Food and sustainability:

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• Food and sustainability
• 10 thoughts
• Tim Lang
• Centre for Food Policy, City University London
• t.lang_at_city.ac.uk
• Sustainable Development Commission
• Whats hot or not the post Copenhagen menu,
  Food Drinks Innovation Network, Staverton Park,
  January 27 2010

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1. Macro food policy is hot again

• Copenhagen failure not surprising
• Climate change not key but part of a web
• Food price spike 2006-08 ? neo-Malthusianism
• Too crude implies need to produce more food
• Desperate hope for new technical fix GM
  biotech
• Actually, there is enough for now but its
• badly distributed / unequal / wasted
• Crunch issue is where to focus production or
  consumption? Or both? Change diet or farming?
  What to grow how? What to eat?

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2. The progress is faltering
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The C20th policy formula is under threat(the
Productionist paradigm)

• Science capital distribution ? output ?
  cheaper food
• ? health progress

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World food production, per capita 1960-2007

• Source FAO figs / Defra Food Pocketbook 2009 p35

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Proportion of undernourished people, global,
1990-2007

• Source FAO SOFI 2008 p7

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UK food production, 1988-2008

• Source FAO figs / Defra Food Pocketbook 2009 p37

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3. Part of the problem is institutional failure

• Global
• UN (FAO/WHO/UNEP etc) vs Bretton Woods WTO
• EU
• Silence / reticence by EC
• CAP the elephant in the room
• UK
• Marginalised in EU
• No clear policy framework leave it to Tesco vs
  rhetoric about plastic bags

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Copenhagen exposed fragmentation

• State ?? Companies ?? Consumers
• Weakness of EU structures
• CAP vs biofuels vs energy vs transport
• Legacy of Washington Consensus
• Consumerism but consumers arent changing fast
  enough
• Huge cultural threats
• meat progress
• More cheaper better

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4. But there are signs of policy change

• E.g. UK food policy growth
• BSE / FMD ? Curry Commission 2002
• PMSU Food Matters ? Food 2030
• Devolved Administrations take the lead
• Stirring among EU MSs
• NL, Sweden, UK

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• Sweden takes the lead?
• Offers evidence-based eco-nutrition guidelines
  (May 2009)
• Now submitted to the European Commission
• Joint work by National Food Administration
  Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
• Other input (e.g. Swedish Board of Fisheries)
• Framed around eco-conscious consumers, rather
  than population
• Focus on key food groups
• BUT PREMISSED ON
• - thoughtful consumers
• - voluntarism

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NL Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Food Quality
June 2008

• Policy Document on Sustainable Food towards
  sustainable production and consumption of food
  http//www.minlnv.nl/portal/page?_pageid116,16403
  21_dadportal_schemaPORTALp_file_id39545
• Objectives
• Stimulating sustainable innovations in the Dutch
  agrifood complex
• Enable and entice Dutch consumers to buy
  sustainable (and healthy) food
• Influencing the international agenda
• Approach
• voluntarism, information, innovation (GMOs),
  productivity, etc

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UK stirs into action? Two UK Cabinet Office 2008
reports
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5. C21st food must face the New ( Old)
Fundamentals

• Climate change
• Fuel / oil / energy
• Water
• Land use
• Biodiversity
• Labour

• Population (9bn 2050)
• Urbanisation
• Affluence (BRICs )
• Inequality
• Nutrition transition
• Healthcare costs
• Waste

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6. Knowing this, Industry is creeping into
choice-editing

• This carries risks
• Not just reputational / brand risks but
  ideological risks
• Not nanny states but nanny corporations
• Implies omniscience
• but it is necessary
• Packs arent big enough to put whats needed on
  the label

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Less choice, more choice-editing?
Source Lang, Barling Caraher (2009) Food
Policy, OUP
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7. Notion of sustainable diets is going to be key
battleground

• current corporate focus is bottom-up ie on
  sustainable supply chains
• This is still productionist
• More attention now needed on sustainable diets
• consumer / behaviour change
• a more cultural focus

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Fish eat more, less, differently or none?

