Sustainable Bites 15.11.23

And for the main…


The world’s broken food system is costing $12.7 trillion a year

According to this year’s The State of Food and Agriculture report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the total hidden costs of the world’s food system add up to $12.7 trillion US dollars – roughly 10% of global GDP.

Using 2020 purchasing power parity dollars – a way of comparing living standards across countries with varying incomes and prices – the report analysed the costs to health, society and the environment embedded in the current food system.

In financial terms, the biggest impact is on global health. An enormous 73% of all the hidden costs accounted for by the FAO were associated with diets that led to obesity or non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

The next biggest impact in monetary terms was to the environment, accounting for more than 20% of quantified hidden costs.

In low-income countries, almost half of the hidden costs of the food system are related to poverty and may be partly caused by farmers not being able to grow enough food or not being paid a fair price for their products. In these countries, the hidden costs of food amount to an average of 27% of GDP, compared with just 8% in wealthy countries. 

However, most high-income countries are failing dramatically when it comes to people’s diets. In these countries, the FAO found that over 80% of the hidden costs of food are related to unhealthy diets.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said, “In the face of escalating global challenges: food availability, food accessibility and food affordability; climate crisis; biodiversity loss; economic slowdowns and downturns; worsening poverty; and other overlapping crises, the future of our agri-food systems hinges on our willingness to appreciate all food producers, big or small, to acknowledge these true costs, and understand how we all contribute to them, and what actions we need to take. I hope that this report will serve as a call to action for all partners – from policymakers and private-sector actors to researchers and consumers – and inspire a collective commitment to transform our agri-food systems for the betterment of all.”

The FAO is already working on next year’s report, which will present a series of case studies designed to help countries implement true-cost accounting and learn what the food system is actually costing them. The report urges governments and policymakers to use this information to transform agri-food systems in order to address the climate crisis, poverty and food insecurity.

UK government in court over failure to cut meat and dairy

Environmental campaign group Feedback has taken the government to court over what it says is a “failure” to consider UK carbon budgets and follow Climate Change Committee (CCC) advice to reduce meat and dairy consumption. The case follows a previous High Court decision to reject the legal challenge.

Feedback argues that the government – particularly DEFRA and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero – has failed in its duties under section 13 of the Climate Change Act to make sure that the Food Strategy adopted in 2022 would support UK carbon budgets and the legally binding 2050 net zero target. Feedback says that the government failed to take on board the CCC’s advice to meet those carbon budgets by reducing meat and dairy consumption – and hasn’t given a public explanation for why it has rejected that advice.

The CCC’s 2022 and 2023 reports on government progress in reducing emissions highlight that the government has not set out any ambition for UK consumption of meat and dairy to be reduced.

Executive Director of Feedback Carina Millstone said the group is “confident” that the court case will establish the government’s legal responsibility to reduce emissions in the food and farming sector.

“We trust it will compel the government to act on the advice of its own climate experts, who have said time and time again that meat and dairy reductions are required if we are to meet our legally enshrined climate targets,” she said.
The court is currently considering its judgement on the case.

New report calls for climate action from Asia’s agri-food sector

Backed by major players in Asia’s agri-food system, a new report is calling for urgent climate action from industry stakeholders across the region to invest in tech and back existing solutions to help small-scale farms. The report says that doing so could reduce emissions by 12% by 2030.

Launched at Singapore’s International Agri-Food Week, the third edition of the Asia Food Challenge Report is titled ‘Decarbonising the Agri-Food Value Chain in Asia’ and jointly published by strategic consultancy PwC, Dutch agri-food bank Rabobank, Singapore investment fund Temasek and carbon data firm Terrascope. 

Food system change must play an essential role in the fight against the climate crisis. Agri-food systems account for one-third of all global greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the energy sector. The Asian continent is responsible for about 42% of all global agri-food emissions.

The report highlights the immense opportunity for decarbonisation across Asia, stressing the importance of improving food security and sustainability. As the world’s largest continent, it’s crucial that Asian countries begin to mitigate their climate impact. Helpfully, the report outlines steps that stakeholders could take, from embracing cleaner, more efficient technologies and to supporting eco-friendly agricultural methods, as well as 20 technologies and practices that are already available and could be implemented straight away. The authors say that this could help reduce emissions by 12% by 2030 – an amount equal to the emissions from the entire global aviation industry in 2022.

