KOEN BOUCKAERT
Koen Bouckaert is the Vice President Strategy & Business Development at Alpro, the European market leader in plant-based foods, and a member of the Alpro Executive Management Team. He joined the company 13 years ago, after several years in strategy consulting as a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group. Koen is also the Sustainable Development Director at Alpro and he is the Strategic Affairs Director of ENSA, the European Natural Soy and Plant-based Manufacturers Association.
Koen is a Board member of Sojaxa, the French Soyfoods Association.
Koen is happily married to Nathalie van Ypersele, proud father of 2 daughters and lives in the Brussels area, Belgium.
FLORENCE COULAMY
Florence Coulamy is European sustainability manager at Unilever. She joined the company in 2006 coordinating sustainable sourcing and consumer engagement programmes for two food brands, namely Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s, respectively at global and EU level. Then she was sustainability and external affairs manager for Unilever France. Since 2011, as part of the regulatory affairs team, she has been leading projects and working with external stakeholders with a goal to contribute to transforming business practices, promoting consumer behaviour change and driving sustainable growth in various areas including packaging waste and circular economy, sustainable sourcing or the measurement and communication of product’s environmental performance.
DAN CROSSLEY
Dan Crossley is Executive Director at the Food Ethics Council, a charity whose mission is to build fair and resilient food systems by working with businesses, government and civil society to address ethical concerns at the heart of decision-making about food and farming. Dan leads the organisation’s work to bring people to the table to think deeply and help them find ways through contentious ethical food issues. Dan has worked on food sustainability and food ethics issues for over a decade. He was formerly acting Head of Food at Forum for the Future, where he advised many of the world’s leading food businesses and Government, and has previously worked for a food manufacturing company. Dan was co-chair of the consumer behaviour working group of Defra’s Green Food Project and chaired the Sustainable Food Supply Chain Commission. Dan is also a member of the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) Advisory Board.
OLIVIER DE SCHUTER
Olivier De Schutter is an expert on social and economic rights and on economic globalisation and human rights. The former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2008-2014) currently serves as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (2013-2018) and has been elected a Member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2015-2018). Mr De Schutter is Professor of Law at the University of Louvain (UCL) and at the College of Europe (Natolin) and a member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University.
SUE DIBB
Sue Dibb is coordinator of Eating Better: for a fair, green, healthy future – an alliance to help people eat less and better meat and more foods that are good for people and the planet. Sue is passionate about the need to create healthy, fair, sustainable food systems and the importance of governments, businesses and civil society working together to enable this transition.
Her previous roles include Director of the Food Ethics Council, Head of Sustainable Consumption and Production at the government advisory body, the Sustainable Development Commission, Senior Policy Advisor at the National Consumer Council and Co-Director of the Food Commission. Sue lives in Brighton with her family where she is also Chair of Brighton & Hove Food Partnership that is working for a healthier, more sustainable food system for the city.
FLORENCE EGAL
Ms Florence Egal is a food security and nutrition expert recently retired from the FAO. Still actively involved with FAO’s work and a member of the International Urban Food Network, Ms Egal is currently working on household food security, nutrition, sustainable livelihoods, local food systems and rural-urban linkages. Ms Egal worked for the FAO in the area of Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods for over 20 years, and has collaborated closely with FAO's emergency operations across the world. She has focused on local strategies for improved food security and nutrition and capacity-building of local institutions. Ms Egal specialises in intersectoral collaboration for nutrition as well as inter-agency initiatives for humanitarian coordination.
PHIL HOOPER
Phil Hooper talks about:
Providing healthy, sustainable meals an integral part of Quality of Life services
At Sodexo we serve around one million meals every day to schools, hospitals, workplaces, army barracks and prisons, as well as providing corporate hospitality and food at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues and events. In short we reach consumers in every walk of life and for this reason we have an important role to play in both helping promote healthy lifestyles and in doing so in a way which is sustainable.
For over 25 years we have been encouraging our employees, clients and customers to maintain a healthier, balanced lifestyle through our Healthwise philosophy. With obesity on the rise in the UK, Healthwise will continue to be core to our business offering.
