Assessing diets, food supply chains and food systems sustainability: towards a common understanding of economic sustainability

One of the main challenges impeding the promotion of sustainable food systems and diets is that related to sustainability assessment. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a shared scientifically-sound and easily applicable methodology for the analysis of sustainability. Economy is widely recognised as one of the three pillars of sustainability. The paper lists the main nutrition, health, environment, society, ethics and economy issues that should be considered for defining the economic sustainability of diets and provides insights for the assessment of the economic sustainability of healthy diets with a particular focus on the modelling of the economic effects of a switch to recommended diets and the analysis of the economic sustainability of food supply chains using different models and methods (e.g. input–output models, scenario analysis). The paper also highlights the importance of analysing the economic sustainability in relation to public policies especially those related to agriculture, food/nutrition and health. As a concrete case study, the paper provides a tentative list of indicators for assessing the economic sustainability of the food system in Apulia region (southeastern Italy). For economic sustainability analysis many indicators can be used to describe current resource allocations and the impact of changes in food demand such as land use, production, prices, value of output, employment and trade. Economic objectives for sustainable food chains may include ensuring moderate food prices, achieving an equality point between food supply and demand, maintaining job posts, and optimising added value and return on investment. Economic modelling can be used to predict what might happen in case of a shift towards more healthy diets under different scenarios. The paper points out that the sustainability assessment focus (diet, food supply chain, food system) and geographical coverage should be clearly defined for the selection of appropriate economic indicators.