The push for traceability and to solve problems around sourcing and resource usage is also prompting development of more inherently sustainable models. “In nature, everything is connected, and we should learn from such principles,” Mattern said. “This means much more cross-sector collaboration is needed. What is waste for one company may be input for another business. We must encourage this cross-talk building alliances and redefining … competition. Think of it as ‘coopetition.’ Together we can achieve more than alone.”
Still, full traceability of the value chain is challenging. “Companies with a big portfolio of products such as extracts, blends, etc., source their raw materials from a wide range of suppliers, and assessing the methods used in the production of all those resources will be time consuming and costly,” Bensadon noted. “New technologies will have to be implemented and full transparency will have to become the norm between stakeholders in supply chains. The good news is that this new way of managing a supply chain will generate a lot of information and data that could be used as a marketing tool, and new sustainability claims could be linked to certain ingredients, apart from the traditional organic and fair trade, such as 0 emissions, carbon negative, carbon neutral, etc.”
Better health and nutrition through public-private engagement
To achieve positive impacts and manage sustainability efforts, it is important for companies to have access to actionable data about ingredient supply, noted Nova Sayers, VP of growth and innovation for HowGood, a New York City research firm that manages a sustainability database. “We know that getting data from a many layered supply system can be challenging for many reasons and is usually very time consuming and costly -- plus that data usually gets put into spreadsheets and goes out of date very quickly,” she said. “Supply data needs to be dynamic and actionable so that companies can identify hotspots and prioritize where to focus and engage the right suppliers to maximize positive impact.” Out-of-the-box thinking is also critical. Duplaco, for example, believes that farming should be reinvented, with biotech offering a key to nutraceutical cultivation using minimal resources. The industry also needs more local supply chains, added Marieke Smidt, commercial director for the Dutch-based algae producer. “We therefore currently focus on the European market and over time aim to set up microalgae cultivation facilities in each continent or sell nutraceuticals with a minimum use of land, water and energy, hence without disturbing nature.” Next steps, she added, will be to look into the possibilities to use waste streams as feed for the microalgae as well as to residual flows. Developing new supply chains from neglected and underutilized crops is another emerging option. Baia created a sustainable supply chain for a novel food ingredient from the West African plant miracle berry. Starting a supply chain from scratch has its advantages, Bensadon explained. “It’s easier to design sustainable businesses from the outset than try to mend and change unsustainable practices in big corporations. When we addressed the challenge of how to cultivate sustainable miracle berries, we decided that the new farms should not be established as a monoculture, and we assessed the crops that could be cultivated together, adding more biodiversity to the farm.” The company used plants that fix nitrogen in the soil to avoid depletion and shade trees to protect young plants from solar exposure.
Sometimes sustainability also requires a hard look at a supply chain to understand when new ingredients may be a more sustainable choice. Natures Crops’ Cumberford suggested that the omega-3 nutrition space is reaching that point. “Ninety percent of omega nutrition is supplied from marine sources or wild harvested from marine sources and taking primary forage fish species out of their eco-system for the purpose of creating omega-3 oils.” This essentially competes with marine mammals, other marine fish and bird life, which is creating real sustainability issues, Cumberford commented. Natures Crops believes that a regenerative omega solution from ahiflower can be part of the solution. Ahiflower is a farmed crop at the leading edge of soil regeneration, pollinator regeneration, and biodiversity protocols. “I can’t think of a supplement nutrition category that is more impactful on sustainability outcomes,” Cumberford added. “It is very timely and important that consumers and healthcare practitioners understand the role of their daily choices and the recommendations they make in this big $5.2 billion supplement segment.”