Theuns Kotze, Managing Director, BSI Group India Private LTD
What’s on our plate and how it got there has never mattered more. According to the UN, 60 per cent more food will be needed worldwide by 2050 to feed our growing population. That alone presents an enormous challenge for farmers everywhere – but alongside that, there is growing evidence to suggest that the way we farm and produce food and the way we consume natural resources needs to change. India is the world’s second-largest rice producer; however, its rice farmers face imminent threats from climate change, which has already resulted in a substantial decline in water levels and an increasing volume of methane in its atmosphere. Current methods are simply not sustainable.
In the coming years, parts of the world will suffer from severe drought and others will experience extreme weather incidents. A UN Food and Agriculture Organization report concluded that “current patterns of agricultural intensification are not proving sustainable” and that “pressures on land and water resources have built to the point where productivity of key agricultural systems is compromised, and livelihoods are threatened”. This is linked to everything from climate change to the amount of waste involved in pre-production and post-consumer waste, the volume of materials we use and the levels of fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides introduced to the environment, and the water that we’re consuming and using.
These issues are already having an impact globally, from heavy rain impacting crops in the UK and rising olive oil prices in Spain, to extreme weather, such as drought, floods, frost and heat waves in India. The Center for Global Development recently warned that if climate change remains on its current trend, Africa’s crop production will fall by 18 per cent by 2050, putting some 200 million people at risk of extreme hunger.
Preventing that outcome must be a global priority. Yet beyond that, now is the time to recognize that our grandchildren will not be able to have the same food system as we have today because we just won’t have the land mass or biodiversity to support such an ecosystem.
There is a sense that this is now, finally, on the agenda for the food sector, with companies starting to acknowledge the importance of being more sustainable and the need for action around such areas as waste management or local sourcing, and key players like Nestle and PepsiCo setting out plans. Influential groups like the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) are focusing more on more on the challenge of sustainability. However this is still a relatively new topic on the food sector C-Suite agenda and, compared to other industries, research shows food is a laggard. There are many reasons this matters, primarily the environmental considerations set out above. But it’s also about responding to what people want. The World Economic Forum reports that two-thirds of consumers want to make spending choices to live more sustainable lives. Consumer influence directly or indirectly shapes the regulatory agenda and can enhance pressure from shareholders, and in some cases achieve change. This can be around supply chains, packaging, green claims on a product, materials used, existing production methods and more besides.
Certainly, we are seeing a trend towards regulatory authorities putting more pressure on the food industry, whether manufacturers, retailers or supply chain players, rather than directly on consumers. There is the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) highly anticipated revision of the Green Guides, which is expected to be published in 2024. The EU Green Claims Directive impacts anyone in the EU making sustainability-related claims. Both will have a huge impact on the grocery and food retail supply chain. They are not consumer-led initiatives but can be connected to consumer pressure. Researchers in India have recently expanded the theory of planned consumer behaviour to obtain useful marketing and policy insights concerning the sustainability choices of consumers which will provide invaluable insight to inform various stakeholders, including producers, marketers, government agencies, and policymakers on sustainability initiatives in the future.
Equally, when we talk about sustainability, we mostly do so in the environmental sense, but in this is also about economic sustainability – about businesses protecting themselves from headwinds. It may not be adapt or die, but there are plenty of examples of businesses not taking the long-term view of where their customers were and how to manage external factors, from Borders to Blockbusters. BSI polling has shown the environment moving higher up the consumer purchasing agenda, and there is a clear economic impetus for the food sector to act.
Committing to sustainability is one part of the puzzle, but turning ambition into action is another. What’s key is collaboration, via replicable best practice models and standardisation. Isolated pockets of excellence are one thing, but it is when they are amplified and celebrated that others can learn from them. For example, BSI recently certified eggs by the grocery store Morrisons as carbon neutral to support farmers supplying them on a net zero pathway. Showcasing such examples offers potential for other egg industry players to understand how they can do the same – and for those producing other commodities to see how the learnings could be applied too – and can encourage a race to the top.
The question food industry leaders should be asking is, where are these best practice examples? What’s working? Who is accelerating progress towards a sustainable world? Businesses may be nervous about sharing success for fear others copy. But while making your product better may be a competitive advantage, sharing a more sustainable solution has the potential to benefit everybody, people and the planet. For example, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India recently launched the National Mission on Sustainable Packaging Solutions programme. The collaborative initiative aims to develop a comprehensive solution for sustainable packaging demands, including the development of materials, innovative recycling and reuse methods, and advanced testing and monitoring facilities. Another example is Coca-Cola India, which has launched a programme to back sustainable mango cultivation in India to increase yields and maximise sustainability, in alignment with the government’s vision of self-reliance for the country.
The opportunity for the industry to be more sustainable is significant. A standardised, harmonised approach could help to shift the dial. In many cases, the standards are there, for example, carbon neutrality or waste management. BSI is committed to partnering with the industry to build an understanding of how to use these and sustain improvements through them.
Pressure is coming through from a variety of different sources, from stakeholders to customers to shareholders, and they’re all expecting businesses to up their game. Ultimately, food companies that want to adopt more sustainable practices and embrace the advantages have the opportunity to set themselves up for future success, both economically and from a reputational standpoint.
Feeding the world in a way that is safe, nutritious and sustainable is one of the central and most complex societal challenges we face today. It’s time the industry met it head-on to benefit everyone – people and planet.