ACTION PRPOSALS FROM PRE CONFERENCE THE HAGUE

(Text video)

My name is Rutger Schilpzand. I am managing partner with Schuttelaar & Partners

and I had the honour to chair the KLV pre-conference in The Hague, 12th of April this

year.

For good reasons this conference was called: what does the world want to eat? Not

‘how to feed the world?’

This title means to start thinking from the consumer side and to find out which

mechanisms dominate there. These are: ageing and urbanization.

Urbanization: nowadays already more than half of the world population lives in

megacities and this figure will rise further. Urbanization means that food consumption

is detached from production. These two will be connected by large scale food

processing and retailing, so there is an increasing role to be played for food brand

multinationals and international retailers. (in spite of all these nice initiatives for local

food, large scale food processing will dominate the world)

Ageing is not only gaining ground in industrialized countries, but also in emerging

economies. Within 20 years ageing will be as high in China as it is now in Europe.

Ageing means that food policy and food supply do not only have to focus on bulk and

calories, but also on high nutrition value: fruit, vegetables, dairy.

This makes the responsibility of the big food business even greater. Because it is also

their responsibility to make the healthy choice the easy choice. They dominate what,

where and for what price food is offered to the consumer.

Compare this responsibility in healthy food with what happens in sustainability. The

business sector makes giant steps to make their products and processes more

sustainable, knowing that they otherwise undermine their perspectives in the long

run. To a large extend this goes pre-competitive. Food business cooperates, not

competes in sustainability, See the large scale international initiatives such as the

Sustainable Agriculture Initiative and the Sustainability Consortium. I plea for a

comparable international movement of food industry and retail to focus on healthy

eating. By means of innovation, promotion and information. Governments have a

supporting and encouraging role and can take the lead as launching customers. Make

the healthy choice the easy choice has been launched as a target by WHO almost ten

years ago. I think it’s time now for large scale implementation, in THE GLOBAL

HEALTHY CHOICE CONSORTIUM.