The true cost of our food: how you can help improve food-system sustainability

In mid-2022, Coles and Woolworths froze prices on common household items in an attempt to reduce cost-of-living pressure.

Despite the freeze, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices jumped 9% between January and September last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In an expensive environment like this, is there room to talk about sustainability or is that a luxury we simply can’t afford?

Contact sat down with sustainable food systems specialist and leadership coach Michelle Grant (Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours) ’02) to hear her take on the state of our food systems and how we can feed ourselves more sustainably amid a cost-of-living crisis. She also shared a recipe from her recent book The Great Full to inspire your next grocery shop (you can find the recipe at the end of this article).

What is a sustainable food system, and where is ours lacking?

According to Grant, “a sustainable food system considers the impact of what we eat, not only on ourselves, but on the planet and the people who produce the food as well.”

The challenge we face, in her view, is creating a system that delivers the outcomes we need: healthy diets for everyone, a sustainable use of resources and a liveable income, and safe conditions for workers.

Unfortunately, many of our current food systems:

Use production practices that deplete our natural resources
With more than 50,000 edible plants globally, we get 90% of our energy intake from just 15 of them. Of all human activities, food production has the largest impact on the natural environment.
Rely on diets that contribute to climate change
Up to one-third of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are a result of our current food systems, with 14.5% of total emissions coming from livestock.
Exploit their workers through low pay and poor, if not dangerous, conditions
According to the United Nations, the people who produce food tend to be among the world’s most hungry. They also make up about one-third of the world’s workforce – more than 1 billion people – and account for two-thirds of all child labour.

Grant said if we can improve these 3 things, we’ll be well on our way to creating a more sustainable and less-damaging food system.

Several rows of wheat crops coloured black, with one plant green.

Up to 90% of our calorie intake comes from just 0.03% of the world's edible plants.

Pie chart of Anthropogenic GHG emissions, labeling the food system as contributing 33%.

One-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are a result of our food systems.

Pie chart of Global child labour, with food systems contributing to over 60%.

Current food systems make up two-thirds of all child labour figures.

What needs to change?

Sometimes, achieving sustainability, both at the individual and societal level, can feel like an insurmountable challenge. While impactful change may feel impossible, Grant believes that "personal transformation leads to societal transformation", and that personal changes do contribute to global improvements.

Here are some of the macro and micro improvements that Grant feels could make a big difference to the sustainability of our food systems:

Adopting more diverse and sustainable food production practices
“Food production is the major driver of biodiversity loss globally, and we rely on fewer and fewer crops and livestock to feed ourselves," Grant said.

"This makes us less resilient in the face of shocks. Diversifying what we produce, and how we produce it, can help. We can support this as consumers by choosing plant-focussed diets and getting a colourful and diverse range of foods on our plates.”
Reducing food waste
Worldwide, we waste or lose up to half of all food produced – contributing 8–10% of total greenhouse emissions in the process and costing the economy nearly US$1 trillion per year, according to OzHarvest.

"While food is lost or wasted at every step in our supply chain, in high-income countries, most of the waste occurs in our homes," Grant said.
Creating fairer working conditions
"People who grow, process, transport and sell our food often don't get paid enough money to feed themselves and their families well,” Grant said.

"For things to shift at a large scale, we need to look at the role of large actors like government and business to really change how we produce and consume food, and not only put the burden on the overwhelmed consumer at the checkout."

So, can I afford to eat sustainably?

When we look at the big picture, Grant said we can’t afford not to eat sustainably.

"We simply won’t have the resources, climate or people we need to produce our food unless we make some drastic changes."

In the short term, eating sustainably can save you money. Here are two things you can do to make our food systems more sustainable, without breaking the bank.

Incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet (see recipe below)
Reduce your food waste – this can help combat climate change, and it will save you money at the supermarket. Be careful about what you’re buying, use up everything that you can and compost what you can’t. OzHarvest has provided a comprehensive range of food saving tips here.

In conclusion

It’s common for sustainability to feel like an all-or-nothing concept.

As the Founder of The Great Full, Grant recognises the importance of navigating the complexity of sustainability, without giving so much of yourself that you end up depleted and burnt out.

Armed with an innovative mindset, she identified the need to bridge the gap between individual and societal change. She now runs leadership coaching and training initiatives, to empower women changemakers to move the dial on the health of our populations and our planet, and shape the global conversation around sustainable food systems.

She relates her work coaching women to lead sustainable change to her time at UQ.

“A lot of my current work is about helping people figure out how to contribute to these big, overwhelming sustainability challenges in a way that’s also joyful and fulfilling,” she said.

“It’s similar to the experience I had at UQ. I had found purpose in the technical and scientific program of Environmental Engineering, and it was balanced with this social joyfulness that was college life."

If you thought eating sustainably was a luxury you couldn’t afford, we hope Grant’s advice has given you hope and reinstated the belief that making a difference starts, but doesn’t end, with you.

An image of Michelle Grant talking to a woman at desk.

Michelle Grant

Women’s College old girl, Engineering alum and 2017 UQ Alumni Award recipient, Michelle Grant moved from Brisbane to Switzerland almost 20 years ago. She’s since established herself as an expert in sustainable food systems having served as Founding Executive Director of the World Food System Center at ETH Zurich and as the Founder of The Great Full. In 2019, Michelle was awarded Advance Australia’s the Advance Food and Agriculture Award.

Free recipe

Grant has generously shared this recipe from her book, The Great Full: Sustainable eating with purpose and joy. Use the code UQALUMNI50 for 50% off the eBook. Bon Appétit!

Shop the eBook

Creamy beetroot, sweet potato and feta layered bake

Ingredients

Beetroots 3 (peeled and sliced into rounds)
Sweet potatoes 2 (peeled and sliced into rounds)
Can of cannellini beans 400g
Feta (standard or vegan) 200g
Fresh basil (a handful) 20g
Small red onion, roughly chopped 1
Olive oil (plus extra for drizzling) 3 tbsp
Herb salt ¼ tsp
Hazelnuts, roughly chopped 1/3 cup
Zaatar 1½ tsp
Extra herb salt

Method

Preheat oven to 200° C.
Place sliced beetroot and sweet potato on two lined
baking trays. Drizzle with olive oil and place in the
preheated oven (place the tray with beetroot in the
top of the oven). Bake for 15–20 mins until the
vegetables start to soften.
In a food processor, combine cannellini beans, feta,
basil, onion, olive oil and herb salt. Process until the
mixture forms a smooth hummus-like consistency,
but don't stress if there are still some lumps.
Grease a square baking dish (approximately 20cm
wide x 5cm deep) with olive oil.
When the beetroot and sweet potato are finished,
remove them from the oven but leave the oven on.
Assemble the layered bake. In the greased baking
dish, place a layer of beetroot rounds to cover the
bottom of the dish. You may need to cut up some of
the rounds so they fill the gaps. Top with a layer of
bean/feta mix – use about 1/3 of the mixture for this.
Place a layer of sweet potato rounds to create the
next layer. Top with a layer of bean/feta mix. Place
another layer of sweet potato and then bean/feta
mix, then a final layer of beetroot rounds. Drizzle
olive oil on top of the final beetroot layer.
Sprinkle hazelnuts, zaatar and some
herb salt on top.
Place in the oven for 20–30 minutes until the
vegetables are cooked, the filling is bubbling and
the top is just starting to brown.