Abstract
The food system and the natural environment are closely linked. Indeed, food production strongly relies on environmental resources and services, and releases outputs into the environment. This implies that food-related activities can create negative externalities for the environment, for example related to overexploitation and pollution, given that the market fails to deliver the socially optimum level of resource use and/or pollution. Given this market failure, public intervention is required to regulate such activities. Public intervention can take different forms, from no intervention to simple guidelines up to strict regulation. Indeed, regulation can follow either an approach that outlines general principles or that fixes specific standards, or that promotes information and education.
The aim of this chapter is to highlight the issues of environmental sustainability in the context of the agri-food system and to discuss current public and private initiatives that regulate the market from an environmental perspective. Thus, in this chapter we firstly introduce the concept of sustainability, including all the three pillars (profit, people and planet) and then discuss the issues of environmental sustainability related to food. Moreover, we discuss the different forms of public intervention and then we present European regulation that relates to environmental sustainability within the food system, including public and private voluntary initiatives. Furthermore, we discuss the interest of consumers for environmental sustainability and their perception of the impact of food production on the environment. Moreover, we analyse synergies between environmental sustainability and health issues. Concluding remarks follow.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Meadows et al. (1972), p. 158.
- 3.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), p. 16.
- 4.
The Brundtland Commission was the UN World Commission on Environment and Development that was appointed by the UN to discuss ‘a global agenda for change’, and who’s chairman was Gro Harlem Brundtland (that subsequently became Prime Minister of Norway), that gave the name to the Commission.
- 5.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), p. 41.
- 6.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), p. 11.
- 7.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), p. 41.
- 8.
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), p. 7.
- 9.
UNEP (1972).
- 10.
UNEP (1972).
- 11.
Ricci (2013), pp. 19–25.
- 12.
COM(2016) 740 final, pp. 3–9.
- 13.
van der Meulen et al. (2014), p. 2.
- 14.
Biocapacity is usually referred to the capacity of ecosystems to produce useful biological materials and to absorb polluting materials generated by humans.
- 15.
- 16.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 17.
- 17.
Smith et al. (2010), p. 2942.
- 18.
- 19.
USDA (2010), p. 12.
- 20.
- 21.
IPCC (2014), p. 9.
- 22.
Nellemann et al. (2009), p. 46.
- 23.
UNEP (2012), p. 71.
- 24.
Nellemann et al. (2009), pp. 6–7.
- 25.
Nellemann et al. (2009), p. 7.
- 26.
OECD (2015), p. 58.
- 27.
Leathers and Foster (2009), p. 433.
- 28.
- 29.
- 30.
‘Undernourishment means that a person is not able to acquire enough food to meet the daily minimum dietary energy requirements, over a period of one year. FAO defines hunger as being synonymous with chronic undernourishment’ (http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/).
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 6.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 6.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 6.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 2.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005b), pp. 8–10.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. vii.
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Smith et al. (2010), p. 2941.
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That are defined as areas where at least 30 of the landscape is cultivated (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005a).
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 3.
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FAOSTAT data for 2012. Available at http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/E/EL/E.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005a), p. 2.
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COM(2016) 740 final, pp. 12–14.
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van der Meulen et al. (2014), p. 5.
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Black (2008), pp. 452–454.
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van der Meulen et al. (2014), p. 8.
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Porter (1990), p. 88.
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van der Meulen et al. (2014), p. 1.
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van der Meulen et al. (2014), pp. 5–6.
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Black (2008), pp. 446–447.
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Black (2008), p. 447.
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Bremmers et al. (2015), p. 4.
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Garcia Martinez et al. (2007), p. 300.
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Garcia Martinez et al. (2007), p. 301.
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Rouvière and Caswell (2012), p. 248.
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Black (2002), p. 2.
- 57.
Black (2002), p. 16.
- 58.
Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union, Article 3.
- 59.
Consolidated version of the TFEU, Articles 34–36.
- 60.
Consolidated version of the TFEU, Article 114.
- 61.
Recital 19 of the Preamble to Regulation 178/2002.
- 62.
Segrè (2008), pp. 144–145.
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OECD (2005), p. 142.
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Segrè (2008), p. 148.
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OECD (2001), p. 13.
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Sorrentino et al. (2011), pp. 2–4.
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COM(2010) 672 final, p. 2.
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European Commission (2013a), p. 1.
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European Commission (2013a), p. 2.
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McMahon and Cardwell (2015), p. 453.
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European Commission (2013a), p. 5.
- 72.
EU Fisheries—CFP, accessible at: https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp_en.
- 73.
EU Fisheries—CFP, accessible at: https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp_en.
- 74.
EU Fisheries—Managing fisheries, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/fishing_rules.
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EU Fisheries—Market organisation, accessible at https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/market.
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Feeding the 5000 (2015).
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http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste/index_en.htm. Accessed on September 5, 2017.
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COM(2011) 21, p. 6.
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COM(2016) 739 final, p. 9.
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COM(2014) 398 final.
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Bremmers et al. (2015), pp. 4, 14.
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Waarts et al. (2011), Appendix 1.3 and 1.4, pp. 86–89.
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Bremmers et al. (2015), pp. 3–5.
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Bremmers et al. (2015), pp. 5–6.
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Waarts et al. (2011), pp. 26–29.
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Bremmers et al. (2015), pp. 4 and 14.
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Trienekens and Zuurbier (2008), p. 108.
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See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/index_en.htm accessed on 5 September 2017.
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See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/facts-and-figures.html accessed on 5 September 2017.
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Recital 1 of Regulation 66/2010.
- 93.
Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union, Article 3; Recital 1 of Regulation 1221/2009; Recital 5 of Regulation 66/2010.
- 94.
See http://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/index_en.htm accessed on 5 September 2017.
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European Commission (2016), p. 21.
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Ruini et al. (2012), p. 1.
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Black (2002), p. 16.
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European Commission (2013b), p. 17.
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European Commission (2013b), p. 62.
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European Commission (2013b), p. 55.
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European Commission (2012), p. 24.
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European Commission (2013b), p. 77.
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Pedersen and Neergaard (2006), p. 17.
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Cavaliere et al. (2014), p. 9496.
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Banterle, A., Ricci, E.C., Cavaliere, A. (2018). Environmental Sustainability and the Food System. In: Bremmers, H., Purnhagen, K. (eds) Regulating and Managing Food Safety in the EU. Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77045-1_4
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