CP Group promises sustainable food production shift at Davos
CP has linked with 25 global businesses, including Google, Unilever, and Nestlé, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos to start the Food Reform for Sustainability and Health, or FReSH – a network of global corporations tasked with changing food manufacturing and consumption to improve public health and reduce the food industry’s impact on climate change and environmental degradation.
“What we eat and how we produce it drives some of our greatest health and environmental challenges,” said Gunhild Stordalen, founder and president of the EAT Foundation, which, alongside the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, launched the FReSH initiative this month.
“Getting it right on food is our greatest opportunity to improve the health of people and planet. This will require concerted action across disciplines and sectors – and business will be a key part of the solution,” Stordalen added.
‘Good opportunity’
In partnership with 25 companies, CP Group hopes to turn research into outcomes that will reform the food production industry.
CP Group is one of Thailand’s largest conglomerates and is the parent company of CP Foods, which is involved in poultry, pork and aquaculture. CP Foods has already announced plans to work on its corporate social responsibility, and the partnership in Davos is likely to galvanise this commitment.
“Our operation is corresponding to what FReSH does,” said CP Foods senior vice-president of CSR and sustainable development Wuthichai Sithipreedanant.
“That’s why it’s such a good opportunity to be part of the project’s steering committee to write terms and conditions on sustainable and healthy food manufacturing and consumption with other FReSH founding members.”
Through the forum, private sector companies will work with scientists, academics and policy-makers to develop changes in the way the world manufactures food. These approaches are tailored on a country-by-country basis but will follow five overarching guidelines: developing standards for healthy and sustainable consumption; changes to food production to improve sustainability; change consumption behaviour to promote health and nutrition; improve food sourced; and reduce waste.
