Sustainable Food Summit 2009

Sustainability and eco-labelling have come to the forefront in the food industry. A high level of interest resulted in global organic food sales exceeding US$ 50 billion in 2008 and the sale of fair trade products increasing by over 30 % per annum. However, how sustainable are these production methods? What impact do these and other eco-labels have on sustainability?
(Picture: The organisation team of Organic Monitor)The Sustainable Food Summit aimed to address such major questions as going organic, sourcing fairtrade, promoting biodiversity, buying local, and offsetting carbon emissions, etc. The summit brought together food manufacturers, retailers, ingredient suppliers, certification agencies, packaging companies, etc. to create a forum where these major issues could be debated and discussed. (Picture: The location - hotel Okura Amsterdam)

A growing number of food companies are making sustainability claims. However, how true are these claims and can they be substantiated? Here are a few examples of companies who have successfully and legitimately met the ethical and environmental challenges.

An example of a sustainable supply chain is Alpro. Alpro, the European market leader in 100 % natural soy products, has twice won the Belgian environmental award, once for its partnership with the organic soybean farmers and once for implementing a sustainable management system within the Alpro organization. For Alpro, vegetal food is a more efficient way of using the available land.

Alpro has composed and signed an ethical charter based upon the ten guiding principles of the Global Compact. The Global Compact is a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption.

Alpro purchases EcoSocial soybeans from Brazil, China and Canada. It has long-term relations with farmers and it supports two charity projects in Brazil and Africa. Alpro has a full traceability system – non-GMO sourcing which is independently certified. It doesn’t source from rainforest areas and even contacts Greenpeace regarding sourcing locations. The company is very proud of its waste water treatment and uses green electricity at all production sites. Alpro is sponsoring the International Polar Foundation. With a recently built plant in Wevelgem, near the river, it can use boats instead of trucks.

Sarah Pax is the creator of Carbonostics (cost + carbon + nutrition), a simplified life-cycle management tool for the food industry. It helps companies to improve their carbon footprint and provides “the best available data on carbon for only £499”, a very convenient program with an option for eco-labelling. By 2011, an eco-label will be a must in France, not only for organic but for all products.

Rob Hardy (picture right), the special projects director of Earthoil Plantations, is currently responsible for all organic and fairtrade certification within the Earthoil Group of companies, including the UK, Kenya, India and South Africa. Over the last 18 months Rob has taken the Earthoil India (+ 600 farmers) and Kenya (+ 500 farmers) grower groups to full organic and fairtrade status. In Kenya they concentrate on tea tree production and in India they grow peppermint and spearmint.

Earthoil began in 2006 and the target was to achieve organic status by early summer 2009. Its focus is on ethical and sustainable sourcing of ingredients. In Bareilly in India the company works with very poor farming communities. Soils are often in an impoverished state due to years of abuse under conventional systems. If they go organic, each individual farmer is rewarded with an organic premium and he is also able to pay an FT community premium that leads to certification of fairtrade and organic. Being organic involves important environmental issues such as waste management, and energy and water conservation.

Rob Hardy shares his experiences: “You cannot change people’s culture and habits. One key rule: Keep things as simple as possible!” For Hardy, language is a very important tool: “It is too easy to think you have been understood when you have not… the only way is to check and re-check on mutual understanding. And the key to making the whole farmer group work is ultimately trust.”

The number one smoothie drink in the UK is Innocent drinks. The business was started in 1999 by three friends. Meanwhile, even the Coca Cola Company has been eager to invest in Innocent. The Innocent Story shows that with a non-corporate attitude, a fantastic product and creative thinking it is possible to create a fast growing, profitable company that acts responsibly. Jessica Sansom, head of sustainability, is responsible for meeting the company’s mantra to “leave things a little better than we find them”.

Innocent’s lessons about marketing based on sustainable values:

1: Don’t bother if sustainability is not fundamental to your business. Create a business you can be proud of.

2: Know your impacts - what do you need to work on and where can you make the most difference?

3: Make sustainable packaging and state this fact on your labels. Inform your customers properly.

4: Engage your customers. Innocent made a smoothie for the winter, with a nice woollen hat on the label. People across the country helped with the knitting and the 250,000 pounds the sale of 500,000 (!) hats brought in were donated to Age Concern.

Nature and More has implemented a new system of traceability. Every fruit or vegetable carries a unique Nature & More “Trace & Tell code” that provides retailers and consumers with direct web access to the producer as well as to the unique ecological and social context in which the product was grown. “If somebody dies from a product, you are obliged to ensure traceability in 72 hours”, jokes Hugo Skoppek (picture), “but people who are still alive are also entitled to know where their food comes from”. Nature and More counts on responsible customers. Food trends are changing, and consumers prefer a combination of health, quality and convenience. The partner of the Nature & More concept is the Dutch company Eosta, at present Europe’s largest and fastest growing importer, packer and distributor of organically grown fresh products. It is also the first to offer TÜV certified climate-neutral products in the European food market.

Starbucks Coffee (established in 1971) has grown into a global brand. It started selling whole beans, only exceptional coffee beans, from all over the world. In the 1980s it sold its first cup of coffee. Now Starbucks represents 2.5 % of the whole world’s consumption. In 1998 the company already set the highest industry standard for sustainable coffee sourcing, since there was no existing certification system. For Starbucks sustainable coffee sourcing means responsibly grown and ethically traded. It employs 180 inspectors to monitor the farmers and pays around 30 % more than the commodity market.

In autumn 2008, Starbucks launched a new brand: Starbucks Shared Planet. It means it will buy certified organic and fairtrade coffees. Starbucks is the largest buyer of fairtrade coffee. Together with respected NGOs (CI Conservation international, AWF African wildlife foundation, Fairtrade, Eko, Rainforest Alliance, etc), it preserves biodiversity and fights global climate change. 100 % of Starbucks coffee will be responsibly grown and ethically traded by 2015. Also b y 2015, all cups will be recyclable and the enterprise will contribute one million community service hours per year. (Picture: Amarjit Sahota/Organic Monitor)

www.conservation.org, www.scscertified.com, www.ibd.com.br

The proceedings from the Sustainable Foods Summit are available from the organisers at a small fee. More details here.