Special issue of the International LCA Journal on the role of developing and newly industrialising countries for sustainable food systems published

Following the 2022 Food LCA Conference in Lima (Peru), a special issue of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) entitled “The role of developing and emerging economies in sustainable food systems” was published in November 2023. The journal is one of the most renowned journals in the field of life cycle assessment. Ulrike Eberle from corsus is one of the guest editors of the issue.

The focus of the special issue is on the role of developing and emerging countries in sustainable food systems. Sustainable food systems, one of corsus’ fields of activity, play a key role on the road to greater sustainability. Food is sustainable if it is environmentally friendly and health-promoting, ethically responsible, appropriate to everyday life and enables socio-cultural diversity.
The biennial conference has been organised alternately in Europe and outside Europe for several years. The last conference took place in the Peruvian capital Lima and was organised by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. A focus on emerging and developing countries makes sense. After all, the role of emerging and developing countries in global food systems is not only limited to feeding their populations, but they also play a decisive role in supplying other countries, especially industrialised nations, with food and raw materials (e.g. phosphates for fertilisers or soya for livestock farming).

This special issue (SI) has been designed to bring together life-cycle oriented studies currently conducted in emerging and developing countries in the agri-food sector. The main objective is to contribute to a series of methodological and case study articles focussing on food supply chains in the Global South. A total of ten scientific articles were published in the Special Issue. They range from developments in impact assessment methods, sustainable diets, agroforestry systems and seafood to adaptation strategies in agriculture and livestock systems.
corsus was present at the conference with a workshop and presentations.