OBESITY, malnutrition and climate change have been named the three biggest threats to the global population, a new report shows.
Experts says a $1.4billion fund and action strategies targeting food policy and production are urgently needed.
The Lancet commission on Obesity calls for extra support to global health, environment and economic well-being as these key issues pose an imminent threat to humans.
Each are caused by methods of agricultural production, transport and urban design and land use across the world, which are putting huge strain on the planet and its population.
Agricultural production of unsustainable and unhealthy food industries should be adapted to aid public health and the environment, the commission says.
It calls for government subsidies of $696billion to beef, dairy and other food industries to be shifted to sustainable, healthy farming and for $7trillion in fossil fuel subsidies to be shifted to renewable energy and sustainable transport.
We're running out of timeWilliam Dietz
Author of the study and public health expert at George Washington University William Dietz said: “What we’re doing now is unsustainable.
“The only thing we can hope is that a sense of urgency will permeate. We’re running out of time.”
The commission also outlines the links between the three major issues, including how the mass production of processed, nutrient poor food linked to both obesity and malnutrition - as well as contributing heavily to the global production of greenhouse gases.
Commission co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn of the University of Auckland said: “Until now, undernutrition and obesity have been seen as polar opposites of either too few or too many calories.
“In reality, they are both driven by the same unhealthy, inequitable food systems, underpinned by the same political economy that is single-focused on economic growth and ignores the negative health and equity outcomes.”
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Large food production companies are capitalising on the mass production calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods and drinks, producing them cheaply and in a way that damages the environment.
According to the international Food and Agricultural Organisation, agriculture, forestry and other land uses are responsible for a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
There are four million deaths annually linked to obesity and arond 815 million people are chronically undernourished.
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