Sustainability and the food system

1.Introduction

Global food production is the single largest human pressure on Earth threatening local ecosystems, driving a sixth mass extinction of species, and impacting the stability of the entire Earth system. Food systems depend heavily on land, water and energy resources and contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, related climate change and other environmental impacts. Feeding and producing food for our current population of 7.6 billion people accounts for approximately 12.5 Gt CO2e or 23% of annual GHG emissions, of which 5.6 Gt CO2e is directly related to the food choices that we make. Although global production of calories has kept pace with population growth, nearly 820 million people still lack enough food and many more consume an unhealthy diet that contributes to premature death and morbidity.

A global systems-level change is required to change and transform our relationship with food. It will take a major effort and contributions from the food system actors and sectors at all levels, working together collaboratively in an unprecedented way towards a shared set of ambitions. No single actor or breakthrough will be able to achieve this by themselves. Scientific evidence is key to guiding action. While long-term research is important, rapid research is also needed to help policymakers make quick decisions with full information.

2. From linear to circular economy
The current linear food system model is ripe for disruption and not fit to meet tomorrow’s longer-term needs. It has fuelled urbanisation, economic development and supported a fast-growing population. The linear nature of modern food production, which extracts finite resources, is wasteful and polluting and harms natural systems. Changing our food system is one of the most impactful things we can do to address climate change, create healthy production and consumption and rebuild biodiversity.

The circular economy approach offers a vision for a food system fit for the future and could yield huge benefits to economies, human health, and the environment, as well as helping to achieve many of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In a circular economy, food is designed to cycle, so the by-products from one enterprise provide input for the next. A circular economy for food mimics natural systems of regeneration so that waste does not exist but is instead feedstock for another cycle. Some by-products can provide additional value by creating new food products, fabrics for the fashion industry, sources of bioenergy and biomaterials thereby driving new revenue streams in a thriving bioeconomy. Organic resources such as those from food by-products free from contaminants can safely be returned to the soil in the form of organic fertiliser. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources and support biodiversity.

3. Three ambitions to change the global food system

Sustainable consumption and production are at the core of sustainable development.
Cities and the Circular Economy for Food, a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, identifies three interrelated ambitions that businesses, governments and cities can work towards to put the food system on a more regenerative path.

3.1 Sourcing food grown regeneratively and locally
Food comes from natural systems which are inherently regenerative. Regenerative food production means replicating these practices and employing techniques that replenish and improve the overall health of the local ecosystem. It supports natural systems, rebuilding and enhancing ecosystems, diversifying the food supply to increase resilience, reducing packaging needs, and shorten supply chains while preserving air and water quality. Examples of regenerative practices include shifting from synthetic to organic fertilisers, employing crop rotation, and using greater crop variation to promote biodiversity. Farming types such as agroecology, rotational grazing, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, and permaculture, all fall under this definition. Regenerative practices support the development of healthy soils, which can result in foods with improved taste and micronutrient content. 40% of the world’s cropland, referred to as peri-urban areas, is located within 20 km of cities. By understanding their existing peri-urban production, cities can demand food that is not only grown regeneratively but also locally and support the diversification of crops by selecting varieties best fitting local conditions, thereby building resilience.

3.2 Make the most of food
Globally, one-third of all food produced, worth nearly $1 trillion, is wasted or lost every year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Loss refers to food that spills, spoils or is bruised or wilted before it reaches the consumer, while waste refers to food that is good quality but is discarded rather than consumed. Critics say food waste is not only unethical in a world of rising hunger but environmentally destructive. Food is wasted at all parts of the supply chain and this represents a huge loss of nutrients that contrast with the current 10% of the global population that continues to go hungry. Food waste is linked to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions thus reducing food loss and waste is an important strategy for cutting emissions associated with food consumption and production.

Reducing food loss can be achieved through increased investment in collective storage facilities, food processing, technologies and cold storage chains. There is a range of food waste prevention interventions. Better matching supply with fluctuating demand for different food types, discounting soon-to-expire products and using overripe produce for in-store food outlets help retailers to reduce their food waste. WhyWaste simplifies expiration date management for food retailers, eliminating food waste and cutting both costs and complaints. Using WhyWaste’s systems, food waste can be reduced by up to 40%.Waste prevention efforts are also being addressed by organisations such as FoodShift and Feedback.

Policies that support drastic reductions in food loss and waste should be incorporated into the city-and national level public policy. Many countries are introducing a series of incentives to end food waste. Instead of throwing away leftover food, they want businesses that sell food to donate unsold to charities. Giving away “food waste” might strike some as denigrating to the poor and homeless, because it suggests that they don’t deserve quality food. But the vast majority of “food waste” around the world is perfectly edible by the time it hits a dumpster. For instance, if a vegetable is misshapen or a cereal box has a tear, this is considered food waste. In the EU food waste is being outlaw. In 2016, France outlawed food waste from supermarkets. The policy was contagious; Italy and Germany have since implemented similar bans. In 2016, Italy passed a law to limit food waste, making it easier to donate unsold food. Encouraging businesses to mark excess food for delivery to charities instead of dumpsters is an easy fix.

