Sustainable food consumption at a sub-national level: An ecological footprint, nutritional and economic analysis

This paper uses the ecological footprint to measure the environmental impact of food and drink consumption at a sub-national level. The case study area selected is Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The paper begins by explaining what an ecological footprint is and how it is measured. We describe how an ecological footprint was calculated for Cardiff, with specific emphasis on the food and drink component. The main part of this paper focuses on Cardiff's ecological footprint results for food and drink and how we might begin to make residents' consumption more sustainable. We present and analyse the results of several scenarios developed to reduce the environmental impact of Cardiff's food and drink consumption. These scenarios focus on changing the type of food and drink that the average Cardiff resident consumes at home. Here we also analyse the results from a nutritional and economic perspective. Finally, in the Conclusions section we discuss the value of using the ecological footprint to measure the environmental impact of consumption at a sub-national level. We also discuss how this combined analysis can provide a more comprehensive account of food and drink consumption at the sub-national level, and better inform policy decisions on sustainable food and drink consumption.