Sustainability Performance of Certified and Non-certified Food

The dataset Sustainability performance of certified and non-certified food (https://www.doi.org/10.15454/OP51SJ) contains 25 indicators of economic, environmental, and social performance, estimated for 27 certified food value chains and their 27 conventional reference products. The indicators are estimated at different levels of the value chain: farm level, processing level, and retail level. It also contains the raw data based on which the indicators are estimated, its source, and the completed spreadsheet calculators for the following indicators: carbon footprint and food miles. This article describes the common method and indicators used to collect data for the twenty-seven certified products and their conventional counterparts. It presents the assumptions and choices, the process of data collection, and the indicator estimation methods designed to assess the three sustainability dimensions within a reasonable time constraint. That is: three person-months for each food quality scheme and its non-certified reference product. Several prioritisations were set regarding data collection (indicator, variable, value chain level) together with a level of representativeness specific to each variable and product type (country and sector). Technical details on how relatively common variables (e.g., number of animals per hectare) are combined into indicators (e.g., carbon footprint) are provided in the full documentation of the dataset.

Strategi Ketahanan Pangan Beras berdasarkan Pendekatan Food Miles

Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara kepulauan terbesar di dunia. Luas wilayah perairannya lebih luas dibandingkan dengan daratannya. Kondisi ini mengakibatkan faktor distribusi menjadi hal prioritas untuk dapat mencapai ketahanan beras di seluruh wilayah Indonesia. Kegiatan distribusi beras di negara kepulauan memiliki tantangan tersendiri, sehingga diperlukan strategi khusus berdasarkan karakteristik wilayahnya untuk mencapai ketahanan beras. Berdasarkan analisis data dapat diklasifikasikan wilayah berdasarkan ketersediaan dan kebutuhan beras, serta jarak tempuh pemenuhan berasnya. Berdasarkan analisis menggunakan metode transportasi linier programing dan SWOT dapat diperoleh hasil masing-masing kategori tersebut memiliki strategi yang berbeda, yaitu strategi distributif, defensif, protektif, revolutif, progresif dan variatif. Kajian ini diharapkan mampu menjadi salah satu kajian yang dapat menjadi rekomendasi dalam menentukan kebijakan ketahanan pangan beras dari aspek distribusi.

The Carbon Footprints of Beef and Lamb: A Lifecycle Approach to Measuring the Sustainability of New Zealand's Primary Produce

<p>Carbon footprints show the carbon impacts of food products. They are argued here to reflect these impacts more accurately than 'food miles'. New Zealand research has shown that our major primary sectors are more efficient in terms of carbon dioxide emissions than their British equivalents over the farming and shipping stages of the lifecycle. However, little research has examined other stages, such as road and rail freight and meat processing within New Zealand. Furthermore, the agro-food sector only has partial knowledge about its greenhouse gas GHG) emissions from 'farm gate to plate' and is not yet fully prepared to implement GHG mitigation strategies. The aims of this study are to 1) calculate the carbon footprints of beef and lamb produced and consumed in New Zealand using a lifecycle approach (including all GHGs), and 2) evaluate, through key stakeholder interviews, the applicability of the carbon footprint concept to New Zealand for addressing consumer environmental concerns. The calculations show that the GHG footprints (all GHGs) of beef and lamb are comprised, for the most part, of on-farm methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Domestic and international freight contribute less than 5% to these footprints, and data from a case study of two meat processing plants suggest that meat processing emissions contributes even less than freight emissions. When leaving aside on-farm methane and nitrous oxide emissions, meat processing and freight contribute less than half to the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprints. Interviews conducted for this study show that key stakeholder attitudes to these issues are varied. Responses from government representatives centred on the need to support the agro-food sector in responding to foreign market demands; the response from industry was mixed but suggests that it is prepared to account for its GHG emissions, showing a preference for carbon footprints over food miles. Environmental NGOs warned that there are risks to New Zealand if it continues to rely on a 'clean green' image mostly due to its natural comparative advantage, and fails to account for its emissions.</p>

The Carbon Footprints of Beef and Lamb: A Lifecycle Approach to Measuring the Sustainability of New Zealand's Primary Produce

<p>Carbon footprints show the carbon impacts of food products. They are argued here to reflect these impacts more accurately than 'food miles'. New Zealand research has shown that our major primary sectors are more efficient in terms of carbon dioxide emissions than their British equivalents over the farming and shipping stages of the lifecycle. However, little research has examined other stages, such as road and rail freight and meat processing within New Zealand. Furthermore, the agro-food sector only has partial knowledge about its greenhouse gas GHG) emissions from 'farm gate to plate' and is not yet fully prepared to implement GHG mitigation strategies. The aims of this study are to 1) calculate the carbon footprints of beef and lamb produced and consumed in New Zealand using a lifecycle approach (including all GHGs), and 2) evaluate, through key stakeholder interviews, the applicability of the carbon footprint concept to New Zealand for addressing consumer environmental concerns. The calculations show that the GHG footprints (all GHGs) of beef and lamb are comprised, for the most part, of on-farm methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Domestic and international freight contribute less than 5% to these footprints, and data from a case study of two meat processing plants suggest that meat processing emissions contributes even less than freight emissions. When leaving aside on-farm methane and nitrous oxide emissions, meat processing and freight contribute less than half to the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprints. Interviews conducted for this study show that key stakeholder attitudes to these issues are varied. Responses from government representatives centred on the need to support the agro-food sector in responding to foreign market demands; the response from industry was mixed but suggests that it is prepared to account for its GHG emissions, showing a preference for carbon footprints over food miles. Environmental NGOs warned that there are risks to New Zealand if it continues to rely on a 'clean green' image mostly due to its natural comparative advantage, and fails to account for its emissions.</p>

