Sustainable Nutrition: Creating a Shared Value - Essay Example

Sustainable nutrition: Creating a Shared Value Sustainable nutrition: Creating a Shared Value Sustainable Nutrition According to American Dietetic Association (1998), sustainable nutrition is consuming food with lower adverse environmental impacts that contribute to nutrition security for current and future generations. A sustainable nutrition should be protective of our ecosystem, economical, safe, and healthy. In spite of numerous efforts, the nutrition problems of the society continue to rise. Therefore, it is clear that the current methods of food production and consumption may not be sustainable. Thus, numerous individuals have suffered from nutritional and health related problems. In the past few decades, sustainable nutrition was proposed, with a dietary recommendation that would lead to healthier consumers. However, little attention has been paid to sustainable nutrition. With the growing academic knowledge on the environmental and eco-system degradation, renewed attention has been directed towards sustainability, particularly in our diets. Thus, the society has acknowledged that sustainable principles for nutrition are urgently needed to address nutrition and food security. Ensuring sustainable diets require the development of strategies and policies towards sustainable food production and consumption. Addressing nutrition needs of the rapid growing population, food systems have under transformation toward more efficient ways of utilizing the resources and effective food consumption methods. Currently, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) activities to ensure sustainable nutrition focus on food production, food consumption, and nutrition security. This will help in providing eco-friendly food recommendation to the consumers to understand what the requirements for an environmental sustainable food system are. Even though food is defined in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, nutrition is seldom dealt with to determine the nutrients contained in a whole diet. Nutrients and diets are essential, as ecosystem services to increase the awareness of nutrition as a concern for the environment, and to assist in improving and understanding the idea of sustainable diets (Hasler, 2000). Importance of sustainable nutrition Sustainable nutrition along with education policies is significant to the achievement of the goals of sustainable development. In addition, it acts as a link connecting the nutritional well-being of the individual and community. Sustainable nutrition can also address the consumption of food with lower water and carbon. It can also promote the utilization of food biodiversity such as traditional and local foods with more nutritional rich species and varieties. As a result, there has been rapid growth in o population leading to reduction in natural resources are becoming scarcer. The natural resources are also becoming more degraded due to the lack of sustainable management. The way produce and consume food can be one of the factors threatening our natural resources. Sustainable nutrition will contribute to understanding the efficiencies through the use of an ecosystem strategy from the food production to consumption (Harper, 1999). Moreover, sustainable nutrition can also contribute to the change from nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-driven food systems. Therefore, a close engagement with business and civil society is essential to engage all stakeholders in nutrition, health, education, and the consumers. The community should act responsibly to achieve sustainable food security and nutrition. Sustainable nutrition addresses the whole food systems, and focus on healthier sustainable diets that will have multiple benefits. Creating a shared value Malnutrition continues to be an issue of major concern in our society. Companies must think about how they can evolve their business models so that they can reach further the disadvantaged segment of our society with their products and help to improve the quality of life. These include nutritional products that reach more people. Companies may also initiate nutritional programs in the communities where they can reach more families. Companies should create a shared value for their business and for society. They should develop strategies that help them maximize the shared value for every product they produce and the regions they operate. Business cannot survive without a healthy economy (Porter & Kramer, 2011). It depends on healthy and educated employee, government stability and access to sustainable resources. Companies can create both negative and positive social and environmental impacts through their day-to-day operations. Nutrition should be based on the nutritional awareness as well as the desire for improved health and wellness. Companies should seek to improve the quality of life through proper food and nutrition that contribute to the health and wellbeing of consumers. Continuous research and development to improve the nutrition profile of products is paramount. They must try to reduce the amount of sugar, salt, trans-fats, saturated fat, artificial coloring, and many others. Instead, they should more nutritious and beneficial ingredients to produce high-quality food that is affordable to lower-income earners. Companies may also address the issue of food waste through exhibition explaining food situation and environmental impacts of food waste. They should implement food and nutrition education programs with sustainable nutrition lessons, addressing the consumers to participate actively in saving water while achieving optimal nutrition. Giving advice on how consumers can prevent food waste in order to save money should be part of their corporate responsibility. Additionally, they can give advice on food storage, the expiry dates, so that consumers can make planned purchases (Zadek, 2001). Food systems should be transformed towards a sustainable diet in food production and consumption to achieve efficiency in the use of natural resources. Health and Economical impacts of sustainable nutrition Consuming food grown locally it will be fresher and have higher levels of nutrients and antioxidants. Fresh foods have higher levels of antioxidant, vitamins, and other nutrients. Increasing these nutrients in our bodies is important since it recommended for our well-being. Food choice affects our health at an individual level, however at a society level; food choice can alter the food supply. This can lead to increased morbidity. It can be as a result of food poisoning or chronic health conditions. Environmental sustainability has a direct impact on food supply because it affects the health of our environment. Basically, human beings should have physical and economic access to nutritious and sufficient food and water to fulfill their dietary need. It will also enable them to have healthy lifestyles without compromising their ability to meet these needs (Dupont, 1999). It is evident that nutrition sustainability is a tool for creating a healthy society. Its application can cause change in our health. References American Dietetic Association. (1998). Position of the American Dietetic Association: Domestic Food and Nutrition Security. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98, 337–342. Dupont, J. (1999). The Third Century of Nutrition Research Policy—Shared Responsibility. Nutrition Today, 34, 234–241. Harper, A. (1999). Nutritional Essentiality: Evolution of the Concept. Nutrition Today, 34, 216–222. Hasler, M. (2000). The Changing Face of Functional Foods. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 19, 499–506. Porter, M. and M. Kramer. (2011). Creating Shared Value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2):62–77. Zadek, S. (2001). The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship. London: Routledge. Read More