Sustainable food transition in Portugal: Assessing the Footprint of dietary choices and gaps in national and local food policies

Abstract

The food system is increasingly acknowledged as the single largest reason for humans' transgression of key planetary limits and it is gaining centrality in our societal run-up towards a sustainable future, especially at city level. In Portugal, a country characterized by high meat and fish consumption, noticeable food wastage, and high urbanization level, fully understanding and then transforming the food system is of priority. Here we investigate the significance of food in comparison to other daily anthropogenic demands and the current sourcing and resource intensities profiles of dietary patterns at Portuguese national and city level through Ecological Footprint Accounting. A critical assessment of gaps in national and local food policies to trigger a major transformation in the Portuguese food system is also conducted on the basis of a newly proposed analytical framework. Results show that food consumption in Portugal is the single largest reason (≈30%) for transgressing the carrying capacity of Earth ecosystems but, despite the urgent need for changes in Portuguese food systems, major deficiencies in local policy implementation exist with weak policy commitment, coordination, and lacking institutional capacity as food policies – especially at the local level – are still not prioritized. Similarities with other countries within Europe and their implications are also discussed.

Synergistic Interactions of SDGs in Food Supply Chains: A Review of Responsible Consumption and Production

“…The impact of FSC operations on food security and food availability is evidenced in the literature [34,52,53] and several studies focused on the triple bottom line impact of the FSC and its impact on SDG 2, thereby providing tangible solutions to achieving SDG 2 [54]. These solutions include effective stakeholder partnerships [55], policy improvement [55,56], improved agricultural systems [2,54], and sustainable supply chain operations [28,57]. Although SDG 3 and SDG 13, addressing good health and well-being, and climate change, were addressed 11 times in the reviewed literature, due to the relevance of SDG 12 and SDG 2, the rest of the paper will focus on these SDGs in contrast to other SDGs.…”

“…Trade-offs can be evidenced through the contradiction between the impact of the processing of food products on social and environmental perspectives. For example, increased processing of food products can prolong the shelf life, thereby minimizing the propensity to waste, but may also lower the nutritional value of the product, thereby suggesting a non-synergistic interaction (trade-offs) between target 12.3 and SDG 3 [56,65]. Such issues involving sustainability trade-offs are evidenced in terms of stakeholder prioritizations [32] but their impact on SDGs and other enablers is currently underexplored in an FSC context.…”

Campus Decarbonization: Students’ Perceptions for Reducing Meat Consumption in a Portuguese University

“…Portugal is a country characterized by the high consumption of meat, with a need for a food transition [48]. Consequently, understanding students and the replication to other Portuguese universities and at international level could be decisive.…”

Toward Health-Environment Policy in a Well-being Economy

“…Only an approximate 30% of the world's population manage to source crop-based foods from within 100 km (Kinnunen et al 2020). Most food systems in Europe are highly dependent on food resources from abroad, an interconnectedness characterized by trade-shock-related fragilities and lack of resilience, as well as energy inefficiency (Galli et al 2020).…”