Mobile applications, such as Too Good to Go where consumers can connect directly with stores and restaurants to rescue unsold food that would have otherwise gone to waste, have the potential to rapidly reduce emissions from food loss and waste. The Too Good to Go company aims to save 100 million meals from being wasted by the end of 2020. Therefore, consumer’s goals to eat healthier and more sustainably are supported by technology platforms and applications that help consumers to purchase leftover food at a reduced price. New technology, supporting policy frameworks, and community engagement can rapidly transform collection systems and increase organic waste collection rates.

While all countries can benefit from improved collection systems, emerging economies are especially well-positioned due to their high shares of organic waste and early stages infrastructure. Relatively little food on the consumer end is wasted in low-income countries but more loss occurs during production processes.

3.3 Designing and marketing healthier food products
There are no healthy food choices in an unhealthy food system. Changing food design and marketing is a way to reshape our preferences and habits. This will ensure that healthy products become easily accessible, while valuable nutrients circulate back to the soil safely. Food products must be designed through a system that provides healthy production as well as nutrition. Food designers have the power to ensure their food products, recipes, and menus are healthy to both people and natural systems and marketing activities can then be shaped to make these products attractive to people. Designers can develop products and recipes that use food by-products as ingredients, and those which, by avoiding certain additives, can be safely returned to the soil or used in other ways. Similarly, the packaging that preserves food can be made from materials that compost as safely and easily as the food it contains.

4. Healthy and sustainable diets

Emissions could be lowered below 5.0 Gt CO2e by 2050 if an even greater percentage of the global population shifted to healthy plant-based diets or cut animal source foods completely from their diets and adopted either vegetarian or vegan diets. Over the last half-century, many high-income countries have undergone a nutrition transition from plant-based diets to what is known as the Western diet, rich in animal source foods, refined grains, saturated fats and sugar, and low in healthy plant-based foods.

To cut emissions in the food sector and improve health, we must swing the pendulum back in the other direction. Overconsumption of red and processed meat, unsaturated fats and dairy products are linked to increased risk for certain types of preventable diseases (e.g. cancers and heart disease). Given this, a significant reduction of animal source foods and an increase in healthy plant-based foods in our diets will both reduce global food-related greenhouse gas emissions and improve health.

A shift to plant-based diets in mainly Western industrialised countries and preventing a nutrition transition to Western diets in developing countries can happen quite rapidly. The diet can be adapted to local and regional food culture. Among consumers, the popularity of flexitarian, vegetarian and vegan diets is growing along with the increasing availability of animal source food alternatives. With increasing awareness of the role that food plays in climate change and human health, a long-term and rapid shift is possible. A global movement towards healthy and sustainable diets, policies that include economic incentives and regulatory measures and behavioural change and education can help rapidly scale healthy plant-based diets.

5. Life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment

Until recently, actions for environmental improvement and reduction of impacts focused on production processes, treatment of waste and minimising pollution from single sources. This remains important but it does not necessarily reduce the negative impacts related to the consumption of materials and resources and does not account for the shifting of burdens, where the impact on one life cycle stage is reduced by some means, only to be increased or shifted to another impact category, stage or geographical area. Burden shifting can partially or entirely cancel out a benefit. Solutions, therefore, may not be optimal and may even be counterproductive.

The key aim of Life Cycle Thinking is to avoid burden shifting. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) adopts a holistic systems approach and seeks to identify possible improvements to goods and services across all life cycle stages. This begins with raw material extraction and conversion, then manufacture and distribution, through to use and consumption. It ends with re-use, recycling of materials, energy recovery and ultimate disposal. The challenge of the life cycle thinking is to create a virtuous circle by improving the overall environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle. The precursors of Life Cycle Thinking, a relatively new concept, emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s from concerns about oil. They were referred to as Resource and Environmental Profile Analyses (REPA) and Net Energy Analyses. Since the 1970s Life Cycle thinking has become a key complementary tool in decision making, especially in the European Union where life cycle thinking is at the heart of a growing number of policies and instruments.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies and assesses the emissions, resources consumed, and pressures on health and the environment that can be attributed to different goods or services over their entire life cycle. It seeks to quantify all physical exchanges with the environment. Inputs (natural resources, land use and energy) and outputs (emission to air, water and soil) are converted into indicators for each impact category using models and scientific knowledge and then collated in a life cycle’s inventory. The inventory models are grouped into the impact categories such as human toxicity or climate change.

Taking a Life Cycle perspective requires a policy developer, environmental manager or product designer to look beyond their knowledge and in-house data and cooperation up and down the supply chain. Moreover, it also provides an opportunity to use the knowledge that has been gathered to gain significant economic advantages. Product differentiation is a key aim of marketing and differentiation based on the product’s environmental characteristics is an increasingly powerful tool.

