Report on the 48th SDGs Seminar: “Global Nutrition Issues: Towards Realising Diets that Promote Health for the Planet and its People” (May 1, 2025)

2025年6月2日更新

Lecturer Ms. Nomura

On Thursday, 1 May 2025, the 48th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seminar, “Global Nutrition Issues: Towards Realising Diets that Promote Health for the Planet and its People”, was held. The seminar hosted Ms Marika Nomura, an International Cooperation Specialist at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Participants gained knowledge about nutrition issues and learned about the diverse challenges and initiatives involved.

When we hear the term 'nutrition issues', malnutrition is probably the first thing that comes to mind. However, overnutrition is also increasing rapidly. This not only harms individual health, but also leads to societal issues such as rising food costs.

At the seminar, we were introduced to the “Healthy Village Promotion Project” in the Solomon Islands. The objective of this initiative is to ensure the health and well-being of communities in the Solomon Islands, which is facing the threat of sea level rise due to climate change. Specifically, it supports soil preparation to enable vegetable cultivation, even on islands, thereby improving dietary nutritional balance. Health promotion volunteers also provide advice on health issues.

Scene from the seminar

The most memorable concept was 'Planetary Health', which signifies safeguarding human health within planetary limits. This means aiming for diets that support our health and are gentle on the Earth. In recent years, climate change has had a profound impact on us and accelerated changes in our eating habits. It's easy to overlook this in our daily lives, but the Earth's resources are finite. The relentless consumption of these resources stems from the accumulation of seemingly small individual actions.

I believe that 'cherishing the Earth' means more than just caring for the environment; it also means caring deeply for people on the other side of the globe. By considering our fellow inhabitants of this planet, as well as the new lives that will share it with us in the future, I believe we can take proactive steps.

I believe that many people, myself included, find it difficult to engage immediately with global issues such as nutritional problems. However, after this lecture, I realised that the first step we can take is to find out more. We must know the current state of the world. To learn about the initiatives being undertaken globally. It can be easy to feel like these are someone else's problem. Nevertheless, I always want to maintain a desire to learn about current events around the world. I believe that this mindset will help us to notice the problems happening around us.

Japan is a relatively privileged country in many ways, but precisely because of that, the individual sufferings can sometimes be hard to see. I hope that everyone will utilize the knowledge they gain to work towards ensuring the happiness of those around them and creating a world in which the circle of peace expands.

（R.K., freshman student, Department of Languages and Culture, Faculty of Letters and Education）