Health on the agenda of Sustainability

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The human body and its relation to a sustainable life standard will involve the family, policymakers, industry all over the world. The US federal government proposed new guidelines last week that could push the food industry to overhaul how it advertises cereal, soda pop, snacks, restaurant meals and other foods to children. Citing an epidemic of childhoodobesity, regulators are taking aim at a range of tactics used to market foods high in sugar, fat or salt to children, including the use of cartoon characters like Toucan Sam, the brightly colored Froot Loops pitchman, who appears in television commercials and online games as well as on cereal boxes. Regulators are asking food makers and restaurant companies to make a choice: make your products healthier or stop advertising them to youngsters. But all this has a link to home and why not start to change your daily food intake. The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat. From the market perspective Organic Product market will take a lead for a change in the direction of a healthier lifestyle. After a 10 per cent growth rate in 2008, the European organic market was worth £15.2 billion (€18 billion). Despite the economic recession, the organic market continued to expand in both France and Italy. Italy has a thriving organic market, too, partly due to it being enshriningin key legislation. The 1999 Finance Law 488 states “to guarantee the promotion of organic agricultural production of ‘quality’ food products, public institutions that operate school and hospital canteens will provide in the daily diet the use of organic, typical and traditional products.” Italy’s cities are doing just that. In Rome, 150,000 mostly organic meals are served daily in schools. Piacenza is doing even more. The city passed a law saying that day cares should serve 100 per cent organic foods while primary and secondary schools should serve meals that are at least 70 per cent organic or quality.(source: Soil Association UK). With more focus on the local produced food this will effect both the design of the kitchen in the schools and the distribution infrastructure with less transport. The school kitchen need to be design for more production at the schools. This will need a new strategy from both local communities and business involved in the sector. The incorporation of environmental, health and social value into core business activities will be an important part of the Sustainability agenda and will see no trade-of in price and quality. Kaj Embrén, Sustainable Business Coach, +46-70-398 22 11, kaj@embren.com.