The challenge of food access and availability
Providing nutritious food to a rapidly growing global population is a challenge for today’s food systems1. As the global population reaches 8 billion and is predicted to pass 9 billion by 20502 the challenge of increasing food production without negatively impacting the environment grows.
We need to find a way to decrease our environmental impact while increasing our food production so that less of it gets wasted and vulnerable people no longer go hungry.
Making perishable foods safe and available
Ensuring food safety, while continuing to lower the carbon footprint of the food value chain, is a key imperative for the food industry.
1The term ‘food systems’ refers to all the elements and activities related to producing and consuming food, and their effects, including economic, health, and environmental outcomes (OECD, https://www.oecd.org/food-systems/, 2023).
2https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100
3Sustainable food systems mean growing, producing, processing, packaging, distributing and consuming food without negatively impacting the planet. Retrieved from OECD. (2019). Accelerating Climate Action. Source: OECD iLibrary
4A sustainable food value chain is a food value chain that: is profitable throughout all of its stages (economic sustainability); has broad-based benefits for society (social sustainability); and has a positive or neutral impact on the natural environment (environmental sustainability). Source: https://www.fao.org/sustainable-foodvalue-chains/what-is-it/en/#:~:text=In%20the%20economic%20dimension%2C%20a,fiscally%20viable%20for%20public%20services
5“Responsible farming” means food and products that reflect the health and well-being of consumers as well as the farmers who produce them. Source: https://ggn.org/Magazine/Post/6710e02b-461d-49e7-8e4a-b8430dfd4939
6By positive impact we mean driving better outcome for our own workforce, workers and communities in our supply chain, workers in collection and recycling and people in our value chain affected by climate change and the transition to net-zero in the areas of labour, discrimination, hazardous working conditions and sustainable income, among others.