Food producers support environmental initiative

Europe’s food producers are behind a roundtable initiative pursuing a more co-ordinated supply chain approach to environmental issues, responding to The European Commission’s (EC’s) sustainable consumption and production (SCP) action plan launched last year.

The Food Chain SCP roundtable is the brainchild of the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA), which fears that the “gatekeeper” approach currently being adopted by the directorate general for the environment is too retailer led.

“We don’t particularly like this gatekeeper approach,” said CIAA director general Mella Frewen. “We want the food industry as a whole to come together and see what we can do … We have tried to get everybody involved.”

The Food Chain SCP roundtable is intended to bring together farmers, manufacturers, retailers, consumers, as well as EU and national policymakers, scientists and non-governmental organisations. The first meeting, involving various stakeholders in the food supply chain, is scheduled for early in March.

Its three priorities will be: the development of scientifically reliable and uniform methodologies to assess the environmental performance of food and drink products along their life-cycle; identification of suitable communication tools to provide environmental performance data to consumers; and the promotion of voluntary action to improve environmental performance.

Frewen said the idea was to develop a more coherent approach to dealing with environmental problems rather than taking a narrow approach based on single issues, such as carbon footprint labelling. “We said, let’s sit down and discuss what is the right sort of approach and methodology.”