Consumer strategies towards a more sustainable food system: insights from Switzerland

Abstract

Background To improve the sustainability performance of food systems, consumption- as well as production-side changes are needed. Objective To this end, we assessed multiple sustainability impacts of six consumer strategies for Switzerland. Design Two strategies encompassed dietary changes: following a pescetarian diet and adhering to the national dietary guidelines. Two strategies employed alternative farming systems: increasing the share of organic production and, in addition, applying the circularity principle of avoiding feed-food competition by limiting livestock feed to low-opportunity-cost biomass. A fifth strategy reduced food waste. The sixth strategy increased the share of domestic produce. For all strategies, we assessed greenhouse gas emissions, land use, nitrogen surplus, social risks, diet quality, and diet costs. Results The strategies revealed trade-offs between impact categories, unless combined in a synergistic way. While dietary changes towards more plant-based diets reduced environmental impacts (up-to 51%) and increased diet quality (up-to 57%), they increased social risks due to increased sourcing from contexts with potentially bad labour conditions (up-to 19%). Further, when the share of organic produce was increased, land use and dietary costs were increased (up-to 33% and 42%, respectively). The effect on land use could however be reversed when circularity principles were introduced in addition to the organic production standard, resulting in reductions for all environmental indicators (up-to 75%). Reducing food waste and increasing the share of domestic produce led to better sustainability performance as well, but at lower orders of magnitude. Conclusions Combining all proposed strategies could lead to substantial favorable changes on all impact categories assessed, but would require a thorough transformation of the current food system. Yet, also the sum of individual consumers each following only one of the strategies proposed makes up an important contribution towards improving the sustainability performance of the Swiss food system.

Circularity in Europe strengthens the sustainability of the global food system

“…For example, foods need to be combined effectively to enhance bioavailability 28 , and appropriate processing methods must be chosen that preserve and make important nutrients available 29 , 30 . To facilitate this, a diversity of measures is required, from appropriate processing to changes in food environments, as well as changes in (relative) pricing, accompanied by education and information activities 31 .…”

Organic Farming Provides a Blueprint to Improve Food Quality, Safety and Security

“…These conclusions/hypotheses are supported by a recent study by Frehner et al [14] who estimated that reducing meat production and changing to more plant-based diets can reduce environmental impacts by up to 51% and increase diet quality by up to 57%, while changing to organic farming standards would lead to an increase in the amount of land area required for food production, unless there is also diet change.…”

“…It is important to note that both studies [9,14] highlight that organic produce is more expensive and that circularity land use principles (e.g., minimizing intensive conventional soya, maize and cereals to produce feeds for intensive feed-lot red meat production systems), in addition to diet change and organic production methods, would be required to substantially minimize environmental impacts and increase the sustainability of the food system. Frehner et al [14] point out that shorter supply chains and reducing food waste will also contribute to improve sustainability, but to a lesser extent.…”

Acceptance of meat reduction policies in Switzerland

“… 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 By reducing meat consumption, several target dimensions of sustainable food systems in high-income countries can be addressed. Various studies point to simultaneous health and environmental benefits of reduced meat consumption 7 , 8 , 9 and argue for a reduction of meat consumption as an important precondition for thoroughgoing animal welfare improvements. 10 , 11 …”

“…26 Accordingly, Frehner et al. 9 show that substantial synergies between health and ecological target dimensions of the Swiss food system could be achieved by reducing meat consumption levels. Furthermore, Switzerland can be seen as a frontrunner in terms of a) the active socio-political discourse, because of several past and upcoming referenda addressing the sustainability of food systems and b) progressive, target-oriented agricultural policies that acknowledge the multifunctional character of agriculture.…”