Obstacles :
- Lobbying (with politicians) to "create doubt" around scientific questions that can call into question financial profits.
- Scientists can offer breakthrough solutions but these are not always heard by political decision-makers if there is little money to be made behind them.
- The (ultra) reductionist thought which is dominant and difficult to challenge because it has immense academic and financial power, while a more holistic approach to rupture is urgently needed. For example, too much focus on nutrients (nutri-centered approach) rather than on the food and its matrix for the relationship with human and environmental health.
- Empirico-inductive and holistic science not yet sufficiently recognized while it can provide quick and effective solutions for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. See for example our work on the 3V rule and the role of the food matrix in human and environmental health:
1. Fardet A, Rock E. Chronic diseases are first associated with the degradation and artificialization of food matrices rather than with food composition: calorie quality matters more than calorie quantity. Eur J Nutr 2022;62:2239-53.
2. Fardet A, Rock E. How to protect both health and food system sustainability? A holistic ‘global health’-based approach via the 3V rule proposal. Public Health Nutr 2020;23:3028-44
3. Fardet A, Rock E. Reductionist nutrition research has meaning only within the framework of holistic thinking. Advances in Nutrition 2018;9:655–70.
Opportunities :
- Awareness and the current environmental emergency can make political decision-makers more open and receptive to the voice of scientists.
- Research and development of less destructuring technological processes for food: how to preserve minimally processed foods for a long time without ultra-processing them for more sustainable food systems?
- Relocation of food processing.
Dr. Anthony Fardet