This policy brief is a report of the seminar “Rising to the Sustainability Challenge in the Agri-Food Sector: Perspectives from New Zealand and France” organised by the New Zealand Embassy and IDDRI in Paris, October 12, 2011.
Extract :
"Sustainability concerns all human activities including our agri-food sector. The sustainability of our agri-food sector is determined by the way we produce and consume our food, and all the steps in between. This sector is facing increasing challenges to deliver healthy and secure diets while minimising its environmental impact (be it locally through water pollution or biodiversity loss or globally through greenhouse gas emissions).
In October 2011, IDDRI and the New Zealand Embassy in Paris jointly organised a seminar on how the agri-food sector is rising to the sustainability challenge. The seminar brought together experts from academia, government, civil society, agricultural production, agro-industries and retailers to share both New Zealand and French perspectives and discuss joint collaboration at company and industry levels.
Discussion centred on whether current approaches to develop consumer awareness and responsibility schemes are sufficient for addressing sustainability challenges, what scope there is for environmental efficiency improvement within existing supply chains, and whether there are also different, more sustainable business models to explore. This paper summarises this discussion and identifies avenues for future discussion and research."
