Environmental Assessment of Food Systems
The challenge of creating a more sustainable food system can only be met with a holistic system approach. This involves depicting food production and consumption in models and developing optimal solutions by means of scenarios.
Because Switzerland needs to import nearly half of its food, a large share of the environmental impacts of this food occur abroad. Consequently, the environmental impacts of imports must be considered in addition to the impacts of products from Switzerland’s agricultural sector. Consumers influence production through their consumption behaviour and their diet. Optimal solutions only emerge when the interaction of the relevant factors is investigated in a total-system approach.
Various future scenarios are calculated and optimal solutions determined using the ‘Green DSS-ESSA’ model, which incorporates environmental impacts from SALCA and food data.