Proceedings: 2nd International Conference on Food and Agricultural Economics: IMPORTANCE AND CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

Nowadays concept of sustainability has changed significantly – more and more attention is focused on social welfare, its preservation and increase; besides the issue of production and use of resources. Therefore these purposes are also the ultimate goal of sustainable consumption. To achieve these goals, however, the contribution of all economic actors is also necessary – sustainable consumption is unimaginable for example without education and awareness raising on sustainable consumption and lifestyles providing consumers with adequate information. Furthermore, it is essential to create a value system and infrastructure – as the contribution of the public sector – or developing effective, knowledge based technologies and products from the side of businesses or different other stakeholders. Hence, it also requires a systemic approach and cooperation among actors operating in the supply chain, from producer to final consumer in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals determined by the United Nations. Considering the efforts made since the 1990’s in the interests of sustainable consumption, we conclude there is no unified action to facilitate the change of consumption patterns and, on the other hand, the progress made so far is actually marginal. The current paper is intended to summarize the most important related literature and provide a better understanding of sustainable consumption and its challenges through the global consumption trends. This study focuses mainly on Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations in the context of its challenges in the near future. Moreover, the expected result of this present paper is to investigate the responsibility of the different economic actors and their further contributions to sustainable consumption.