nutrients Communication Changing Dietary Behavior for Better Biodiversity Preservation: A Preliminary Study Wajdi Belgacem 1, *, Konstadinos Mattas 2 , George Arampatzis 3 and George Baourakis 1   Citation: Belgacem, W.; Mattas, K.; Arampatzis, G.; Baourakis, G. Changing Dietary Behavior for Better Biodiversity Preservation: A Preliminary Study. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2076. https://doi.org/10.3390/ nu13062076 Academic Editor: Marilyn Cornelis Received: 25 May 2021 Accepted: 14 June 2021 Published: 17 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Business Economics and Management, CIHEAM-MAICh, 73200 Chania, Greece; baouraki@maich.gr 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; mattas@auth.gr 3 School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, 73200 Chania, Greece; garampatzis@pem.tuc.gr * Correspondence: wajdbelgacem@gmail.com Abstract: Broadly consumed dietary patterns, such as the European and Western ones, are exerting pressures on biodiversity both in Europe and globally, and shifting toward a sustainable dietary pattern has thus become a must. This paper constitutes a preliminary communication of the results of a research project on the issue. In this study, the pressures of three dietary patterns (European, Western, and Mediterranean) on biodiversity are addressed in terms of land use, water use, green- house gas emissions, and eutrophication impact indicators. The environmental impacts are calculated based on a compositional analysis of each dietary pattern and the environmental footprints of the corresponding food groups. Food balance sheets published by the FAO are used as a basis for the compositional analysis, while the environmental footprints of each of the representative food products are retrieved from related life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. The results show that a shift from the European to the Mediterranean dietary pattern would lead to 10 m 2 /capita/day land savings, 240 L/capita/day water savings, 3 kg CO 2 /capita/day reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and 20 gPO 4 eq/capita/day reductions in eutrophication potential. Likewise, a shift from the Western to the Mediterranean dietary pattern would lead to 18 m 2 /capita/day land savings, 100 L/capita/day water savings, 4 kg CO 2 /capita/day reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and 16 gPO 4 eq/capita/day reduction in eutrophication potential. Based on these findings, it is clear that this shift is urgently needed as a step toward environmentally sustainable dietary patterns, such as the Mediterranean one, to preserve biodiversity for future generations. Keywords: food consumption; environmental pressures; Mediterranean dietary pattern; Western dietary pattern; European dietary pattern 1. Introduction Food production is considered a driver of environmental pressures on biodiversity. Unless actions are taken to reduce multiple anthropogenic pressures, biodiversity is ex- pected to continue declining at an alarming rate [1]. This is a dangerous development because, firstly, biodiversity should be protected for its intrinsic value, and, secondly, its loss can lead to a breakdown in the functioning of the ecosystem as it threatens the safe provision of the so-called “ecosystem services” [2] that maintain the function of food and freshwater and regulate functions of climate and water purification, in addition to its cultural benefits [3]. Moreover, biodiversity loss and climate change are considered to be in- tertwined issues [4]. In fact, ecosystems are crucial to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts [5]. As a countermeasure against biodiversity loss, the Fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5) was released in September 2020 by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It is a final report card on progress toward implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, agreed in 2010 with a 2020 Nutrients 2021, 13, 2076. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13062076 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients