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The keys to sustainable food supplies, now and in future

09/12/2011 - Press release

The sustainability of our food supply is now being questioned, given its effects on the environment, health, social equity and the economy. In particular, providing the world's inhabitants with food that satisfies their needs in terms of both quality and quantity, in spite of the growing pressure on resources and climate change, is a major challenge. Experts from CIRAD and INRA have worked to assess food supply systems on a global level, concentrating specifically on processing, distribution and consumption. The duALIne project is original in that it has addressed the issues affecting the upper part of the different supply chains, from when food leaves the field to when it reaches the consumer. The results are reported in a document* to be published on 15 December 2011.

How can we feed the world now and in line with expected population growth in the 21st century, while taking on board the concept of "sustainability"? A strategic study, duALIne, launched by CIRAD and INRA in November 2009 and completed in July 2011, served to take stock of the major factors that have determined past changes in food supply systems, identify the key points in those systems, and pinpoint research topics for future programmes. The project involved 125 academic, institutional and private experts.

Studying the upper part of food supply systems

The debate conducted under duALIne covered food supply systems from when food leaves the field to when it reaches the consumer and to waste processing. In this respect, it differed from and complemented the Agrimonde foresight exercise, which centred on the global issues surrounding agriculture. Many questions were looked at: food consumption, with the increase in calories of animal origin and its consequences, organizing food supply systems in line with renewable chemical and energy production, losses and wastage, the impact of global markets on consumption, and the inadequacies of the assessment methods and the criteria used to assess sustainability.
Three novel topics shed new light on certain controversies:

Assessing the carbon footprint of French food consumption depending on nutritional value

The question of the link between food nutritional value and its carbon footprint** is more complex than it looks. Based on a national survey of food habits in France (INCA2), experts concluded that the more food an individual eats each day, the greater the carbon footprint of that consumption. For instance, the carbon footprint of men's food consumption (4725 CO2eq/day) is significantly higher than that of women (3658 CO2eq/day). However, they observed that the link between the nutritional value of food and its carbon footprint was weak. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food, cutting total consumption may therefore be more effective than changing the type of food eaten. These initial results, which run counter to many received ideas, need to be checked through more detailed research.

Rethinking industrial food supply chains and how they are organized

The dominant food supply system in industrialized countries works by limiting the range of agricultural raw materials produced and encouraging the operators in the system to specialize in two successive stages: breaking down the raw material, and then reformulating it to make a wide range of foods. This tendency has now come up against new constraints, in a situation in which there is limited room for manoeuvre on an industrial level. Moreover, the hazards facing agricultural production are resulting in greater price variability, which will prompt supply chains to come up with more flexible, more robust production systems. Lastly, environmental concerns mean making profound changes, as regards both industrial processes and how the supply chains and the links between the different operators involved are organized.

Feeding urban centres: what are the issues for sustainable development?

More than half the world's inhabitants now live in towns. According to the FAO, it takes some 6000 tonnes of food a day to feed an agglomeration of 10 million people, which corresponds to 3 million hectares of agricultural land. For a city like Paris, that means an area six times as large as the whole Ile-de-France region.
The trend has therefore been to locate agricultural production near consumption sites. However, should we be encouraging agricultural near cities?
The answer, from an energy and environmental point of view, is far from a foregone conclusion. In terms of distribution, it is what happens in the last five kilometres that has the greatest environmental impact, which in this respect casts doubt on the merits of short circuits. Greenhouse gas emissions, the processes by which agricultural land is intensified near towns, and water table pollution all cast doubt on whether it is appropriate to transfer agricultural production towards consumption sites and the possibility of sustainable local development.
The many prospects highlighted by the study will lead on to public and private research programmes on a national and EU level. INRA is already coordinating a new European network on sustainable food consumption, SUSFOOD.

* Pour une alimentation durable. Réflexion stratégique duALIne, Catherine Esnouf, Marie Russel and Nicolas Bricas (coord.), Editions Quae, Dec. 2011, 288 pages, € 32

** The estimated carbon footprint of a food in CO2 equivalent corresponds to the amount of greenhouse gas emitted during production, processing and transport of that food.