How can an organisation pursue SDG2?
There are things that businesses can do to help combat hunger.
- Provide help, support and innovation for farmers, enabling them to become more efficient
- Provide support to small and large producers to develop robust business models for regenerative farming
- Invest in local food-generating businesses and organisations to improve food security, sustainability and lower prices.
- Reduce food wastage internally and by customers
- Support responsible sourcing of livestock food and fertilisers
- Provide innovation support to businesses in the value chain and workforce nutrition programmes – encourage people to be food wise
- Provide technologies and services, such as storage and distribution equipment, to improve food accessibility and lower prices
Background
The global pandemic from 2021 has exacerbated world hunger for adults and children.
Almost 2.4 billion people are without food or fail to consume a healthy balanced diet regularly. This figure is rising at about 10% per annum.
In the UK, the situation is also serious. Over 2m tonnes of food is wasted across the food industry each year. Meanwhile, 5m adults and 2m children in the UK struggle to get enough to eat regularly. This is up by 2m, exacerbated by the 2020 pandemic, and is likely to worsen with the projected increased food and energy insecurity and prices.
Almost 2.4 billion people are without food or fail to consume a healthy balanced diet regularly. This figure is rising at about 10% per annum.
In the UK, the situation is also serious. Over 2m tonnes of food is wasted across the food industry each year. Meanwhile, 5m adults and 2m children in the UK struggle to get enough to eat regularly. This is up by 2m, exacerbated by the 2020 pandemic, and is likely to worsen with the projected increased food and energy insecurity and prices.
Case Study
Cotteswold Dairy reducing food waste
Cotteswold Dairy is one of the largest Independent Family Dairies in the UK, supplying England and Wales and processing more than 100 million litres of milk each year. They have four Service Depots in Cheltenham, Shropshire, North Wales and Hereford, plus a large production site in Tewkesbury. They work with over forty family farms located close to their dairies.
Cotteswold Dairy is a part of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap Initiative, run by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). This initiative helps businesses reduce food waste by monitoring it and providing analysis to help make better decisions about reducing our food waste.
Where possible, any excess or close to used-by date products are donated to the local food banks, reducing food wastage.
They also provide information to their customers to help them to reduce their food waste.
• Check that your fridge temperature is at a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius.
• Keep frozen and refrigerated goods together in a shopping bag after grocery shopping; maintaining a lower temperature and stopping them from warming up on the journey home.
• If you have items that are about to expire and they are suitable for freezing, freeze them for a later date.
• Use up leftover vegetables to make a pasta sauce.
For more information about the Cotteswold Dairy sustainability programme, click the button below.
Cotteswold Dairy is a part of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap Initiative, run by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). This initiative helps businesses reduce food waste by monitoring it and providing analysis to help make better decisions about reducing our food waste.
Where possible, any excess or close to used-by date products are donated to the local food banks, reducing food wastage.
They also provide information to their customers to help them to reduce their food waste.
• Check that your fridge temperature is at a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius.
• Keep frozen and refrigerated goods together in a shopping bag after grocery shopping; maintaining a lower temperature and stopping them from warming up on the journey home.
• If you have items that are about to expire and they are suitable for freezing, freeze them for a later date.
• Use up leftover vegetables to make a pasta sauce.
For more information about the Cotteswold Dairy sustainability programme, click the button below.
Regenerative Agriculture
Sowing the seeds of love (for the planet)
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
The care and creativity of regenerative growers yield benefits on and off the land. They grow food and fibre, draw down carbon, conserve water, replenish waterways, grow healthier foods, reduce their use of synthetic inputs, employ people within their communities, and ensure the long-term vitality of the land.
Additional benefits include:
• Reduce soil erosion and water pollution.
• Cost savings from reduced use of antibiotics and chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
• Improve biodiversity on land, in the air and in water.
• Promote rural economic development with local employment and healthier food choices.
• Many regenerative agriculture farmers and ranchers report feeling joy through their professions.
• The health of farmers, farmworkers, and downstream communities benefit from reduced use of and exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Networks of growers who exchange information, learn from one another, and build community.
At its core, regenerative agriculture is farming and ranching in harmony with nature.
The care and creativity of regenerative growers yield benefits on and off the land. They grow food and fibre, draw down carbon, conserve water, replenish waterways, grow healthier foods, reduce their use of synthetic inputs, employ people within their communities, and ensure the long-term vitality of the land.
Additional benefits include:
• Reduce soil erosion and water pollution.
• Cost savings from reduced use of antibiotics and chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
• Improve biodiversity on land, in the air and in water.
• Promote rural economic development with local employment and healthier food choices.
• Many regenerative agriculture farmers and ranchers report feeling joy through their professions.
• The health of farmers, farmworkers, and downstream communities benefit from reduced use of and exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Networks of growers who exchange information, learn from one another, and build community.
SDG2 aims to "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture".
It has seven associated aims, that include:
-
End hunger and ensure access by all people
-
End all forms of malnutrition
-
Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers
-
Ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production
-
Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild specie
-
Increase investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks
-
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets