Greening Agri-food Value Chains
in Emerging Economies
Matthias Stucki and Anél Blignaut
Abstract Emerging economies play an increasingly important role in global food
security. They often rely on fossil fuels, lag behind on food governance and are
characterised by subtropical climates, often requiring energy intensive irrigation
and refrigerated storage. Mitigation options for agri-food value chains in emerging
economies are novel and have substantial sustainability potential. The session on
Greening Agri-food Value Chains in Emerging Economies at the 8th International
Conference on Life Cycle Management showed the manifold challenges of
emerging economies on their transition path to contributing to a sustainable global
food system. LCA can support this path by identifying specific environmental
hotspots in food value chains as well as by evaluating and prioritising potential
solutions from an environmental perspective.
1 Introduction
Emerging economies such as Brazil, India, China and South Africa play an
increasingly important role in global food security since they are among the world’s
largest producers of crops. Recently, their economies have experienced rapid
growth and increased integration into the global economy [1]. Sustainable development in agricultural value chains of emerging economies is thus of high relevance for global food security. While the reduction of environmental impacts of
food value chains has been widely studied in industrialised countries, mitigation
options for food value chains in emerging economies are new and have substantial
sustainability potential. Many emerging economies rely heavily on fossil fuels, lag
behind on food governance and are characterised by climate subtropical conditions,
M. Stucki (&)
Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zurich University
of Applied Sciences, 8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland
e-mail: matthias.stucki@zhaw.ch
A. Blignaut
Blue North Sustainability, Stellenbosch, South Africa
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_13
109
in Emerging Economies
Matthias Stucki and Anél Blignaut
Abstract Emerging economies play an increasingly important role in global food
security. They often rely on fossil fuels, lag behind on food governance and are
characterised by subtropical climates, often requiring energy intensive irrigation
and refrigerated storage. Mitigation options for agri-food value chains in emerging
economies are novel and have substantial sustainability potential. The session on
Greening Agri-food Value Chains in Emerging Economies at the 8th International
Conference on Life Cycle Management showed the manifold challenges of
emerging economies on their transition path to contributing to a sustainable global
food system. LCA can support this path by identifying specific environmental
hotspots in food value chains as well as by evaluating and prioritising potential
solutions from an environmental perspective.
1 Introduction
Emerging economies such as Brazil, India, China and South Africa play an
increasingly important role in global food security since they are among the world’s
largest producers of crops. Recently, their economies have experienced rapid
growth and increased integration into the global economy [1]. Sustainable development in agricultural value chains of emerging economies is thus of high relevance for global food security. While the reduction of environmental impacts of
food value chains has been widely studied in industrialised countries, mitigation
options for food value chains in emerging economies are new and have substantial
sustainability potential. Many emerging economies rely heavily on fossil fuels, lag
behind on food governance and are characterised by climate subtropical conditions,
M. Stucki (&)
Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zurich University
of Applied Sciences, 8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland
e-mail: matthias.stucki@zhaw.ch
A. Blignaut
Blue North Sustainability, Stellenbosch, South Africa
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_13
109