Erich Windhab (ETH Zürich)
A sustainable food production is based on a system-oriented approach and covers the entire value chain in consideration of ecological, economic and social aspects. The food value chain ranges from primary agricultural production to food processing, packaging, storage, transport, distribution and sale, and finally to the preparation and consumption of meals.
Picture: Matt Benson, Unsplash
A sustainable food production is based on a system-oriented approach and covers the entire value chain in consideration of ecological, economic and social aspects. The goal is to reach a dynamic balance, first locally, then globally. This requires a multidimensional analysis that displays the criteria in a balanced way along the entire value chain.
The food value chain ranges from primary agricultural production to food processing, packaging, storage, transport, distribution, and sale, and finally to the preparation and consumption of meals. In order to take into account socio-economic aspects of food consumption and to achieve significant relevance for a comprehensive sustainability analysis, the elements “digestion” and “health” should be added to the value chain. Because a wrong diet can impact sustainability.
From a technological perspective, the food value chains can be made more ecologically and economically sustainable through better integration, interaction and flexible interpretation of its components. This calls for interdisciplinary technologies, which take into account the significant diversity of these value chains and of specific conditions. These are for instance robotics, additive manufacturing processes, biotechnology, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, process automation and real-time sensor technology. These technologies might need to be adapted to the food industry’s hygiene and safety requirements. The use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies enables transparency and traceability while ensuring data sovereignty and privacy. In future, the safe management of large data volumes will play an important role along entire value chains. The global political leadership should consider adjusting the Codex Alimentarius with the purpose of assigning standards to nutritional and ecological food quality standards.
Even if the food eaten has been produced according to best sustainability practices, a wrong diet can lead to illnesses, with implications and treatments that negatively impact the sustainability balance. The analysis focuses on technological aspects and does not take into consideration the health aspect, the latter being covered in the article Personalised nutrition. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN’s 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), has lost its step in 2020, making some SDGs seem unreachable. An adjustment of the SDGs is being discussed.
The Swiss nutrition system and the food industry have largely integrated the SDGs in their objectives. Visible progress has been made in Switzerland since the publication of the SDGs in 2015. The combination of SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) leads to new focal points and relevant business models that attach more importance to preventing disease through nutrition. The necessary competences are available in Swiss industry and should be more strongly activated.
Regarding the interdisciplinary technologies mentioned above, Swiss companies are highly competent and even have market leadership in some areas. Nearly all of the around 2200 companies of the Swiss food industry address issues of sustainability in their objectives. With around 62,000 jobs and annual sales of roughly 25 billion CHF, they represent 5.3% of Swiss GDP. Concerted action is needed to be able to reach Switzerland’s sustainability goals and to derive market potentials.
