Looking to 2012: delivering sustainable growth
Looking ahead, it is clear that business as usual is no longer enough to deliver the changes we
need, either to how food is produced or to what we buy and eat – and the continuing problem
of tackling waste across the whole food system.
Food companies know that sustainability is integral to their future
profitability, as is the need to increase resilience throughout their
supply chains.
Corporate actions also need to be matched by
improvements in the policy and regulatory frameworks within which
the industry operates. This will require a common understanding
of what we mean by sustainable production and consumption in a
resource-constrained world and how best to encourage and support
behaviour change. This must be evidence-based and underpinned by
agreed methodologies which take account of the enormous natural
variabilities involved and the range of trade-offs in optimising
outputs in relation to inputs. Rigid product standards and a one size
fits all approach risk being counterproductive in such circumstances.
Innovation and technology will also have a major role to play, though
without mechanisms to reflect the cost of external impacts in
product prices, there are likely to issues of market failure to
overcome in generating the necessary investments.
FDF is committed to working constructively in addressing these
issues at national and international level, in particular through the
work of Defra's Green Food project and in response to the European
Commission's proposed Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe in
the context of its Europe 2020 growth strategy.
We will also be
building on the outcomes of our two key workshops this year on
biodiversity and sustainable sourcing to look at ways of developing
practical guidance and promoting best practice on the lines of what
we have already done for water.
In addition we will be contributing
actively to the negotiating processes for reform of the EU Common
Agricultural and Common Fisheries policies, which govern the supply
of many of the raw materials we use.
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