Healthy living and lifestyle
In 2021-22, 7% of the UK population was defined as being in food poverty, while 2.1 million people used food banks. Brits belonging to the most deprived fifth of the population would need to spend half their disposable income on food to meet the government’s Eatwell healthy eating guidelines. (These include five portions of fruit and veg a day, a good balance of starchy and protein-rich foods, and fatty and sugary foods only in smaller quantities.) All this is to say that, collectively, we’re a long way off achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2: to create a world free of hunger by 2030. In fact, the situation has regressed considerably in this age of polycrisis. With food production declining and prices soaring, the world is back at hunger levels not seen since 2005. Unfortunately, less nourishing food is usually bad for the planet too. As one Brazilian study found, meeting nutritional requirements increased the cost of an average diet by 14-24%, but reduced greenhouse gases by 10-27%. Unsurprisingly, these tensions are reflected by agrifood giants themselves. “Global food systems are under constant pressure,” emphasises Alexander Hennig, a spokesperson for Bayer Crop Science. “Geopolitical conflicts and impacts from the pandemic have been causing supply chain issues. Farmers have to pay more for agricultural inputs, and transportation has become more expensive. And above all, we are facing already severe impacts of climate change like droughts, floods and higher pest pressure. These factors all lead to higher prices and make the food system more vulnerable.”
Bold transformations
Solving these problems will mean enacting change on multiple fronts. For individuals, it might mean opting for frozen fruits and veg; buying and cooking in bulk; and gravitating towards legumes rather than meat as a source of protein.
The food writer and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has also suggested doing a detailed stocktake of your cupboards before writing a shopping list – and then splitting the list into proteins, fruit and veg, carbohydrates and snacks to ensure a balanced diet. All the same, many individuals maintain they genuinely can’t afford to eat healthily – and the data is on their side. According to the Food Foundation, 1,000 calories worth of unhealthy food comes in at around £4.50. Achieving the same energy intake with more nutritious food will set you back £10. To put it another way, the real levers of systemic change are governments, civil society organisations, and businesses – ideally in collaboration. One example is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a CEO-led
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
coalition of more than 200 companies. The WBCSD believes that the major challenges we’re facing – the climate emergency, nature loss, and mounting inequality – are interconnected, and that addressing them requires a ‘bold transformation agenda’. In terms of food and agriculture, this means working towards what the organisation calls a ‘regenerative and equitable food system producing healthy, safe and nutritious food for all’. Its suggestions include scaling up climate resilience, intervening along food supply chains, and making it easier for consumers to alter their behaviour. The WBCSD has also joined the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge, which encourages companies and funds to invest in ‘high-impact intervention areas’. For food manufacturers, the goal is to improve nutrition at an accessible price point. One example is Nestle’s Bear Brand, which sells fortified food products to lower-income consumers in the Philippines. These products are formulated to address local nutrient deficiencies, using locally available raw materials to slash production costs. Other players in the food system will have different touchpoints. For instance, the bioscience company DSM undertakes large-scale rice fortification, helping poorer communities obtain more micronutrients from
63%
The percentage of household income that would need to be devoted to food – if the poorest households in low- income countries were to eat healthily.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021
“Agriculture needs to transform to help farmers adapt to climate change, increase farm productivity, and increase food, feed and fuel output for a growing population while renewing nature.”
Alexander Hennig
their rice-heavy diets. PepsiCo, for its part, has pledged to invest $100m in positive agriculture and food security initiatives by 2030, while Unilever has been working with partners to help smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods in Madagascar.
Agricultural innovation As an agricultural company, Bayer Crop Science seeks to make a difference at the earliest and most foundational part of the food value chain. A member of both the WBCSD and the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge, the company believes food security and climate change are two sides of the same coin. It currently invests €2.6bn a year on agricultural innovation, with a view to helping growers produce greater yields with fewer inputs. “We are committed to providing farmers with tailored solutions integrating critical tools to plant,
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