How can food and drink companies right past wrongs?

We recently shared our latest food and drink sector macrotrend, Redemptive Diets, which examines a positive reaction to a snowballing consumption crisis.

With global material resource use expected to more than double by 2050 and high-income countries now consuming 10 times more than low-income countries, we are facing the stark reality that we will need the equivalent of 1.7 Earths to maintain current levels of consumption (sources: UN, Friends of the Earth, Footprint Network). Redemptive Diets describes the tangible effects of this statistic on our food systems, also under threat from unstable global macroforces such as climate change and political disruption. Functional issues such as water scarcity – the UN predicts that the global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030 – have been slow burning for decades but are now reaching a tipping point. At the same time, we are seeing societal demand for better, fairer systems, not only for the planet, but also for the people and communities that are its custodians. This onus of responsibility has historically been on the shoulders of consumers, but is now being demanded from businesses to adapt their production to facilitate better consumption.

It’s tempting to assume that we simply took a wrong turn somewhere in the past, using technological progress to win a race to the bottom for cost and convenience, and that the solution lies in a return to simpler times. Instead, as the outlook for many of our most relied on and favoured items becomes increasingly uncertain, we must take a more progressive and innovative approach, reframing the role of science and technology across the whole value chain to develop long-term sustainable and universally beneficial solutions that allow us to pre-emptively problem-solve.

Equally, from a societal standpoint, it’s time for the privileged to take a stand against systemic inequalities they have actively exploited or obliviously supported for personal gain. Influential brands and businesses can use their position to disrupt and dismantle exploitative and unfair systems, which have developed from food being treated as a capitalist commodity rather than a common resource.

Consumers are already aware of the negative impacts of careless consumption, but they need businesses to entirely rethink entrenched approaches to enable them to truly change. This is a precious opportunity to create a new blueprint for nourishment, accessibility and enjoyment of food by prioritising innovation to recalibrate entire industrial eco-systems, investing in long-term resilience and taking accountability for past unethical practice.