms in the United States, where national, state, and municipal initiatives are beginning to support a shift toward plant-based diets and to curb large-scale production of animal foods [76]. Comparable proposals are now emerging at supranational level in Europe [77,78,79].

Effective action should combine positive standards for raw materials used in popular foods such as plant-based burgers, snacks, and pasta with disincentives similar to those already applied to fossil fuels. One option is to adjust value-added tax and other fees according to the climate footprint of individual foods, which varies widely, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Educational programs are equally essential. Consumers must understand the benefits of dietary patterns that prioritize plant products and limit meat, since these changes improve both human and planetary health [80]. Within this framework, the Smart Food concept can play a central role: it promotes crops and products that are nutritious for people, sustainable for the environment, and economically viable for farmers. Clear communication is needed to show that today’s epidemic of metabolic diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, dementia, and many cancers, stems largely from the Westernized diet [81,82,83,84,85,86,87].

3. Conclusions

Current meat consumption in high-income countries produces greenhouse gas emissions on the same scale as those generated by the entire fleet of transport vehicles, once livestock statistics are combined with all relevant emission factors [88]. Direct and indirect emissions from the roughly thirty billion animals slaughtered for food each year contribute about fourteen to sixteen percent of the global total. When methane, nitrous oxide, and land-use change linked to pasture conversion and feed crops are included, livestock-related warming rises to roughly twenty-three percent [89]. Achieving international climate goals therefore requires interventions that target activities with the largest carbon footprints. A review of the literature identifies three domains with the highest emissions: private vehicle use, meat consumption, and household energy demand [90].

Although every country has been committed for more than a decade to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement [91], most concrete measures to date focus on transport [92] and domestic energy use [93]. Food systems are widely acknowledged as a critical sector for reaching the SDG targets by 2030, yet action in this area is lagging, a delay that is particularly serious for the meat supply chain [94,95].

Although the European Green Deal sets out clear objectives for a sustainable and competitive global transition, including lower-impact food production as shown in Figure 3 [69], no concrete measures have yet been adopted to curb large-scale animal-based agriculture [76]. One likely reason is the profound cultural change that would be needed for society to reduce meat consumption and choose plant-based foods [96,97,98,99,100]. Over the past five years, a vast body of research has suggested that the most practical approach to lowering meat intake focuses on the development and widespread consumption of vegetarian and vegan burgers [62,63,64,65,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125].

Alongside the extensive literature exploring vegetarian burgers as a tool for shifting consumption from meat to plant foods, an expanding body of research now targets the reformulation of snacks, pizzas and pasta with whole grains, pseudocereals and legumes in order to raise dietary quality through a broader range of plant ingredients [41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,61,126,127,128,129,130,131]. Within this context, incorporating insects into the food chain is also gaining momentum, since insects already feature in the traditional diets of about two billion people worldwide [132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140]. The European Union has recognized this potential by authorizing insects as novel foods in Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, thereby acknowledging their advantages [141]. The main benefits include the provision of high-quality protein and micronutrients, very high production efficiency compared with other animal protein sources and greatly reduced water use and greenhouse-gas emissions [132].

In summary, a rising share of consumers now pays close attention to the health and sustainability of their diets. As a result, reducing meat intake is becoming popular in certain groups, and plant-based products are proliferating on the market. While many consumers are motivated primarily by the personal health gains that come from lowering or eliminating meat, these dietary shifts also deliver environmental advantages by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and easing pressure on agricultural land. Governments, however, have yet to adopt decisive policies in this area; food-related emissions, driven largely by meat consumption, remain effectively unmanaged and jeopardize the climate targets set for 2030 and 2050.

Any legal framework designed to limit meat in the Westernized diet must recognize recent changes in eating habits. Home cooking is less common, the consumption of ready-made meals is rising, and a new convenience culture built around delivered fast food and street food (hamburgers, pizzas, pasta and ice cream) has emerged, along with new venues for eating outside the home [136]. Regulations should therefore retain the familiar formats consumers already prefer while improving their composition, increasing both the quantity and the diversity of plant ingredients. This objective can be met by replacing a significant share of refined wheat flour with a broader range of legumes and whole grains, which are currently under represented in daily intake.

Because these reformulated foods, namely plant-enriched burgers, snacks and pasta, would remain recognizable and easy to prepare, there should be few obstacles to enforcing standards that require the food industry to manufacture them. Such measures align with the Smart Food concept, which links a nutritious diet and environmental sustainability to farming systems capable of producing healthful foods through economically viable enterprises.