The GLWC and Anker Research Institute are delighted to announce a new publication in the working paper series, Living Wage and Living Income for Sustainable Diets.
What is needed to make nutrition more sustainable for workers and their families globally?
The Anker methodology, the basis of Anker Living Wage and Income reports, takes into account nutrition standards based on international norms for diet and recognizes that enabling ‘sustainable diets’ is closely linked to decent standards of living for workers and families.
In the new working paper, “Living Wage and Living Income for Sustainable Diet,” Anker Research Institute researchers examine how living wages and incomes are intertwined with nutrition and how a decent standard of living can alleviate poverty-related issues, such as food insecurity. The paper is written by Anker Research Institute senior economist Azfar Khan with Institute co-founders Richard Anker and Martha Anker.
A sustainable diet should meet individual needs to have a nutritious diet that is affordable and meet societal needs to be environmentally friendly.
Diets must be both affordable and accessible to be sustainable and meet an individual’s dietary needs to be nutritious. A truly sustainable diet goes far beyond simple metrics like caloric intake. It includes ensuring sufficient macro and micronutrients, being culturally appropriate, sufficiently varied, and being environmentally friendly—which means there are numerous reasons why people may not consume a sustainable nutritious diet year-round. Many of these barriers have to do with variegated affordability linked to wages—if earned incomes cannot procure healthy food, it becomes more difficult for individual diets to meet dietary needs.
To address the problem of food insecurity, this paper argues that it is vital to consider the variety of ways in which people in different locations and of different social groups struggle to attain a sustainable diet. The authors examine several worker categories in rural and urban areas in the Global South, studying important differences between subsistence farmers, landowners, informal economy workers, wage earners, and others to obtaining proper sustenance throughout the year. With this consideration in mind, the paper suggests that a diverse set of policy options are required to ensure sustainable and nutritious diets, along with a basic set of living standards for all.
Get Involved
The Anker Research Institute is now working with companies that are interested in helping to ensure a sustainable future for this and other types of living wage research. If your organization is interested in supporting or collaborating with the Anker Research Institute, please contact inquiries@ankerinstitute.org.
