The analysis of the unsustainable food production and consumption patterns in European countries highlights the need for greater consumer awareness about the environmental impacts of their food choices. A new study published in  Nature Food emphasizes the importance of transforming food systems for the well-being of both people and the planet.

August 2, 2023, marked this years’ overshoot day – that is, the day when the Earth ran out of its yearly budget of natural resources. This means that what humans demand from nature goes beyond what the world’s ecosystems can support.

On the other hand, the overshoot for European countries falls in early May, meaning that the impact of the lifestyle and consumption pattern of Europeans is clearly above that of the global average.

A new study published in Nature Food points out the environmental impact of the food sector, its production, sourcing and consumption patterns, accounting for about 30% of the ecological footprint of the EU-27 countries. The ecological footprint is defined as “the appropriation of biological resources and ecosystem services to support consumption patterns”, and is crucial along the path towards meeting the targets of the EU Green Deal.

The authors, including CMCC’s Marta Antonelli, worked to provide insights into the extent to which food systems generate pressures on ecosystems and the global environment. There are a number of different such pressures: from land use to water pollution, from greenhouse gasses (GHG) emission to biodiversity loss. For example, about one-third of the overall human-caused GHG emissions are produced by the food sector. The paper shows that food consumption determines about 30% of the demand for a wider set of ecological assets, as measured via the ecological footprint of Europeans.

“Consumers do not usually have full knowledge about the environmental impacts associated with the food they consume,” wrote Antonelli and Alessandro Galli, first author of the study, “while there is widespread concern among food systems scientists and researchers about the need to shift the way food is produced and consumed to drive a global transformation that benefits the health of both people and the planet.”

Another point that the research highlights is the connection between how much of the biocapacity (i.e., biomass and ecosystem services) for food consumption originates from within the EU and its ability to maintain a sustainable food supply system.

“About a quarter of the biocapacity needed to provide the food being consumed within the EU-27 region originated from non-EU countries,” write the authors. “The increase in intra-regional trade also reflects into a growing share of Food Footprint that is reliant on intra-EU biocapacity, amounting roughly to two-thirds of the total.”

As the authors explain, this research underscores the need for comprehensive policies spanning various sectors to drive food system transformation, addressing issues in food production, consumption and trade, as well as their environmental impacts.

These insights extend beyond the EU-27 and are applicable globally. While the analysis has limitations due to its pan-European scope, it can serve as a foundation to guide actions throughout food supply chains, inform policy development at multiple governance levels, and promote cross-sectoral policies for improved science-policy collaboration.

Read more here.