“Decarbonising Asia’s agri-food sector is critical to reduce the effects climate change has on our food resilience,” said Anuj Maheswari, Agrifood Head at Temasek. “To do so, we need to prioritise the deployment of existing, readily available, and actionable solutions that can be scaled across the agri-food value chain and channel capital to catalyse the technology to accelerate decarbonisation in Asia and globally. This will enable the transition towards a greener and more sustainable agri-food system so every generation prospers.”

Seaweed-based plastic-free packaging launches in the Netherlands

As part of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, the EU defined plastic as a material consisting of polymers that are either chemically modified and/or synthetically polymerised. As a result, national legislations have been put in place to discourage certain single-use plastic items through labelling and/or taxes.

Unsatisfied with industry self-regulated claims, government in the Netherlands took matters into its own hands to investigate which solutions truly met the plastic-free requirements. The ILT – the government’s environmental authority – has tested and found plastic in a wide range of items claiming to be plastic-free; one example is aqueous dispersion coatings, which contain microplastics.

Now, following a nine-month assessment, a unique natural packaging made with seaweed has been recognised as truly plastic-free. In addition to government testing, the product was also independently investigated by global sustainability consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting.

Notpla uses the natural polymers found in seaweed – without any chemical modifications – to provide the grease- and moisture-resistance required by food boxes for performing their function. Notpla’s packaging solution can be recycled with existing paper streams or composted at home.

Foodservice businesses will be able to purchase the new food packaging from January 2024, offering the opportunity to promote their sustainability commitments to their customers, play their part in helping to restore the health of our planet and say goodbye to the plastic tax.

“We are thrilled to have our seaweed-based coating recognised as fully compliant with the EU SUPD, and being the first to pass the most rigorous assessments in Europe, through the ILT analysis,” said Pierre-Paslier, co-founder of Notpla. “This sets Notpla apart and aligns perfectly with our mission to reduce society’s dependence on plastic. We look forward to helping Dutch restaurant owners meet their plastic reduction goals.”

McDonald’s UK faces fresh allegations of toxic culture

Following an investigation by the BBC earlier this year, McDonald’s UK now faces further allegations related to sexual assault, racism and bullying at franchises.

Last week, the BBC revealed a number of new allegations from workers, saying that around 160 people had contacted them since July with claims of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying at McDonald's. Staff members have said they were “being groped and harassed almost routinely” while at work.

After a law firm confirmed that group legal action has been launched in relation to these allegations, Alistair Macrow, chief executive of McDonald’s UK and Ireland, was summoned to answer questions from MPs at Parliament yesterday, November 14th. 

Appearing before the Business and Trade Committee, Macrow said testimonies from staff members were "truly horrific and hard to listen to". Over 400 allegations have been made across the organisation since July, some of which were criminal in nature.

Macrow told the committee that 157 reports have already been fully investigated, with 75 resulting in disciplinary action, including a number of dismissals.

Some 249 complaints relating to safety and inclusivity in the workplace are still being investigated.

A sweet treat to finish…

EU agreement will make nature restoration a legal requirement

Last week, the EU agreed to pass a hotly contested law to restore degraded natural ecosystems. This would require EU countries to put in place measures to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and 20% of the EU's seas by 2030

The purpose of the legislation is to halt and reverse the decline of Europe's natural habitats, 81% of which are classified as being in poor health. Governments would be required to avoid significant deterioration in healthy habitats, and to introduce targeted measures designed to increase two out of these three: grassland butterfly populations; nature-friendly features like hedgerows on farmland; and carbon storage in soils.

This deal has seen much debate, with some campaigning against it under the belief that it would have negative impacts on farmers. However, the countries and lawmakers that fought in favour of the bill have argued that decisive action is needed to protect biodiversity.

After concerns from some countries over the potential costs of introducing these measures, Brussels has agreed to propose more funding if an analysis confirms that countries need it.

Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister, Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, said she was proud of the law. "It will help us rebuild healthy biodiversity levels across member states and preserve nature for the future generations, while fighting climate change.”


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