8 Ways To Find The Best Web Design Agencies For Your…Zoë Karl-Waithaka, Managing Director and Partner at BCG, there is huge opportunity in food system transformation, but it’s critical to change what is grown, processed and consumed thoughtfully and gradually.
The nutritional deficits of refined grains—through the loss of essential vitamins, minerals, fibre, proteins, healthy fats, and phytochemicals—are not their only drawback. While meat production is responsible for greater carbon emissions per ton than grain production, the massive volume of grains grown every year translates to significant environmental damage.
Fortified whole grains deliver six to seven times the nutritional value as the same amount of a grain that is later refined. They provide greater nutrition with fewer inputs, reducing the environmental footprint by emitting fewer greenhouse gases and requiring less land and water to produce the same amount of food. By using fewer synthetic inputs, soil and ecosystem health improves, and the need for smaller parcels of land reduces deforestation and thus habitat and biodiversity loss.
BCG’s analysis shows that growing, processing, and consuming fortified whole grains can have transformational benefits across a range of metrics. The firm’s research focused on the “big three”—wheat, corn, and rice—and compared their fortified whole form to their refined form.Greenhouse gas emissions caused by global grain production are greater than the emissions of Russia, Brazil, and Germany combined.
A 30% increase in the adoption of whole grains globally would result in a 120 million metric ton CO2e decrease in greenhouse gas emissions annually.A full replacement of the refined versions of the grains eaten today isn’t realistic. In addition, the shift toward fortified whole grains should be gradual. Nonetheless, using more of these foods can be a dramatically effective tool in both mitigating and adapting to changes in climate and nature.
In Africa, these “wonder crops,” particularly cereals such as millet, tef, fonio, and sorghum, are better suited to their environment. They’re less resource intensive, more pest and drought resistant, and more adapted to regional terrains than the big three.