We are also committed to operating sustainably – reducing the footprint of our business, ensuring that we source sustainably and ethically and promoting a sustainable diet to our clients and consumers. As a business improving nutrition and sustainability works hand-in-hand, our consumers are more and more interested in the provenance of their food and want to make ethical, sustainable and healthy choices.
We work with several organisations such as Soil Association, Freedom Foods and Fairtrade to guide our sourcing decisions. In several of our university, school and government contracts we have been awarded the Soil Association’s Food for Life Catering Mark and we recently became the first foodservice provider in the independent schools sector to source only Freedom Food-certified pork produce and eggs. Interestingly, due to customer demand our Prestige fine-dining and events business now offer more salads, seafood and vegetarian choices and less red meat.
Food waste is another area on which we are focusing and we work closely with experts in the field such as WRAP. Sodexo is a signatory of the Hospitality and Food Service Voluntary Agreement which looks at the best solutions to quantify and categorise food waste, so we can make more informed decisions on ways we can reduce it. Our environmental management work goes beyond food waste: every year we run an internal campaign to challenge our sites to look at reducing usage of energy, water or other resources and raise awareness amongst our staff and customers of these issues.
LiveWell for LIFE is a great project because it forges links between health and environment, providing simple, workable guidance on choosing a diet that can improve our health and that of the planet at the same time. We are excited to be working with WWF on a project to review some of our menus and products against a range of environmental and nutritional criteria, including carbon footprint. Using the data, we hope to be in a position to apply the LiveWell for LIFE principles to our menus, and to offer more climate-friendly, healthy options to our customers.
Phil Hooper is corporate affairs director for Sodexo UK & Ireland. He is responsible for all internal and external communications as well as overseeing the company’s client relationship management teams.
Phil has enjoyed an illustrious career in an industry that has provided him with many rewarding and differing experiences. He joined the company in 1976 as a management trainee and has since worked in various sales and operational roles throughout the organisation, including UK sales and marketing director and segment managing director. He took over his current role in 2004.
Further to his role at Sodexo, Phil is also a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, a member of the Business Services Association council, chair of the Foodservice Management group at the British Hospitality Association, a member of the Board of Trustees for the Springboard Charitable Trust and a patron of Hospitality Action.
SUSANNE LØGSTRUP
Susanne Løgstrup talks about:
The burden of cardiovascular diseases
In the EU, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main cause of death accounting for 1.9 million deaths every year – this is 40% of all deaths. As with other diseases genetic and environmental factors both play a role in CVD. Food is a key factor in the environmental side of the equation.
The food part of the equation
In its paper from 2011, Diet, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Europe, the European Heart Network (EHN) proposed population goals for a number of nutrients, including saturated fat, salt and fruit and vegetables. These goals, based on the scientific evidence, included intermediate goals and longer-term, more ambitious, goals.
For saturated fats, EHN proposed an intermediate goal of 10% of energy and a longer-term goal of 7% of energy. Although hard data on who is eating what in Europe is difficult to come by, there are important indicators that give insight into what is happening.
For example, intake of saturated fat in the EU (in adults) is between 9 and 26% of energy. Saturated fatty acids are found in several sources of food: meat and meat products, milk and dairy products – and to a lesser extent in seeds, nuts and vegetable oils.
Whereas a diet that meets these population goals favours a shift towards a predominantly plant-based diet from an animal-based diet, a persistent increase in meat supplies has been observed since the early 60s. In the Mediterranean region meat supply has increased fourfold in a generation – between 1963 and 2007. This is particularly curious as the original Mediterranean diet tends to be largely plant-based – meat being consumed in small amounts and relatively infrequently.
Food production and the environment
The food system is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. For impacts associated with the whole of the supply chain – from agriculture through to consumption – it has been estimated that the food sector in its entirety accounts for around 30% of greenhouse gases emissions. For the EU, it has been estimated that agriculture alone contributes 9% of greenhouse gases emissions.
