EU Resource Policy: Food (10)

Assessment of Resource efficiency in the food cycle

The food cycle can be approached from a variety of angles. First of all, each of the three traditional pillars of sustainability (environmental, economical and social) can be taken into account, but more broadly, food security, in terms of quantity and quality, becomes interlinked to health issues, whether human health or ecosystem health. A bigger picture involves the global economy, through international markets and the land-use and resource use trade-offs for competing land demands from food and other commodities (e.g. biofuels). Additionally, consumption of goods in one world area lead in certain cases to land-use impacts in another world area. Finally, different types of key actors intervene in the cycle: consumer, product and food sector.

This service contract will review sustainability criteria that can be used by a wide range of public and private agents to assess and track progress in the resource efficiency of the food cycle in the EU.

The scope of the service contract includes the whole food cycle, including feed and beverages.