Protecting the earth and curbing man-made global warming are foregone conclusions.
Whether for soy, palm oil or beef production, we simply cannot afford to destroy the lungs of the earth. Anyone’s implicit (supply chain) involvement in the deforestation of Asian and South American rainforests is profoundly immoral.
At the same time the amount of arable land to feed a growing world population is finite, whilst we also agree that there shouldn’t be hungry people on our planet. Hunger is cruel, and so unnecessary. Our population needs to be fed in an honest and healthy way, and we should achieve that with the current means available to us.
Re-thinking the Value Chain
The good news is that the knowledge, capabilities, and resources are available to achieve both climate action & zero hunger. But it requires us to change the way we have been building and operating our economic (food) models over the past decades.
We need to re-think our supply and value chains and take into account the real (social, economical & environmental) cost of producing our food.
Progress subsequently has been painfully slow. Main reason: stakeholders in the value chain do not take their responsibility.
Large parts of the world play the blame game, politicise the problem, and continue to put profit and their old models of value creation before people and planet.
Blaming versus Embracing Change
Playing the blame game is the easy way out.
“It’s the Politicians” that only create haphazard policies (instead of developing a long term food chain vision);
“It’s the Banks” that, some green-washing projects aside, only want to finance proven production methods (instead of supporting farmers to transition to novel, more sustainable food approaches);
“It’s the Farmers” that don’t want to change the way they operate (instead of recognising the economic supply chain trap they’re in and the utter misrepresentation of their willingness to change);
“It’s the Processors” that are primarily interested in the lowest possible input cost (instead of meeting the true cost of production);
“It’s the Retailers”, that, few exceptions aside, primarily compete each other on price and push that cost pressure down the supply chain (instead of taking a leading role in creating added value).
But it’s not just politicians, companies and entrepreneurs that fail to take (enough) responsibility to improve the situation: consumers alike disregard the role they have to play!
Although Millennials and Gen. Z are more sustainably conscious, the majority of consumers still shy away from choosing eco-friendlier food options and decide with their wallet. Largely also because the true cost of production is not reflected on the supermarket shelves.
So, yes, it’s difficult to change decades of policies, economic models, and behaviour, but certainly not impossible.
It only requires everyone to play along and jointly take responsibility to build a just, sustainable, and viable value chain!