SUSTAINABLE DIETS EXPERT CORNÉ VAN DOOREN:
‘Current eating habits are not sustainable’ Corné van Dooren has been a specialist in sustainable diets for more than 15 years. He has now been working for the nature conservation organization WWF for two years. ‘Our food consumption is the biggest threat to nature on Earth.’ TEXT RENÉ DIDDE PHOTOGRAPHY JUDITH JOCKEL
‘T
he food system is broken. Current consumption patterns are not sustainable.’ Corné van Dooren, since 2021 an expert on sustainable diets with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), is adamant about this. ‘We’ve all got to make a protein transition towards plant-based foods. The limits set by the planet require us to change our eating habits so we get two thirds of our protein from plant sources and one third from meat
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WAGENINGENWORLD | 2 | 2023
and fish. You can achieve that by raising the price of meat and ensuring that social norms change so that eating meat every day is not normal.’ Van Dooren worked for years as an expert on sustainable food at the Nutrition Centre in The Hague, getting his PhD at VU University Amsterdam along the way, for a model study on sustainable diets. He made the move to WWF in 2021. >