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7B - Sustainable development indicators (WEP/238) Indicators for Monitoring Environmental Relevant Trends of Food Consumption. Jungbluth, Niels1, Faist Emmenegger, Mireille1, Frischknecht, Rolf1, 1 ESU-services, Uster, CH, CH ABSTRACT- Indicators are necessary to compare the state of sustainable development in different countries and to compare the relevance of consumption patterns between different countries. Indicators are also used for monitoring the success of political decisions in the time. This paper develops indicators for monitoring the environmental impacts of food consumption patterns. The research work has been initiated by the OECD. It starts with a review of indicators already proposed by the OECD. Environmental impacts of food consumption can be analysed with different environmental assessment methodologies. Thus a review of important methodologies has been made. The paper presents the main principles of investigation, the environmental interventions accounted for and the type of indicators used for the environmental assessment. Examples for an application in a case study for food consumption are shown for some methodologies. The data availability in the field of food consumption is assessed. The description concludes with a discussion of the main strengths and weaknesses of each methodology. Results from the review of different case studies are used to propose a set of indicators that covers all types of environmental impacts related to food consumption patterns in different countries. The indicators are easy to calculate based on statistical data. They cover important environmental aspects like agricultural production methods applied, transportation patterns, consumption levels of product categories, household behaviour and other non-quantifiable key issues. Key words: environmental impacts, indicator, food consumption, sustainable development |
