How is the food industry causing problems for the climate?

When it comes to our food supply, the impact on the environment is manifold. Whether it is land degradation, declining soil fertility, unsustainable water use, overfishing and marine environment degradation. In all these areas we are quickly using up our resources and harming the balance of ecosystems to such an extent that we will soon be unable to produce the necessary nutrition to keep the people on this planet well-fed.(1)

Within the food system, the meat and dairy industries are a particular problem. They are responsible for 14.5% of total man-made emissions. Beef causes the largest amount of these emissions. With 60 kilograms of GhG emissions per 1 kg of meat produced, beef causes more than twice the emissions of the next most polluting food, lamb. (3)

The situation is very complex. One reason the emissions are this high is that cows and sheep produce large quantities of methane as a byproduct of their digestion. As a greenhouse gas, methane is up to 28 times more potent than CO2 (for a 100 year time horizon). (14)

But the impact does not simply stop there. Forests and other habitats face destruction in favour of pasture and fodder as food for cattle. To add to this, in increasingly prosperous countries such as China the demand for beef is growing rapidly and so cattle farming has become incredibly lucrative. This has led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of square miles of rainforests around the world. We rely upon these ecosystems to capture the vast amounts of CO2 that our practices are emitting. (3) And we are reaching a tipping point.

To make matters worse, we waste incredible amounts of food. According to estimates, more than a third of all food produced each year will end up in the bins of either consumers or retailers. Another problem is that considerable amounts of food spoil due to poor transportation and harvesting practices. This means around 1.3 billion tonnes of perfectly good food worth around €1 trillion is simply and unnecessarily wasted. (1)

To top off this already gloomy picture, food distribution and processing methods have become markedly more energy-intensive since the 1990s. (11)

An unsustainable food system

We currently find ourselves in a vicious cycle. Unhealthy practices are causing climate disasters, which in turn destroy much of our agriculture, thereby reducing food supplies and raising food prices. This causes high rates of hunger and food insecurity. (10)

The UN has calculated that if the global population continues to grow at the speed it has in the past, we will face a planet with almost 10 billion mouths to feed by the middle of the 21st century. However, the current system cannot supply such an amount of people. Therefore, the system will either break down entirely or radical change must happen. (2)

The good news is that both consumers and regulators are no longer accepting the status quo. Over half of consumers say that in the next five years environmental sustainability will either remain or become one of their highest priorities when choosing products or services. In addition, more than one in ten consumers have stopped their purchase of a product or service because of its adverse environmental impact.5 As a result, food producers and distributors face increasing pressure to rethink their current production practices.(2)

What are the solutions to the issues in food production?

There are of course multiple parties that can influence these processes to become more sustainable: the customer, governments and legislators and finally the producers and grocers.

What can consumers do?

Looking at consumers’ purchasing behaviour, one course of action could be to reduce beef consumption. If this is no option, the next best choice is to know the origin of the product and choose only sustainably produced meat, since production practices vary significantly in terms of how much GHGs they emit. (3)

However, the major issue consumers face right now is a lack of information regarding products’ origin and impact. To address this problem, they can demand that grocery providers put pressure on producers to give more information about their products’ sourcing and impact. (3)

What can governments do?

The governments of the world also have their part to play. They are already legislating in this area. Laws are being introduced that will make it obligatory for food producers to disclose information about their value chain to consumers. It is not unthinkable, that governments might also introduce policies that support more plant-centric diets in the near future. (1)

However, the parties that really hold the key to improving the food system are producers and grocers.

What can grocers do?

A good starting point for grocers, considering the heavy impact of meat, is committing to increasing their range of meat alternatives. For example, British retailer Tesco has set a target to sell four times as much meat alternative protein by 2025 as it did in 2018. This is a smart move considering the current market for such items. In the UK, the market for meat alternatives could be worth more than €1.2 billion by 2024.

This falls in line with European trends. The EU plant-based food sector has grown by a full 49% between 2018 and 2020, reaching a total turnover of €3.6 billion. The German plant-based meat market grew an incredible 226% in that time, reaching a total turnover of €181 million euros (vegan meat only). (8)

For grocers, this is a win-win situation. Offer the customers what they ask for: plant-based foods, and help reduce emissions at the same time.

What can F&B brands do?

An emerging trend is the concept of radical transparency. (4) The idea is that if F&B brands want to keep their customers and hold on to success, they must be willing to publish all the information about their food sources, production processes and even the working conditions all along their value chain.

Paul Williams of F&B company Princes explained the idea of total transparency to New Food through the analogy of having a window into a restaurant kitchen. “If you’ve got nothing to hide,” he says, “why wouldn’t you have windows into your kitchen? Customers don’t have to go up and stare, but there’s that ability to do so if they wanted. It’s about giving consumers that option.” (4)

The other step companies can take to communicate transparently is adding product impact labels to their food items. At the moment, there is no standardised certification, which can cause confusion for both customers and brands. Yet, Which? research found that seven in 10 consumers would pay more attention to the environmental impact of the food they purchase if products featured reliable labels. (4)

It is already plain to see that companies who ignore sustainability and refuse to become transparent will lose customers and market share. This is a development that business leaders can no longer ignore. (5)

How inoqo can help you achieve radical transparency

Transparency is key for any food producers who want to be successful in the coming years. Consumers need and want to know where their products are being sourced from and governments are backing this trend with legislation.

As New Food says quite rightly: “Data will soon become king; the challenge will be presenting that information in a way that does not disinterest the consumer.” (4)

We at inoqo have the solution to this conundrum. We can assess the impact of your food products along the entire value chain using 8 different dimensions including animal welfare, climate, packaging and social impact. Once we have assessed your products, you can optimise them to make them as sustainable as possible. Then you can communicate the impact of your product with our product impact labels, so you give the consumers the radical transparency they demand. Don’t fall behind by simply ignoring this problem. Act now!

If you would like more information regarding our services, simply reach out to us at hello@inoqo.com. We would love to assist you in making your products future-proof.