This week, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a division of The Economist magazine, released its most recent assessment of food sustainability in 34 countries.

Issued for the first time last year, the EIU’s Food Sustainability Index (FSI) looks at eight various categories bundled into three pillars: sustainable agriculture, nutritional challenges and food waste.

The highest-ranking country when it comes to sustainable food is France; that designation is not much of a surprise considering the country’s longstanding embrace of small farmers. The country also scores high when it comes to food waste policy. Last year, France’s government banned food waste and in turn, major supermarket chains started to sell “ugly” fruits and vegetables – a trend that soon filtered across the channel to the United Kingdom and across the pond to major U.S. chains.

The survey’s real story, however, is that Ethiopia, the poorest country FSI researchers evaluated, came out as twelfth in the report. In fact, the eastern African country is perched higher than the U.S., U.K. and far above the wealthiest nation in the index, the United Arab Emirates (which ranked last). Glimpses into Ethiopia’s farming revolution could give other lower-income countries clues on how to strengthen their domestic food supplies. In addition, companies and NGOs can find inspiration on how best to share resources and ideas about sustainable agriculture across their global supply chains.

Read the full article about the EIU's Food Sustainability Index by Leon Kaye at TriplePundit.