30 environmental and food policy prompts to get on top of your business messaging
Building your plant-based story Part II
This article is the second instalment of the “Building your plant-based story” series where I cover different aspects of the vegan, kind and plant-based ecosystem.
Remember, when I told you about how knowing and understanding trends is a crucial aspect when you’re developing a project or a business value proposition? Well, the next thing in that line is having some knowledge of the policy areas that cover your industry. If you’re building your business, it’ll be embedded into a social and economic context where you can produce, market and sell your product. Sounds a bit woo woo? Well, to make it simpler: there’re societal and economic constraints that lay down a framework for your business to operate within like rules, policies and regulations.
Rules and regulations control your business environment locally, for example, health and safety standards, provisions on taxation or certifications you need to comply with to be in business. Those are at the bottom of the pyramid and are defined by your local, regional or national authorities.
But what happens at a higher, international or global level that influences and informs the national legislation? Are there any policies out there advocating plant-based solutions? Well.
Plant-based and vegan businesses are a niche and positioned as a specific value proposition, usually under the umbrella of a traditional, wider industry. For example, suppose you offer a vegan catering service, and you use no animal products. In that case, you still belong to the Food & Beverage and Hospitality industries regardless, i.e. the environmental benefits you promote. There’s no distinction in legislation for businesses that prove better numbers on GHG emissions or animal welfare, yet. For local, regional and national legislations it takes a while to catch up with evidence-based international or global recommendations. Why do I think this is important?
Because, it’s our responsibility, as business owners, to watch and promote positive change in our industry from the bottom up. And to do this, we have to be well- informed and educated in what happens at high-level research and evidence-based decision making.
With this article, I want to give you, entrepreneurs, early-stage businesses and Plantconfident readers an overview of some of the high-level environmental policy mechanisms pushing plant-based solutions forward. My list is inconclusive; however, it has everything that gets you on track. I chose policy papers that are nested under the topics I’ve discussed in the first article of the series.
I pulled it together in an easy-to-digest format: in the first part of the article, you’ll get the gist of each policy area I cover, and then in the second part, you’ll get 30 (that’s right, thirty) quotes from the papers - short prompts that you can use for your business purposes. Or just simply become well-informed.
That’s the goal of this series in general: to give you actionable information on how to set your goals and values as a purposeful plant-based business to align with global trends.
Climate change, agriculture and health policies to know for plant-based businesses.
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. Its goal is to strengthen the global response to climate change by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5ºC. To this date, 189 Parties have ratified 197 Parties to the Convention, including Hungary.
In practicality, it means that the Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties regularly report on their emissions and their implementation efforts.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
If we go down a layer deeper, we find the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which is the United Nation’s body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC works in a Working Group format and was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options. The IPCC prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and opportunities for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place. It’s an incredible resource if you’re willing to build a high-level understanding of the problem.
In August 2019 IPCC published a special report called Climate change and land, on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. I weaved in research data from this report in the second part of the article.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (shortly FAO) is an agency of the UN that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. At a national level, FAO is currently present through the Representations (country offices) primarily in developing countries. The main aim of these offices is to assist governments in developing policies, programmes and projects to address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition; help them develop their agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and also use their environmental and natural resources sustainably.
Hungary hosts FAO's Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the Organization's Shared Service Centre. The Regional Office coordinates FAO's work in Europe and Central Asia, providing expertise in crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, food safety and nutrition, trade and agricultural policy works.
FAO’s Global Perspectives Studies (GPS) investigate how food and agricultural systems may develop in the long-term future, within the broader economy-wide and social context. GPS nurture debates and policy processes at all levels, aimed at moving food and agriculture towards social, economic and environmental sustainability. In 2018, they published The future of food and agriculture – Alternative pathways to 2050, an essential read that helps you to see through the trade-offs behind agricultural sustainability versus malnutrition. For the meat of this paper, read on, I’ve highlighted some key findings from it below.
European Commission
From global organisations, we’ve come down to the European policy level. The European Commission (EC) is the politically independent executive arm of the European Union. If you’re living in a European country, this is the level that you most likely have some knowledge on or consume news talking about this in the media.
