Sustainable Food Summit to tackle sourcing

07-Apr-2011 - Last updated on 08-Apr-2011 at 11:18 GMT

Related tags Sustainable foods summit Sustainability

Issues surrounding the sustainable sourcing of food ingredients will come under discussion at the Sustainable Foods Summit in Amsterdam in June, as the food industry is rising to the challenge of greening the supply chain and reporting on impacts.

The Sustainable Foods Summit is organised by Organic Monitor and will take place in Amsterdam on 23-24 June.

The event, now in its third year, taps into a movement towards greater sustainability and accountability in the food sector.

Indeed, several recent studies have scrutinised the sustainability and CSR reports of food and beverage companies. For example, in March 2010 UK-based consultancy Two Tomorrows published its first Tomorrow’s Value Rating for the biggest food and beverage sector. It rated Unilever in the top spot.

Senior consultant Alex Nichols told FoodNavigator.com at the time that while there are some ‘laggards’ with only limited awareness of sustainability challenges, “most food and beverage companies are now very aware of the major social and environmental issues that impact global supply chains, and therefore there business”.

However when it comes to ingredients companies, who are not consumer-facing and may therefore be less likely to face public scrutiny of their brands’ impacts, some – especially the biggest – are getting to grips with sustainably issues, but there is a big hole where many others are not.

Pioneers speak

Sustainable ingredients is one of the two main themes of the Sustainable Food Summit this year, with climate change as the other.

Amongst the speaker line-up is Professor Dr. Michael Braungart, co-founder of the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) design approach, who will deliver the opening keynote on how food and ingredient firms can create positive environmental and social impacts.

Some pioneering sustainability initiatives in the food industry will also be aired, covering novel sustainability approaches, ethical trading partnerships, sustainability metrics and ecological packaging.

Dr. Ulrich Hoffmann at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will address delegates on the subject of food security, looking at agriculture can help meet the needs of a global population that is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050.

Dr. Maha Misbah of Unilever, who has been deeply involved in Unilever’s Allanblackia programme, will illuminate the challenges of settingup a sustainable supply chain.

More details on the Sustainable Food Summit are available at www.sustainablefoodsummit.com