Social footprint of European food production and consumption

The transition towards more sustainable food systems is one of the great challenges at global level. While environmental considerations have been widely explored, the social sustainability of agri-food systems have been scarcely addressed in literature, especially regarding the externalization of impacts due to international trade. In this study, we apply Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to address social sustainability considerations of food production and consumption, supporting the monitoring of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Building on the model of the Consumption Footprint developed by the EC-JRC to address environmental sustainability aspects, this paper presents a macro-scale assessment of social risk associated with the EU food consumption. In the context of operationalizing value chain assessment within SDGs, the analysis combines social indicators with production, trade and consumption data, allowing the evaluation of the social footprint of European food production and consumption. Selected social indicators and impact subcategories from those available in the Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) database were employed to assess a process-based Life Cycle Inventory model of EU food consumption by means of 44 representative products selected for the EU Consumption Footprint indicators. The assessment included an evaluation of SDGs coverage by S-LCA indicators and a sensitivity analysis based on two different weighting schemes, which unveiled the need of a harmonized weighting approach. Unlike the environmental impacts, social hotspots emerge mainly in rice and fruit & vegetables categories. Hotspots are concentrated in India, Argentina, and other extra EU countries. These results suggest that trade-offs could emerge between the different sustainability pillars and that fair trade and responsible sourcing approaches should be guaranteed in order to promote sustainable food systems.