According to a recent study in March this year, food systems are responsible for a third of all human-impacted global greenhouse gas emissions from 1990-2015 (Crippa et al., 2021).
As consumer demand for environmentally sustainable products has increased, so has the need for transparency. Just as we have nutritional, country of origin and ingredient information, all of which guide our decision as consumers when purchasing a product, a mandatory carbon label on all food products in Australia will empower consumers in a similar way to make informed purchasing decisions to ensure our consumption is as sustainable as possible.

Food labels have been known to influence consumer behaviour. A study across 90 random respondents shows that majority of participants tend to evaluate nutritional information on labels before purchasing based on their lifestyle choices (Bandara, De Silva, Maduwanthi and Warunasinghe, 2016). It should be made just as easy for consumers when deciding to purchase a product based on its environmental impact. In turn, carbon labels may incentivise businesses to improve their sustainability processes. By lowering the emissions shown on their labels, this may attract more customers and be a positive selling point.

Please consider signing this petition to make carbon labelling mandatory on all food labels in Australia.

References

Bandara, B., De Silva, D., Maduwanthi, B. and Warunasinghe, W., 2016. Impact of Food Labeling Information on Consumer Purchasing Decision: With Special Reference to Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Procedia Food Science, 6, pp.309-313.

Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D., Monforti-Ferrario, F., Tubiello, F. and Leip, A., 2021. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food, 2(3), pp.198-209.