Recently, the staff of the Good Food Fund of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) held a Good Food Standards seminar online. Participants carefully discussed the positioning and basic framework of Good Food Standards, and also discussed whether the recently popular artificial meat meets the Good Food Standards.

As early as 2017, the founder of the CBCGDF's Good Food Fund, Mr. Jian Yi, was filming the documentary short film called "What's for Dinner". During the filming process, he witnessed the real situation of farm animals and was very shocked. "Before filming this documentary, I didn't care about food at all. I thought it was a topic that had nothing to do with me. I should eat and drink", said Jane Yi. However, after making this film, he began to think seriously about what people should eat, and how to define "good food" and "good life" from the perspective of food. This year, with the support of the CBCGDF, the Good Food Fund was officially established.

After more than two years of efforts, the Good Food Fund has made considerable progress in exploring healthy and natural food systems, policy promotion and public advocacy, and organizing Good Food Activities. The annual "Good Food Forum" has attracted much attention from society, and the concept of good food advocated by it has been accepted by more and more people. In the second half of 2019, from the perspective of the development of the Good Food Fund, the Good Food Standards will become a new task that needs to be studied and put into practice urgently.

“Unlike some organizations that focus only on the food production side and on the food transport sector, the main focus of the Good Food Fund is on the end consumer side. It is hoped that changes in the consumer side will promote changes in the upstream and middle reaches of food production and consumption.” In the process of formulating the Good Food Standards, Jane Yi defines the basic orientation of the standards. After discussion, the participants basically finalized the system of Good Food Standards: detailed standard indicators were made by four directions closely related to consumers, namely, processing food enterprises, restaurants providing group catering (enterprises), restaurants more inclined to personalized consumption, and commercial supermarkets providing food materials and finished and semi-finished products; at the same time, it is composed of five parts with the socialization initiative of good food advocacy for families or ordinary consumers. Researchers will then consult with other agencies with cross-cutting research areas on the refined indicators of each standard.

There is also an interesting question in the process of formulating Good Food Standards, which has been specially raised for discussion: given the currently popular phenomenon of "artificial meat", should it be considered as Good Food Standards in the future? What kind of definition or orientation should we give it? At present, there are two main forms of artificial meat: one is plant meat based on vegetable protein, such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat's star products; the other is inanimate cell meat based on animal cells. After discussion, Good Food Standards researchers believe that vegetable protein meat is more in line with the concept of "plant leading" proposed by Good Food Fund and should be affirmed in the proportion of plant food because they are exploring the use of animals to produce meat.

What is good food? What kind of food can improve human health, natural environment, and animal survival at the same time? At present, the staff of the Good Food Fund of the CBCGDF is studying the Good Food Standards. Friends who are interested in food are welcome to contact us and share your suggestions or insights.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/10067.html

By / Xue Tongtong