In a blog post on Kellogg’s website, Hughes wrote, “Our global food system is under tremendous pressure today. It’s estimated that two out of three people are undernourished, and we’re at risk of not meeting the United Nation’s SDG Goal No. 2 – ending hunger, achieving food security, and improving wellbeing and sustainable agriculture by 2030.”
These issues are all intertwined and solving one requires a holistic approach, said Hughes, who discussed three strategies major CPG companies can implement to overcome some of the challenges facing today’s food system.
1. Build on the foundation and heritage of original food system
“After 116-years of developing 1,000+ plant-based foods spanning 180 countries, we believe that the future of food relies – at least in part – on lessons from the past,” said Hughes, who noted the importance of local sourcing of ingredients to create “local, culturally relevant foods.”
“Changing consumer preferences, eating behaviors and the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) have ignited a paradigm shift from food as a commodity to food as a celebration, a language, and even a personal ethos,” he wrote.
But what does that food philosophy look like in practice for a company as large as Kellogg? According to Hughes, for Kellogg, the company follows a food systems approach (FSA) which acts as an interdisciplinary framework that analyzes the relationships between different parts of the food system and the outcomes of activities within the system in socio-economic and environmental/climate terms.
