Justice in Food in New EAT-Lancet Commission Report

The 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission (2.0) updates the global food agenda by making social justice an essential foundation alongside planetary health and healthy diets.

In an era marked by overlapping crises- climate change, biodiversity loss, rising inequality and diet-related health burdens, the question of justice in food emerges as both urgent and foundational. 

The latest EAT-Lancet Commission (2025) report argues that our global food systems are neither healthy for people nor sustainable for the planet, and that a transformation must place justice at its core. The concept of justice in food systems thus underpins the new agenda: ensuring access to nutritious diets, fair working conditions, and respect for planetary boundaries. 

Evolution of the Food Systems Agenda: From Sustainability to Justice

The 2025 update of the EAT-Lancet Commission builds on the landmark 2019 report, which defined the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) and quantified food production’s share of environmental boundaries.  However, the 2025 edition marks a foundational shift: it formally integrates social foundations and human rights into the framework, thereby bringing the principle of justice in food to the fore. Food systems that meet calorie targets but fail to deliver healthy diets, decent work or equitable access cannot be considered sustainable.

In the context of rising food prices, armed conflicts, and pandemic-driven supply shocks, the report emphasises that food systems must be resilient, inclusive and just. The new framing moves beyond efficiency and output, to ask: who eats what, under what conditions, and at what cost to workers, communities, ecosystems and the climate?

Key Findings: A Justice Deficit

The 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission report underscores that transforming global food systems is central to addressing the interlinked crises of climate change, public health, biodiversity loss, and social justice. It warns that even if the world successfully transitions away from fossil fuels, existing food systems alone could breach the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming target, making food a decisive factor in the global climate equation.

‘Food systems’ encompass the production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food and the economic, social, health, and environmental outcomes they generate. These systems now drive five major planetary boundary transgressions: land-system change, biosphere integrity loss, freshwater depletion, biogeochemical imbalances, and greenhouse gas emissions. Together, agriculture and food-related activities account for nearly 30% of total global GHG emissions.

Within this ecological imbalance lies a stark justice deficit. The report finds that fewer than 1% of the global population live within the “safe and just space” where food rights, nutrition, and environmental limits are all satisfied. Meanwhile, the richest 30% of people cause over 70% of food-related environmental pressures, and about 32% of food-system workers earn below a living wage. These inequalities show that the required transformation is not only ecological or nutritional, but fundamentally about achieving justice in food.

In countries like India, the challenge is particularly acute. Despite a declining contribution of agriculture to GDP, it will remain a major source of employment by 2050. Restructuring food systems, therefore, must reconcile productivity, livelihood security, and ecological sustainability.

Key Analysis

Scientific Imperative: Planetary Boundaries and the Planetary Health Diet

Food systems today are the largest driver of transgression for several planetary boundaries including land-use change, freshwater use, nutrient pollution and biodiversity loss. In the 2019 report the Commission already noted: “Food is the single strongest lever to optimise human health and environmental sustainability on Earth.” The 2025 edition further quantifies this and reveals the potential of the Planetary Health Diet, a largely plant-rich, minimally processed dietary model, to avert up to 15 million premature deaths annually.

The PHD emphasises whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables and nuts, with significantly reduced red meat and added sugars. But the science of diet alone isn’t enough: the modelling shows production systems must shift radically – legume production must increase by up to 190%, vegetable production by 42-48 %, and overall animal production decline by 22-27 %.

Justice in Food: Operationalising Equity

The report sets out four inter-linked dimensions of justice in food: Recognition, Representation, Distribution and Agency.

• Recognition means valuing diverse food cultures, knowledge systems and identities, ensuring that traditions and local diets count.
• Representation implies that farmers, workers, Indigenous communities and marginalised groups have a meaningful voice in food-system decision-making.
• Distribution addresses the unequal allocation of resources, environmental burdens and benefits across people and places.
• Agency and food sovereignty mean communities can make autonomous choices about food production and consumption.

Affordability and Equity Crisis

One of the most sobering insights is the so-called “affordability paradox”: although the PHD would deliver major health and environmental benefits, it remains economically inaccessible for more than 1.5 billion people globally. 

The cost of adopting the PHD exceeds total household per-capita income in many low-income regions, violating the principles of distributive justice. Moreover, the report reveals that among food-system workers globally, about 32 % earn less than a living wage, a clear failure of economic justice.

Road Ahead

Building on its findings, the EAT-Lancet Commission (2025) outlines a transformative roadmap to create food systems that are equitable, nutritious, and sustainable within planetary boundaries.

Ensure Equity and Justice: Empower small farmers, local producers, and marginalized groups to ensure fair access to healthy diets and sustainable livelihoods.

Integrate Food Policies with Global Goals: Align national food systems with the Paris Agreement, Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and national dietary guidelines to ensure policy coherence between climate, biodiversity, and nutrition.

Promote Conservation Agriculture: Encourage practices like minimal soil disturbance, continuous soil cover, and crop diversification to enhance soil health, water efficiency, and climate resilience.

Adopt the Planetary Health Diet (PHD): Promote diets rich in plants, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, with moderate fish, dairy, and meat intake to improve nutrition and reduce environmental footprints.

Conclusion

The updated EAT-Lancet Commission report marks a watershed moment: it anchors the imperative to transform food systems within a strong justice and human-rights framework. The message is clear: a healthy planet and healthy people cannot be achieved unless questions of fairness, equity, access and representation are central. 

The concept of justice in food thus becomes not a peripheral aspiration but an essential foundation for food-system transformation. As the report’s data reveal, fewer than 1 % of the world’s population live in a safe, just space where their nutrition needs are met within planetary limits. 

The path ahead demands coordinated policy, governance reform, market incentives, cultural inclusion and above all a commitment to fairness and dignity. As we prepare for this agenda in a national context marked by malnutrition, agricultural diversity and deep socioeconomic inequality, the principle of justice in food offers a compelling framework to align nutrition, environment and equity.

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EAT-Lancet Commission Report 2025 FAQs

1. What is the EAT-Lancet Commission 2025 report about?

Ans. It highlights how justice must be central to global food system transformation.

2. What does ‘justice in food’ mean?

Ans. It means fair access to nutritious diets, decent work, and environmental sustainability.

3. What are the four pillars of justice in food?

Ans. Recognition, Representation, Distribution, and Agency.

4. What is the Planetary Health Diet (PHD)?

Ans. A balanced, mostly plant-based diet that supports human and planetary health.

5. What is the ‘affordability paradox’ in the report?

Ans. The Planetary Health Diet is too costly for over 1.5 billion people globally.