For a US perspective see: Life cycle-based sustainability indicators for assessment of the US food system, Martin C. Heller and Gregory A. Keoleian, The Center for Sustainable Systems, Report no. CSS00-04, Michigan, December 6, 2000.
This report presents a broad set of economic, social, and environmental indicators covering the life cycle stages of the food system. Indicators address each life cycle stage: origin of (genetic) resource, agricultural growing and production, food processing, packaging and distribution, preparation and consumption, and end of life.
The report then offers an initial critical review of the condition of the U.S. food system by considering trends in the various indicators. It concludes that the US food system is not economically, socially, or environmentally sustainable. Key indicators supporting this conclusion include: rates of agricultural land conversion, income and profitability from farming, degree of food industry consolidation, fraction of edible food wasted, diet related health costs, legal status of farmworkers, age distribution of farmers, genetic diversity, rate of soil loss and groundwater withdrawal, and fossil fuel intensity.
The authors suggest that the most effective opportunities to enhance the sustainability of the food system exist in changing consumption behaviour, which will have compounding benefits across agricultural production, distribution and food disposition stages.
See also Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: a life cycle perspective, Martin C. Heller and Gregory A. Keoleian In Agricultural Systems, 76 (2003) 1007-1041.
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