Upgrading the notion of “sustainable foods” in the European Union: concept and challenges

The article emphasizes that Ukraine, as an active exporter of agri-food products and agricultural raw materials to the European market, needs to take into account the new EU approach to categorization of products based on their sustainability indicators. The European Commission will formulate a legislative proposal on the framework of a sustainable food system, and general requirements for sustainable foods, and their certification and labeling according to sustainability indicators by the end of 2023. Based on the presently available EU documents (first of all, the Farm to Fork Strategy) the author generalizes the main principles and requirements for sustainable foods that will become standard for all foods placed on the EU market in accordance with public interests. It is substantiated that the quite new for Ukraine concept of "sustainable agri-food product" has a broader content than the concept of "eco-friendly product" or "organic product", as environmental friendliness is just one of the characteristics of sustainability, along with the climatic and social ones. The main differences between sustainable and eco-friendly/organic products are systematized. A prominent place in the article is given to the climate criterion of sustainability, in particular, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the production and supply of agricultural food (carbon footprint), which meets the target of decarbonization and achieving climate neutrality in Europe. In the context of creating a harmonized EU methodology for food sustainability, the author considers the content and components of the ecological footprint (land area used for production and utilization, water resources, carbon dioxide emissions, and food miles). The article provides global experience of voluntary certification of food sustainability, and national programs for certification of food sustainability, in particular soybeans in the USA and Canada, which testifies to the growing differentiation of the food market and a tendency towards official certification and labeling of sustainable foods. The author highlights the challenges for Ukrainian exports to the EU under the increasing requirements for the sustainability of agri-food products. In particular, high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from crops (corn and oilseeds) may lead to restrictions on their exports as raw materials for biofuel production. Tracking of chemical pesticide and antimicrobial residues in exported products is expected to be tightened, as the use of these hazardous substances in the EU should be reduced by 50% by 2030. The revealed asymmetry of the spread of the concept of "sustainable foods" between foreign (quite common) and domestic (almost absent) scientific and journalistic sources may indicate that domestic farmers might not be prepared for a timely reorientation to production and export to the EU of sustainable agri-food products. It is obvious that the better off countries will be those who manage to modernize their national agri-food systems in advance in the context of ensuring product sustainability.

The Politics of Smart Farming Expectations in Urban Environments

Although farming practices are essentially situated in rural locations, they are also developing in urban environments and multiple rationalities underpin such initiatives. Urban farming practices are, among other things, recognized for their recreational and wellbeing effects (e.g., allotments) as well as to increase biodiversity and to mitigate flooding. More recently, food produced in digitally augmented and contained environments have become increasingly established in cities across the globe such as Stockholm, London, and New York. These ICT enabled farming practices are different from non-smart and outdoor farming. Specifically, indoor farming practices are founded upon the view that it can produce fresh food in urban settings all year round using fewer resources (e.g., land, water, and chemicals) and with reduced food miles. Since such knowledge claims may shape and structure the development and uptake of smart farming practices in urban environments they must be scrutinized. This paper begins to address this need for research by investigating the politics of smart farming expectations in relation to urban environments. Exploratory case study research was conducted on early formations of smart farming initiatives in Sweden. Drawing on the Sociology of Expectations, it explores the politics of knowledge claims embedded in smart farming initiatives at project level, and examines the performativity of these knowledge claims in envisioning more sustainable urban futures. The findings suggest that smart farming at the level of individual projects gives the appearance of change, but at the same time, it produces more of the same.

The economic and environmental sustainability of extra virgin olive oil supply chains: An analysis based on food miles and value chains

Following the growing trend towards globalisation of the agrifood system over the last few years, a number of scientific publications with different aims and methodological approaches have addressed the issue of the progressive link loss between the place of consumption and production of food. In part, thescientific debate has focused on the various agri-food production commercial outlets, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both the dominant models like mass market retail, as well as emerging models like solidarity purchasing groups The present study can be classified as concerning the sustainability of agri-food supply chains. It compares five different extra virgin olive oil (evoo) supply chains in terms of the distance between the agricultural producer and end consumer, from both an economic perspective (the number of intermediaries) and a geographical one (production and consumption places). The examined aspects are 1) all the supply chain segments in which value is added to what will be the final food product purchased by the consumer, with a focus on trade and the transport cost estimated in relation to food miles; 2) the environmental impact of transport along the entire supply chain up to the distribution of evoo to the final consumer; and 3) the trade-offs between the environmental impact and economic results.The results obtained confirm some existing general evidence in the literature, such as the greater enhancement of agricultural products through short supply chains, and they emphasize as combining the value chain results with the environmental impact based on FMs, no real trade-offs, but rather trends, emerge.

Does the ‘Mountain Pasture Product’ Claim Affect Local Cheese Acceptability?

This paper aims to explore the impact of “mountain pasture product” information on the acceptability of local protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced from the raw milk of cows grazing in mountain pastures (P) or reared in valley floor stalls (S). A total of 156 consumers (55% males, mean age 41 years) were asked to evaluate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale of four samples: Cheeses P and S were presented twice with different information about the origin of the milk (cows grazing on mountain pasture or reared in a valley floor stall). Demographics, consumer habits, and opinions on mountain pasture practice (MPP), attitudes towards sustainability, and food-related behaviours (i.e., diet, food waste production, organic food, and zero food miles products purchase) were recorded and used to segment consumers. The cheeses were all considered more than acceptable, even though they were found to be significantly different in colour and texture by instrumental analyses. In the whole consumer panel, the cheese P was preferred, while in consumer segments less attentive to product characteristics, this effect was not significant. External information had a strong effect: Overall liking was significantly higher in cheeses presented as “mountain pasture product”, both in the whole panel and in consumer segments with different attitudes (except for those with a low opinion of MPP).