All Articles About Food, Beverage & Agriculture
BSR Insight Article: Native Organic Products Head Leontino Balbo Jr. on Large-Scale Organic Farming
Kimberly Murphy, Former Conference and Special Projects Manager
During a recent interview, BSR Conference 2012 plenary speaker Leontino Balbo Jr., executive vice president of Brazil's Native Organic Products, discussed how his organic food and beverage company became the world's largest organic sugarcane producer. Read more
BSR Insight Article: Food Waste: A Business Opportunity?
Nathan Springer, Associate, Advisory Services
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently found that Americans waste the equivalent of US$165 billion in food each year. Just like any type of supply chain inefficiency, this could be considered an opportunity. Not only is food waste costly, it perpetuates issues with food security and has environmental implications. Food waste in landfills accounts for nearly 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions. Agriculture uses 10 percent of energy, 50 percent of land, and 80 percent of fresh water expended in the U.S.—waste reduction efforts could help the industry decrease its reliance on these resources. The NDRC offers suggestions to government, business, and consumers to decrease food waste: Read more
BSR Insight Article: The Case for the Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Food-Producing Animals
Roger McElrath, Manager, Advisory Services
For years, antibiotics have been administered on meat-producing farms to treat sick animals or prevent infections when there is a known disease risk. The meat industry also uses antibiotics for non-therapeutic purposes to grow animals faster or to compensate for the effects of overcrowding or unsanitary conditions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the use of antibiotics in food-animal production accounts for approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States. Recently, experts have concluded that there is a direct link between the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals and the growth of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. At the same time, a growing number of consumers are making buying decisions based on the health, environmental, and social attributes of food—including whether the animals that were used for their meat were administered antibiotics. In many respects, the U.S. meat industry has provided a safe and economical supply of meat protein to satisfy the increasing demand of consumers. But underlying that success has been an industrial-scale approach to raising food-producing animals that has created social and environmental challenges, including the need for and/or generation of large amounts of water, waste, and greenhouse gases. While these issues are well-known, less understood are the impacts of the industry's antibiotic usage. Read more
BSR Insight Article: European Environmental Agency Report: Sustainability Themes for the Coming Year
Julia Robinson, Communications Associate
The European Environment Agency's latest annual report covers four main sustainability trends for the year ahead: Read more
BSR Insight Article: Finding Consensus on a Sustainable Food and Agriculture System
Julia Robinson, Communications Associate
Today, food production faces resource limitations, such as water and land, combined with a need for increased production, as our population expands and diets become more resource-intensive. Food waste--at an estimated loss of 30 to 40 percent along the entire value chain--and the paradox of a world in which equal numbers of people are malnourished and overweight are only exacerbating these issues. A new UN study calls for a paradigm shift and lays out various paths for action, highlighting the key role companies can play. Among the critical paths are: Read more
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