Livestock for meat and dairy production are the most important source of greenhouse gases emissions associated with food production; they are responsible for an estimated 18% of global CO2 emissions.
Another environmental problem is the accelerating depletion of environmental resources necessary for human existence. There are serious pressures on the availability of land and water for food production. Over 70% of the world’s water consumption is used in agriculture. In this context, changing dietary patterns are critical: meat production requires 8–10 times more water than cereal production.
Conclusion
Measures taken to improve public health, including those aimed at preventing CVD, have beneficial effects on the environment and vice versa. Everyone is a winner. EHN has long called for an integrated European Food and Agriculture Policy, which works towards improving European diets in a sustainable way. It is high time to act.
Main references:
Nichols M, Townsend, N, Scarborough P, Luengo-Fernandez R, Real J, Gray A, Rayner M (2012) ; European Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2012. European Heart Network, Brussels, European Society of Cardiology, Sophia Antipolis - https://www.ehnheart.org/cvd-statistics.html
European Heart Network (2011); Diet, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Europe. European Heart Network, Brussels - https://www.ehnheart.org/publications/publications/publication/521-diet-physical-activity-and-cardiovascular-disease-prevention.html
Susanne Løgstrup is Director of the European Heart Network (EHN), a Brussels-based alliance of heart foundations in Europe. The EHN is committed to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) – Europe’s number one cause of mortality.
Ms Løgstrup has worked on policies related to the promotion of cardiovascular health and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart disease and stroke, in the European Union since 1995, when she joined the EHN. Her work involves leading major pan-European projects, including the recent European Heart Health Strategy II (2011-2014), part-funded by the EU. Ms Løgstrup instigates and coordinates EHN’s research. She has overseen the development of EHN publications since 1996, including evidence-based policy papers on nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and psycho-social factors. Ms Løgstrup also guides cooperation with EHN’s CVD patients’ group.
Susanne Løgstrup represents EHN on the Platform for action on diet, physical activity and health. She represents EHN in the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA) where she chaired the writing group on the Alliance’s paper ‘A unified prevention approach’. She is Treasurer in the Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) and a member of the TTIP Advisory Group, where she represents health interest. In her personal capacity, she is a member of the DG SANCO Stakeholder Dialogue Group.
Previously, Susanne Løgstrup was an attorney-at-law in Copenhagen and Paris.
Ms Løgstrup’s academic background is in law and business administration, where she holds master’s degrees. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC).
JAMES LOMAX
Mr James Lomax has been the Agri-food Programme Officer in UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics based in Paris, France since 2009. A tropical agriculturalist by training and with a background in farming, before joining UNEP Mr Lomax had a varied career in the private sector in farming, food processing and export of food in Africa and Europe. In Africa, Mr Lomax has had his own agri-business working with smallholder farmer groups to produce Cat 1 vegetables for the European market and spent many years in the field facilitating training, logistical development and overseeing the introduction and development of sustainability standards. He was also the production director of large-scale farming businesses in Southern Europe producing salads and watercress in both conventional and organic production systems. Mr Lomax is now the lead on sustainable agriculture and food systems in the Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch. A key element to his work is FAO/UNEP Sustainable Food Systems Programme which he leads in partnership with FAO.
ANNE ROULIN
Anne Roulin is responsible for Nutrition, Health & Wellness (NHW) and Sustainability in R&D at Nestlé and is based in the global headquarters in Switzerland. In this role she works across Nestlé’s R&D organisation in over 30 centres around the world, to embed NHW and Sustainability at the earliest phase of the product development cycle. The approach is holistic, encompassing the entire value chain from agriculture through the choice of ingredients and product formulation, packaging, processing and distribution including addressing the important issue of food waste. Her current focus area involves building a platform and a product pipeline in the area of Sustainable Nutrition.
Previously she was Global Head of Packaging for Nestlé and prior to Nestlé she founded and built up a company specialised in Package Development, after spending 10 years with Tetra Pak in Switzerland, the USA & Italy.