• YES (nutritionists)
• long chain omega 3s / 2 portions a week (one
  oily)
• FSA, Eurodiet, WHO etc
• NONE or LESS (environmentalists)
• Stocks running out
• strong evidence FAO (SOFIA), RCEP 2004, Pew 2003
• DIFFERENTLY (eco-business)
• Marine Stewardship Council, Organics, China

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8. The nettle to grasp is the more complex world
of omni-standards or poly-values

• Multiple goals need to be built into supply
  chains
• Focus on cost, convenience and safety will jostle
  with other values

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Omni-Standards or poly-values, not trade-offs

• Environmental
• Climate change
• Water
• Land use
• Biodiversity
• Waste reduction
• Health
• Safety
• Nutrition
• Access / affordability
• Information education

• Quality
• Taste
• Seasonality
• Localness (?)
• Fresh (?)
• Identity / authenticity
• Social values
• Pleasure
• Animal welfare
• Working conditions
• Equality
• Cost internalisation
• Trust

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New narrative emerging eg. H2O per calorie
(health)
source Joanne Zygmunt / Waterwise 2007
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9. The terrain of sustainable diets is emerging
SDCs work
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UKs Sustainable Development Commission project
2009

• A scoping project ie opening not final words
• Taking issue across govt DH, FSA, Defra, EA etc
• Contracted to Oxford University BHF HPG
• 3 processes
• Literature review
• Stakeholder consultation
• Review existing positions interventions
• Developed a hierarchy of priorities
• Report done, consulted Govt and sent to Defra

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Key findings

• no defn of sustainable diet yet agreed but
  stakeholders see need for one
• Identified 10 key guidelines for sustainable
  diets
• Reviewed 44 published academic research studies
  and reports
• Found more positive synergies (win-wins) than
  tensions (win-lose) eg
• Lowering consumption of low nutritional value
  foods (fatty/sugary foods drinks) has mainly
  ve impacts on health, environment and reducing
  social inequalities.
• Found gaps in the evidence, most notably with
  respect to economic impacts of dietary changes.
• Produced a 3-level hierarchy of behavioural
  impact

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Identified existing UK framework guidelines

• Consume less food and drink
• Accept different notions of quality
• Accept variability of supply
• Shop on foot or over the internet
• Cook and store foods in energy conserving ways

• Prepare food for more than one person and for
  several days
• Reduce food waste
• Reduce consumption of meat and dairy products
• Reduce consumption of food and drinks with low
  nutritional value
• Reduce consumption of bottled water

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Changes where health, environmental, economic and
social impacts are likely to complement each
other

• Reduce consumption of meat dairy products
• Reduce food drink of low nutritional value
  (fatty, sugary foods tea, coffee alcohol)
• Reduce food waste.

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Changes likely to have a significant positive
sustainability impact, but where gains in one
area might have a more negative impact elsewhere

• Increase fruit veg consumption, particularly
  seasonal and field grown
• Consume only fish from sustainable stocks
• Eat more foods produced with respect for wildlife
  environment e.g. organic food

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Changes making smaller contribution to dietary
sustainability, with largely complementary
effects across issues

• Reduce energy input by shopping on foot or over
  the internet
• Cook store food in energy conserving ways
• Drinking tap water instead of bottled water

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Reviewed practical initiatives

• Found 40 on sustainable food supply
• Govt ? local food growing projects
• Assessed 12 for the breadth of sustainability
• Only 3 initiatives had good sustainability scope
• Few had adequately evaluated possible impacts
• Some ve moves towards consistency
• eg Healthier Food Mark for public sector caterers

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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Recommendations include

• DA(F) to oversee cross-Govt guidelines
• Step 1 FSA Eatwell Plate become Sust Diet
• Step 2 develop full sustainability guidance
• Defra, FSA, DAs
• seek EU position
• develop evidence on behaviour change
• Food Research Partnership explore hotspots eg
  meat dairy, fish, soy, palm
• Explore implications for consumer behaviour and
  supply chains

MSc Food Policy FPHE week 1
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10. All this means costings will alter.

• Centrality of drive for cheaper food
• Selling more stuff/food delivers efficiencies
• Land use not food vs. biofuels but how to get
  multiple value from single land use
• What is farmed / grown ? How / what to eat
• Food policy and policy frameworks
• Culture and behaviour
• ALL THIS .VERY FAST

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• Thanks!
• t.lang_at_city.ac.uk