Fresh, delicious food is the dominant consumer route to health and wellness today.

By University of British Columbia Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new UBC study published today in Science Advances finds that might not always be the case. “Organic is often proposed a … Continue reading →

Tackling global challenges to food systems means we must better understand the future of aquatic foods. Research is critical to understand emerging opportunities for innovations—including the rise of lab-grown fish—and how these innovations can advance a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system. To advance this research, I recently had the honor of formalizing a new […]

Jamil Bouchareb, founder and CEO of Restaurantware, talks about the company’s products that emphasize sustainability and green ingenuity.

Delivering Sustainable Food and Land Use Systems: The Role of International Trade Research paper sysadmin 20 September 2019

This paper explores a set of core trade-related issues affecting the food and land use system, and proposes constructive ways forward in reconfiguring the global trading system towards delivering a more sustainable and healthy diet for all.

• Meeting future global food security requirements is not just about quantity; it is also about meeting growing needs in a way that safeguards human as well as planetary health. But national priorities and policies often remain out of sync with aspirations for more sustainable and healthy food systems.
• International trade and trade policies play an ambiguous role in the current food system. With 80 per cent of the world’s population depending on imports to meet at least part of their food and nutritional requirements, trade has a unique function in offsetting imbalances between supply and demand. However, in the absence of effective regulatory frameworks or pricing frameworks that internalize environmental, social or health costs, trade can exacerbate and globalize challenges associated with food production and land use trends such as deforestation, land degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and the shift to unhealthy diets.
• Over the last two decades, trade in agricultural products (excluding intra-EU flows) has more than tripled in value, to reach $1.33 trillion. The geography of global food trade flows has also shifted, primarily towards South–South trade, which now accounts for roughly a quarter of total agricultural trade flows. The nature of global trade has changed drastically, with traditional exports such as wheat and coffee growing slowly at around 2 per cent per year, while products such as palm oil, fruit juice, soft drinks and other processed products have grown at 8 per cent or more annually.
• This overall increase in trade in agricultural products raises questions about the growing utilization of resources, such as water or soil nutrients, that are embedded in those products through production and processing. Trade itself also causes negative environmental impacts, starting with greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport and storage. If the environmental cost associated with production and trade is not reflected in the final price of goods, trade may accelerate the depletion of resources or their unsustainable use.
• It is critical to ensure that trade policy options pursued by producing and consuming countries alike will support a transition to more sustainable and healthier food and land use systems. The first step in addressing trade-related food systems challenges must involve rebuilding trust among policy actors. There is a need for new spaces for informal dialogue among actors, and ‘soft’ governance mechanisms that can help rebuild consensus on the best ways forward. Meeting these challenges also requires an appreciation of the complex interactions between sectoral policies (e.g. on water, land, food, etc.) and their multiple interfaces with trade policies.
• Conditioning the use of subsidies on their sustainability and/or health impacts encourages the delivery of essential public goods in ways that are consistent with sustainability and health goals. A first step therefore is the removal of perverse incentives (e.g. subsidies encouraging the overuse of fertilizers or pesticides or the overproduction of certain commodities, as well as certain biofuels subsidies) and replacing them with market-correcting subsidies.
• Trade facilitation measures for fruits and vegetables that are aimed at easing transit at the border, by cutting unnecessary bureaucracy and reducing waiting times, can improve their availability, reduce costs and improve food quality and safety for consumers. Similarly, measures aimed at improving sustainable cold storage and upgrading value chains can support better diets and consumption by increasing the availability of fresh produce on markets, especially in developing countries.
• A global food stamps programme developed through the G20 and facilitated by the UN’s food agencies could address purchasing power imbalances and tackle malnutrition in developing countries. If carefully designed, such ‘safety net’ schemes can not only contribute to improving calorific intakes but also help deliver more balanced and healthier diets. Careful attention must be given to how such a scheme would work in practice, building on experience to date with similar initiatives.
• Integrating the notion of sustainable food and inputs trade in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework can help to deliver more sustainable and healthier food and land use systems. This could be achieved by likeminded countries introducing a set of goals or targets aimed at mitigating the role of trade in placing indirect pressure on biodiversity, and to encourage trade in biodiversity-based products including natural ingredients produced ethically and following sustainability principles and criteria.
• An SDG-oriented agenda for agricultural trade is needed. It could be formed by countries seeking to remove perverse incentives, guaranteeing a safe harbour for market-correcting measures, clarifying existing rules and establishing plurilateral negotiations among subsets of the WTO membership, or sectoral approaches, to address specific challenges.
• Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from trade need to be addressed. Governments could seek to achieve this through ensuring the carbon neutrality of existing and new trade deals, either by connecting carbon markets among contracting parties or by developing joint initiatives to tax international maritime and air transport emissions.

Food waste has been a pressing concern for environmentalists and humanitarians for decades. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that approximately one third of all global food products end up in landfills, equating to roughly 1.3 billion metric tons. Conversely, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), about 3 billion people lack access to […]

IWMI will implement the Innovation Lab for Irrigation & Mechanization Systems, funded by USAID and led by University of Nebraska.

The post IWMI part of global, five-year program to build sustainable food systems first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Providing information to consumers on the environmental and social impacts of their food purchases could help change their consumption choices, research from Norway suggests. In a psychological study, researchers noted an increase in the number of organic and fair trade products bought per week when participating consumers were informed of the products’ benefits for the environment and the wellbeing of producers.

The outgoing USDA deputy secretary receives a heartfelt letter signed by Alice Waters, Marisa Tomei, Robyn O’Brien and many more.

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The Ellis Hotel in Atlanta has a sustainable restaurant, a green certification, and a reasonable price tag.

Sustainable food service supplies are creeping up all around us. Next time you order take-out, note the containers storing your food and drinks, the utensils pr

You can still be a proud sustainable foodie if you don’t grow your vegetables, raise your chickens or do it all yourself.

Company will focus on four pillars to advance the sustainability of its biggest product category, food

Brine Disinfection System to Support Canadian Swiss Cheese Producer

20 September 2019

This paper explores a set of core trade-related issues affecting the food and land use system, and proposes constructive ways forward in reconfiguring the global trading system towards delivering a more sustainable and healthy diet for all.

The winner will have the opportunity to speak at TEDxManhattan 2014.

If you don't subscribe to the print version of Mother Jones you may have missed what seems to be a really sort of creepy story about how the US beef industry is not so subtly waging war against sustainable and slow

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