The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation,
ranks countries on food system sustainability based off of three
pillars: food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutritional
challenges.
“A food system does not sit in isolation, and a large
number of stakeholders act together according to dynamics created by
specific drivers,” say researchers Francesca Allievi, Marta Antonelli,
and Katarzyna Dembska, who worked on the Food Sustainability Index with
the BCFN Foundation. This causes increasing complexity at the regional,
national, continental, and global level, they explain. Trying to assess
the interaction among its parts creates a high level of these creating a
high level of uncertainty when trying to assess the interaction among
its parts.”
Released in 2016, the FSI aims to encourage policymakers to
place food and its production issues as high-priority items in their
policy agendas. BCFN has since released two Food Sustainability Reports:
“Climate Change and Famine: Issues at the Heart of International
Awareness,” which focused on climate change, food security, and food
safety; and “Environmental, Food and Migration Sustainability: Three
Challenges To Overcome Together,” raising awareness about crucial issues
surrounding food and sustainability. Both reports were a joint effort
between BCFN and the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy.
According to the FSI, The world population is projected to
reach 8.1 billion by 2025. Ninety-five percent of this growth will come
from developing countries, many of which are dealing with the double
burden of hunger and rising obesity. Meanwhile, climate change is
presenting new challenges to the agriculture sector. By highlighting
performance of different countries and identifying best practices, the
index establishes a comparable benchmark for leaders around the world to
reference and measure their progress in establishing a sustainable food
system.
The FSI is publicly available.
Data can be accessed in the form of a map or a country ranking, and the
full dataset can be downloaded. Through this approach, the FSI can
serve as a tool for policymakers and experts to take action, students to
be educated, and the public to adjust their behavior for the well-being
of our health and our planet.
“The objectives
of the FSI are not only to highlight the
performance of countries, but to establish a comparable benchmark, to
offer examples of best practices at the national and city levels, and to
measure progress over time,” say the researchers.
The index analyzed the 20 countries in the G20, which
maintain the largest economies and contain two-thirds of the global
population, as well as five nations from regions otherwise
unrepresented, using 58 different indicators to measure sustainability.
FSI identified France, Japan, and Canada as the top-scoring countries.
The top score earner, France, maintains a holistic policy response to
food waste and nutrition issues. For example, French supermarkets are
required to donate excess food and tax incentives are in place to
discourage unhealthy food consumption.
Fixing Food,
a white paper released with the FSI, advises developing countries to
use institutional and infrastructure reform to improve sustainable
agriculture practices. “Including more transparent land rights, greater
access to finance…and stronger infrastructure for storage, transport,
and logistic, can promote greater efficiency,” write authors of the
report. Policy options to address nutritional challenges include public
education campaigns, tax measures on unhealthy foods, and restrictions
on junk food advertising to children.
The EIU and BCFN Foundation also developed City Monitor,
a city-level database and evaluation tool for urban food systems. City
Monitor applies sets of quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as
child obesity rates and quality of urban farming initiatives, to assess
urban food systems.
Together, City Monitor and the FSI provide city and
national-level benchmarking tools to help leaders take action on food
production, nutrition, and food waste issues. “Progress will be measured
over time by updating of the FSI in the next years through new inputs,
feedbacks, and new focus of research,” say the BCFN Foundation
researchers.
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