Dear Colleagues,

By 2050, the global population is projected to surpass 9 billion people with the most significant growth occurring in developing countries. The demand for quality, safe and diverse foods, spurred by globalisation and urbanisation, is on the rise and is expected to increase in the coming years. Growing populations and demands for varied diets are putting pressure on limited resources such as land, clean water and green ecosystems, as well as causing negative impacts on biodiversity and wild life. The unsustainable patterns of producing food in contemporary society extend into the processing sector, retailing and household consumption. Food waste is becoming one of the biggest challenges in modern food supply chains resulting in high costs for firms, unnecessary financial loss for households and significant environmental damage. The big retail chains wield enormous power within supply chains and have a pivotal role to play in sustainability in relation to primary producers and end consumers. While food packaging is used to stimulate consumers’ purchase in retail stores/online and distinguish between competing brands, it can also be a source of non-recyclable materials such as plastics, polystyrene or styrofoam. As food firms market new food products, they are now searching for innovative ways to appeal to consumers’ growing interests for sustainably sourced, and marketed, products. Digital media marketing, and in particular social media, is becoming an attractive marketing channel for firms to effectively communicate their sustainable practices to consumers. Focal points of digital media activities, including engagement, personalisation and positive experience of the brand, can be adapted into new sustainable forms of food packaging. The way forward for the food industry lies in transforming each part of the supply chain and marketing strategies into sustainable practices that will support predicted growth in population, food demand and greener trends.

A Special Issue of Sustainability titled “Strategic Food Marketing and Sustainability” will explore new ways of ensuring sustainability within food systems and include all players, from primary producers to consumers. It will gather together original high-quality papers that offer quantitative and qualitative accounts of sustainability applications as leverages of competitive advantage in food firms, as well as theoretical and conceptual papers that will discuss relevant aspects of sustainability and identify recommendations for best practices in strategic food marketing using sustainability as a compass. This Issue will cover the key topics related to sustainability across the domains of business, economics, social science and agriculture. Multidisciplinary approaches are most welcome.

The following themes will inform the Special Issue:

• Sustainable food marketing and new food product development
• Consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards sustainable food production, consumption and marketing
• Food waste, recycling, upcycling and related food marketing strategies
• Sustainable food packaging and labels
• Food consumption and sustainability awareness, especially on social media platforms - are new trends emerging?
• Review of food sustainability policies/initiatives - what works?
• Sustainability along food supply/value chains
• Sustainable agriculture and rural development in advanced, emerging and developing economies.

Prof. Joe Bogue
Dr. Lana Repar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Sustainable food marketing and new product development
• New trends in sustainability
• Sustainability policies and initiatives
• Food supply/value chains, consumer signals and pricing
• Agriculture and rural development
• Digital media channels and sustainability
• Consumer behaviour and food sustainability
• Food waste
• Food packaging and labels