“Superfoods”, a super-impact on the environment

The growing consumption of “superfoods”, such as quinoa or avocado, is having a growing environmental and social impact worldwide that is not being taken into consideration. This is according to a study published by Ainhoa Magrach and María José Sanz, Basque Center for Climate Change researchers.

The unsustainable management of these superfoods could also cause them to lose their nutritional and natural properties.

So-called “superfoods” are being increasingly consumed in western diets which are seeking new ways of achieving healthy, “eco-friendly” diets. However, this growing demand is increasing their environmental and social impact worldwide, and this is not being taken into consideration.

A study published in the journal People and Nature by Ainhoa Magrach and María José Sanz, researchers at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3), offers an initial approach to the current impacts of the various superfoods that we eat worldwide and various recommendations to avoid negative effects on ecosystems and on a social level.

“Much has been written about the impact of crops such as palm oil and their obvious effects on ecosystems. Yet superfoods, which we associate with sustainable production and traditional use, are starting to follow the same path due to their increase in demand. It is still not too late in this case to try and prevent this demand from having catastrophic consequences,” said Magrach.

The BC3 researchers have analysed six of the most popular superfood crops worldwide by reflecting the various environmental impacts of this expanding sector, including water depletion (e.g., avocadoes or almonds), soil degradation (e.g., quinoa), reduction in biodiversity (e.g., acai), or the increase in land transformation inside natural habitats (e.g., coconut, cacao).

Traditionally, local communities have been exploiting these crops sustainably for millennia. However, as they are now regarded as “superfoods”, they have become global products in great demand. The production of many of these crops is now controlled by large corporations that encourage short-term profit over long-term sustainability. The grip of these corporations could continue to erode local food-producing systems which, in many cases, used to be healthy, sustainable and socially fair for millions of local communities and farmers.

Likewise, the reduction in their genetic variability and their use in single-crop farming suggests that they will undergo significant reductions in production and that there will be potential changes in the distribution of areas suited to their production. With the intensifying of production, this could lead to some of their supposed properties being lost. What is more, right now it is not known how these crops are going to respond to climate change.

“The challenge in achieving sustainable food production will only be addressed if measures on various fronts are adopted; these range from changing production practices to consumer diets and governance,” Magrach and Sanz concluded.

Recent studies suggest that superfoods are a broad category of products that share a set of common features: they have higher nutritional qualities, they are grown “naturally”, in other words, with little or no technological intervention, and are associated with indigenous peoples and traditional production practices often in remote locations. In fact, many of these superfoods are basic, traditional foods that have been used for millennia by different indigenous communities to prevent diseases, but which have now become global agricultural products, very popular among middle- and high-income sectors in western societies.

The study also shows that we need to invest more resources to quantify the effects that the rapid conversion of land is having in the areas where these crops are grown.

Read the article for free here:

Magrach A, Sanz MJ. Environmental and social consequences of the increase in the demand for ‘superfoods’ world-wide. People Nat. 2020, doi: 10.1002/pan3.10085

Media contact:

Ainhoa Magrach
ainhoa.magrach@bc3research.org
+34 944 014 690

María José Sanz
mj.sanz@bc3research.org
+34 944 014 690