6. Actors and policies of the food system change

Awareness of the unsustainable production and consumption of goods and services and the significant impacts on the environment is growing among policymakers, businesses and consumers. The full spectrum of policy levers is necessary for transformation. This includes both soft measures such as food labelling and consumer information and hard approaches such as laws and fiscal measures. Is important to take into consideration both short and long-term policies to make sure that the effects of decisions or the incidences on the relationship among generations are integrated. Leading business and governments need to be fully informed of the impacts associated with goods and services and play their part in reducing them.

In addition to taxation as an example of policy intervention to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods, policymakers can encourage healthier and climate-friendly diets with clearer labelling on goods, certification schemes and public health campaigns. Requirements for supply-chain transparency, policies to outlaw food waste and research into food system transformation can also play a useful role.

Policymakers want to promote sustainable consumption and production to respond to national and international environmental challenges and businesses want to improve the efficiency to boost margins and competitiveness while contributing to a sustainable society. Public makers can build on work carried out by the European Commission on the EU Ecolabel scheme and Green Public Procurement. The EU eco-label is an example of soft measure. The Flower was introduced in 1992 to encourage the production of high environmental quality products and to give consumers in Europe clear and easy guidance on greener products. The Eco-design Directive ensures that manufacturers consider energy use and other environmental impacts during the conception and design phase of a product. Another measure is the spread of a leaner production. Businesses can make more sustainable products by using fewer material resources and by encouraging the use of recycled materials.

Other effective policies to push towards reasonable behaviours are encouraging new financing models within food systems, the creation of food tech hubs, the development of new businesses. The removal of subsidies for unsustainable and unhealthy food production and consumption, national dietary guidelines to promote healthy and sustainable eating, policies enacted to make healthy food affordable and accessible to everyone and regulatory measures.

Provisions for the future include the improvement of nutrition in developing countries in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and by 2030 ending hunger, improving health and reducing the number of people undernourished, overweight and obese. Several food technologies, like plant-based or lab-grown meat and alternative proteins, may have potential in reducing emissions from food consumption. The digitalisation of the food supply chain will allow companies to easily target remaining emission and develop strategies to deal with them.

If consumers are to make the best environmental choices, they need to be well-informed. The consumer’s right to information means the right to make an informed choice of products and services. Several labelling provisions have been adopted at EU level to provide the consumer with appropriate information. The labelling of foodstuffs enables consumers to get comprehensive information on the contents and the composition of food products. Better informed citizens can make informed choices to bring about concrete changes in their attitudes and behaviour. By considering consumption needs and choosing EU eco-labelled products, consumers are contributing to sustainable consumption.

7. European Union rules

Much of the work in the domain of consumer’s right to information concerns legislation and other actions having a direct impact on market behaviour, such as standardisations and codes of conduct of best practice.

The EU Commission issues numerous environmental publications covering the main policy areas: water, air, climate change, nature and biodiversity, waste, environment, food and health. They deal with new legislation and initiatives and implementation of existing legislation. Besides, several video productions are made annually to inform European citizens of key environmental policy development and issues. These communication tools help to achieve greater visibility for the EU’s environmental policy measurably.

The EU Commission, in December 2019, presented the European Green Deal, the most ambitious package of measures that should enable European citizens and businesses to benefit from the sustainable green transition. Becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our times. Supported by investments in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses, the Green Deal can be a new EU growth strategy. Involvement and commitment of the public and all stakeholders are crucial to its success. Above all, the European Green Deal sets a path for a transition that is just and socially fair. It is designed in such a way as to leave no individual or region behind in the great transformation ahead.

In spring 2020, the Commission will present a Farm to Fork Strategy to make sure Europeans get affordable and sustainable food, tackle climate change, protect the environment, increase organic farming and preserve biodiversity. The strategy includes that European food remains safe, nutritious, of high quality and it must be produced with minimum impact on nature. The European Commission will work with the Member States and stakeholders. National strategic plans for agriculture should fully reflect the ambition of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy. Fishermen and farmers are the keys to managing the transition and the main action of the strategy are the reduction in the use of chemical pesticides, fertilisers and antibiotics and the development of innovative farming and fishing techniques that protect the harvest from pests and diseases. Farm to fork will also help combat food fraud by preventing, detecting and fighting it through coordination with the Member States and non-EU countries. Imported food products from third countries must comply with the EU’s environmental standards. The project will contribute to achieving a circular economy, from production to consumption based on informed citizens, more efficient food production systems, better storage and packaging, healthy consumption and reduction of food loss and waste, more sustainable processing and farm transport.

Conclusion
In conclusion, there are currently numerous strategies, regulations and innovations that, if implemented with synergy and cooperation at all levels of the food system, can produce changes and encourage reasonable behaviour.