I won’t spend time introducing you to the function of the EC; instead, I want to immediately draw your attention to the Farm to Fork Strategy – for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system that has been published in early 2020. This strategy paper is nested under the European Green Deal, which is a plan to make the EU's economy sustainable. The EU Green Deal is a tool of the Union to support itself in becoming climate neutral in 2050.
The Farm to Fork Strategy reveals valuable research. It identifies policy areas that are contributing to a healthy, secure and economical food chain, interlinking the perspective of consumers, producers as well the natural environment. It’s an incredible resource for the sustainable food industry and business at every stage who are working towards environmental, animal AND human health goals. For concrete, actionable prompts from Farm to Fork, read on!
Prompts for purposeful plant-based businesses
Use these prompts as you like: draw them into your brand or business papers, your mission-vision-value descriptions, or use them on your social media creative visuals - just to give you some ideas. If you publicly quote them, don’t forget to make an apparent reference to the paper it was published in.
Remember, knowledge is power. Research and policy are compelling if we use them wisely and consistently.
Areas covered:
Dietary choice and land use
Animal agriculture and climate change
Ruminant meat and environment
Diets sustainable and healthy at the same time
Moving to a more plant-based diet
Organic food market in the EU
Responsibility of Food processors, foodservice operators and retailers
Food packaging, nutrition labelling
Food waste and date marking
Now, let’s see those quotes!
Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report
The implications of dietary choice can have severe consequences for land. For example, if every country were to adopt the UK’s 2011 average diet and meat consumption, 95% of global habitable land area would be needed for agriculture – up from 50% of land currently used.
For the average USA diet, 178% of global land would be needed (relative to 2011); and for ‘business as usual’ dietary trends and existing rates of improvement in yields, 55% more land would be needed above baseline.
Reduction in the demand for animal-based food products and increasing proportions of plant-based foods in diets, particularly pulses and nuts; and replacing red meat with other more efficient protein sources are demand-side adaptation measures.
Replacing beef in the USA diet with beans and pulses can meet caloric and protein demands of about 120 to 140 million additional people consuming the average American diet. Adopting the benefits of moving to plant-based protein, and therefore reducing meat consumption, is an adaptation measure. It reduces pressure on land and water and thus our vulnerability to climate change.
Ruminant meat (mainly beef) has been identified as the single food with the greatest impact on the environment, most often in terms of GHG emissions and/or land use per unit commodity.
Would a diet that promotes health through good nutrition also be one that mitigates GHG emissions? Whilst sustainable diets need not necessarily provide more nutrition, there is certainly significant overlap between those that are healthier (e.g., via eating more plant-based material and less livestock-based material), and eating the appropriate level of calories.
In general, a dietary pattern that is higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in animal-based foods is more health-promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact (GHG emissions and energy, land, and water use) than is the current average ‘meat-based’ diet.
Nutritionally-equivalent diets can substitute plant-based foods for meat and provide reductions in GHG emissions.
Healthy sustainable diets are possible. For example, halving consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs in the European Union would achieve a 40% reduction in ammonia emissions, 25–40% reduction in non-CO2 GHG emissions (primarily from agriculture) and 23% per capita less use of cropland for food production, with dietary changes lowering health risks.
The future of food and agriculture – Alternative pathways to 2050, an FAO Global Perspectives Study
Food and agriculture are impacted by and contribute to climate change. The food and agricultural sectors will not only be impacted by climate change, they are also among its main contributors. Although GHG emissions resulting from agriculture, forestry and other land-use have almost stabilised over the past 25 years, the agricultural sector still produces close to 20% of total global GHG emissions.
Most of agriculture’s methane emissions are produced by rice cultivation and enteric fermentation during the digestive processes of ruminant animals. The nitrous oxide emissions originate mainly from the application of nitrogen-based fertilisers for food and feed production and animal manure management, while carbon dioxide is released from the clearing of forests for cropland and pasture.
