Pioneering Research Into NZ Sustainable Diets

A UC PhD candidate is contributing to groundbreaking research to determine whether current Aotearoa New Zealand food policies promote healthy, sustainable diets.

Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) Business School PhD candidate Jan Hales is part of a UC research team who explored how food policies support the transition to diets that are healthy and have a low environmental impact. The team used a sustainable diet framework that includes health and nutrition, environmental, sociocultural and economic dimensions. They found that health and nutrition, as a sustainability principle, is often neglected in food policies, with no targets set to improve the availability of nutritious foods.

“We need to have policies in place that will direct us towards a more sustainable future,” Hales says, and this must include the consideration of healthy diets. The United Nations (UN) suggests healthy, sustainable diets are essential to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

New Zealand policymakers are currently under pressure to address food security, nutrition and environmental health to meet global SDGs. Hales suggests current policies will likely undercut nutrition-related objectives and hinder New Zealand’s progress toward more sustainable diets and food systems.

This is the first study of its kind in New Zealand as it examines the wider policy environment, including the production, processing, distribution, marketing and consumption of our food systems.

Management, Marketing and Tourism Senior Lecturer Joya Kemper says, “it’s incredibly important that we take a look at the food vision and strategy New Zealand wishes to implement when considering transition to a healthy and sustainable food system – the findings suggest that current policy lacks a clear focus on all aspects of food sustainability.”

Jan Hales, a Registered Nutritionist, is studying towards a PhD in marketing after working in the food industry for over 20 years. Her supervisors Senior Lecturer Joya Kemper, Adjunct Lecturer Samantha White and Professor Ekant Veer support Jan in her PhD journey.

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