title: How the Organic Food System Supports Sustainable Diets and Translates These into Practice.
abstract: Organic production and consumption provide a delineated food system that can be explored for its potential contribution to sustainable diets. While organic agriculture improves the sustainability performance on the production side, critical reflections are made on how organic consumption patterns, understood as the practice of people consuming significant amounts of organic produce, may also be taken as an example for sustainable food consumption. The consumption patterns of regular organic consumers seem to be close to the sustainable diet concept of FAO. Certain organic-related measures might therefore be useful in the sustainability assessment of diets, e.g., organic production and organic consumption. Since diets play a central role in shaping food systems and food systems shape diets, the role of organic consumption emerges as an essential topic to be addressed. This role may be based on four important organic achievements: organic agriculture and food production has a definition, well-established principles, public standards, and useful metrics. By 2015, data for organic production and consumption are recorded annually from more than 160 countries, and regulations are in force in more than 80 countries or regions. The organic food system puts the land (agri-cultura) back into the diet; it is the land from which the diet in toto is shaped. Therefore, the organic food system provides essential components of a sustainable diet.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Home Economics, Nutritional Science and Facility Management, Münster University of Applied Sciences , Münster , Germany.
authors.forename: Carola
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Strassner
authors.affiliation: Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-MAIB) , Bari , Italy.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cavoski
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro , Bari , Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Cagno
authors.affiliation: Department Organic Food Quality and Food Culture, University of Kassel , Witzenhausen , Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kahl
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN), Université Paris 13/INRA/INSERM , Bobigny , France.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kesse-Guyot
authors.affiliation: Nutrition, Obésité, Risque Thrombotique Research Unit (NORT), Aix-Marseille Université , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lairon
authors.affiliation: The Organic Research Centre , Newbury , UK.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lampkin
authors.affiliation: Organic Food and Farming Division, Bioforsk Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research , Tingvoll , Norway.
authors.forename: Anne-Kristin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Løes
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences , Tartu , Estonia.
authors.forename: Darja
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Matt
authors.affiliation: Department of Socio-Economics, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) , Frick , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Niggli
authors.affiliation: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Center on Food and Nutrition , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paoletti
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences , Tartu , Estonia.
authors.forename: Sirli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pehme
authors.affiliation: Department of Functional and Organic Food and Commodities, Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer Science, Warsaw University of Life Sciences , Warsaw , Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rembiałkowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Socio-Economics, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) , Frick , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schader
authors.affiliation: Department of Socio-Economics, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) , Frick , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stolze
keywords: consumption; diet; food system; health; nutrition; sustainability; sustainable nutrition