The wide range of emission factors across countries and regions suggests that there is potential to lower GHG from the food and agricultural sectors. This implies jointly examining the overall impacts of the agri-food sector, which includes food and feed demand, food loss and waste, other uses of agricultural outputs (fibres, biofuels, etc.), water usage and its effects on soil health, ecosystem services and biodiversity.
There is a growing recognition that diets rich in meat – particularly ruminants such as cattle – are associated with both higher environmental costs and higher GHG emissions. National dietary guidelines recommending lower red meat consumption, particularly to consumers largely exceeding recommended dietary intakes, could significantly help to reduce GHG emissions.
It is estimated that emissions from the livestock sector could be reduced by at least 30% if producers adopted the practices applied by those with the lowest emission intensity.
Raising consumer awareness will help contain the need to unnecessarily expand food production. Agricultural production is expected to rise worldwide in response to population growth, dietary changes and increased incomes.
Raising consumer awareness about environmentally sustainable and healthier diets, reducing food waste, pricing food to reflect the negative externalities of its production, and limiting the use of grains for biofuel production will all be critical to curb the demand for agricultural products.
It is unlikely that high-input, resource-intensive farming systems – which have been blamed for deforestation, depletion of land and water resources, loss of biodiversity and high levels of GHG emissions – will deliver sustainable agricultural production.
At our current rate, cattle and other livestock will be responsible for half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
European Commission: Farm to Fork Strategy – for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system
Agriculture is responsible for 10.3% of the EU’s GHG emissions and nearly 70% of those come from the animal sector. They consist of non-CO2 GHG (methane and nitrous oxide).
68% of the total agricultural land is used for animal production.
The market for organic food is set to continue growing and organic farming needs to be further promoted. It has a positive impact on biodiversity, it creates jobs and attracts young farmers.
Food processors, foodservice operators and retailers shape the market and influence consumers’ dietary choices through the types and nutritional composition of the food they produce, their choice of suppliers, production methods and packaging, transport, merchandising and marketing practices.
Strengthening the sustainability of our food systems can help further build the reputation of businesses and products, create shareholder value, improve working conditions, attract employees and investors, and confer competitive advantage, productivity gains and reduced costs for companies.
The EC is preparing an initiative to improve the corporate governance framework, including a requirement for the food industry to integrate sustainability into corporate strategies.
Food packaging plays a key role in the sustainability of food systems. The Commission will revise the food contact materials legislation to improve food safety and public health (in particular in reducing the use of hazardous chemicals), support the use of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions using environmentally-friendly, re-usable and recyclable materials, and contribute to food waste reduction.
Reversing the rise in overweight and obesity rates across the EU by 2030 is critical. Moving to a more plant-based diet with less red and processed meat and with more fruits and vegetables will reduce not only risks of life-threatening diseases, but also the environmental impact of the food system.
The EC will propose harmonised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling and will consider proposing the extension of the mandatory origin or provenance indications to certain products, while fully taking into account impacts on the single market.
The EC will also examine ways to harmonise voluntary green claims and to create a sustainable labelling framework that covers the nutritional, climate, environmental and social aspects of food products.
The Commission is committed to halving per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 (SDG Target 12.3).
Misunderstanding and misuse of date marking (‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates) lead to food waste. The Commission will revise EU rules to take account of consumer research. In addition to quantifying food waste levels, the Commission will investigate food losses at the production stage, and explore ways of preventing them.
Summary
If you made it this far, let me give you a virtual pat on the back!
Although the policy level we have to operate in day-to-day might not be sexy or exciting at all, there’s a point in looking beyond that and absorbing what’s happening at a global or European level. You can find rough diamonds - valuable, quotable prompts - if you take the time and dig a little deeper in policy papers. My list above is not conclusive, but it certainly is a starting point.
Information is vital, and I encourage everyone who designs and markets consumer products to read reports regularly.
But what can we do, besides self-educating ourselves? What to do with all the information and how to steer our businesses so that they can contribute to a positive socio-economic change? That’s what I am after in the “Building your plant-based story” series. Keep up with me!