For People and Planet: New cookbook with insights into carbon footprint of each dish

Crab cakes made with fonio, an ancient West African grain, or Ratatouille prepared with "imperfect" produce to reduce food waste, are only a couple of the over 70 recipes included in a recently launched cookbook with climate-friendly and delicious recipes.

The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and Planet" is divided into chapters that include food systems, biodiversity, sustainable consumption and production, climate, as well as food waste, providing recipes, yes, but also insights into the carbon footprint of each dish.

Renowned chefs such as UN World Food Programme (WFP) Goodwill Ambassador Chef Manal Al Alem, and Chef José Andres, as well as indigenous home cooks and farmers from around the world, have contributed to the book.

The book is the brainchild of Kitchen Connection, an organisation that for a decade has been bridging together culinary arts, sustainability and education, and driving the discussions on the need for a food systems transformation.

"We found that those in the highest-emitting countries in the world emit through our food choices about 3 kilograms of CO2 emissions per meal. The recipes in this book have 58.6 percent less carbon compared to an average meal from high-emitting regions of the world," Kitchen Connection founder and New York University Professor Earlene Cruz, told UN News.

The cookbook also highlights and follows the World Health Organization's macronutrient guidelines, making the recipes not only healthy for the planet, but also for everyone.

But most of all, it puts a spotlight on how important people's food choices are and how they can impact their immediate environment, no matter where they cook.

Cruz said: "Whether we're in cities, in suburban or rural areas, or somewhere as remote as Antarctica, consideration of our food choices and how they impact our immediate environment is paramount."

The book features 75 recipes along with instructions for preparation but also reflections and stories, including from indigenous communities and farmers, the root source of the world food's production chain.

The book's contributors were brought together by Kitchen Connection, which offers an online platform for cooking classes and education.

"Activist, restaurateur, and entrepreneur Kimbal Musk also lent his voice and introduced this book, so from the Sioux indigenous community to Antarctica, [it] is reflective of the realities of our diverse food system and inherent culinary cultures. The most gratifying thing was seeing over 200 people coming together and signing up to support this cause," Cruz said.

Ska Mirriam Moteane, a chef from Lesotho, shared a recipe for a dandelion salad tower that emits 87.58 percent less carbon than the average meal in high-emitting countries such as the United States and China.

The dish promotes biodiversity by incorporating dandelion, a nutritious green that grows in the wild and the local fields around her own home.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food systems are contributing to and affected by extreme weather events associated with climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Tackling these challenges requires a systems-based approach that addresses the range and complexities comprehensively and sustainably.

"We can start with questions that help us understand the journey of our food: Where is it grown? Who grew it? How did it get to my plate? As aware and empowered individuals, we can band together to insist upon more sustainable practices from farms and food companies and demand bold climate policy from our governments," the Kitchen Connection's founder said.

Cruz, who is also a member of the Civil Society Youth Representatives of the UN Department of Global Communications, underscores that it is necessary to eat more local biodiverse ingredients and to decrease waste in the kitchen.

"But it also needs to taste good. So that is why we need to turn to the activists, chefs, farmers, and indigenous peoples, who truly know how to grow and create beautiful recipes to help guide us," she added.

Celebrity Chef Jose Andres, recognised for his culinary and humanitarian work, is another supporter and participant in the cookbook, said: "By educating ourselves and each other on how to eat better for human and planetary health, we can limit the number of hungry people, by preventing and stopping natural disasters before they happen. The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations for People and the Planet is a wonderful example of that."

For Cruz, "what is good for humans is good for the planet" as well.

"For example, indigenous Chef Rosalia Chay Chuc's black bean recipe is the lowest-emitting recipe in the book. Beans, when consumed with other grains, provide us with complete proteins that are wonderful for human and planetary health. They are also soft to the soil and do not require a lot of water to grow. Nature itself provides the best recipe and formula for human and planetary health," she said.

Other contributors include Food Systems expert Dani Nierenberg who shared a delicious recipe called Make Do Ratatouille which reduces food waste by using "imperfect ingredients to make a perfect dish in the most delicious of ways."

"And Chef Pierre Thiam contributed a fonio recipe which uses a grain that was rediscovered, and which has completely revitalised the economy of Senegalese farmers in the region where fonio is grown, historically a place where people migrated to Europe in search of a better life while not recognising the richness already in the land that they were fleeing," Cruz said.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but when adapted to the local context, we can truly have a global impact through our food choices. We vote with our ballots as well as with our palates."