A new report shows that it is possible to feed all people on earth. If you do it right, the food becomes even cheaper and the quality better.
LONDON, September 16 (WNM) - The Food and Land Use Coalition (Folu) has published a report that shows that our food can be enough for everyone on the planet. But the current system of support stands in the way of improvement. Because currently the exploitation of the earth is financially supported, while sustainable methods are hardly applied.
The Folu report states that a change in the system would have positive consequences for most people: “The transitions could increase food security significantly by helping to stabilise or even lower real food prices, supplying enough food of the right quality and quantity and improving access for the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Although it may sound surprising at first glance, the shift in global nutrition from exploitation to sustainable cultivation would have a positive impact on food prices:
„The explanation for the – somewhat counterintuitive – downward rather than upward pressure on food prices is a combination of the dietary shift towards less resource-intensive foods, combined with ongoing increases in agricultural productivity and reductions in food loss and waste. Several of these results are made possible by the freeing of more than 1.5 billion hectares of land that would otherwise be used for farming and livestock grazing in 2050 – owing largely to the same factors driving down food prices. This land could be restored to nature, creating potential not only to protect all remaining forests and other natural ecosystems, but also to enable more sustainable, secure food production by helping to stabilise climate conditions.”
The report proposes a clear shift in strategy or, even more radically, to end the current food system with a profound disruptionm: “Instead of repeating the developed-country cycle of massive destruction of natural capital, followed by partial regeneration, developing countries could deploy their land in ways that would be better for farmers, for indigenous communities, for nature and for the climate. With the right policies, transition support and investments in place, these objectives would not be in conflict, but would positively reinforce one another. But the change will not happen without real support, financing and leadership.”
The economic and social benefits offered by the programme proposed by Folu would “yield exceptional returns on investment”. “Total economic gains to society could reach an estimated $5.7 trillion a year by 2030 and $10.5 trillion a year by 2050 versus the Current Trends scenario. The transitions also open up business opportunities – from tackling food loss to creating the new value chains needed for regenerative agriculture and the shift to healthy diets – worth an estimated $4.5 trillion a year by 2030.10 Some entrepreneurs and progressive corporates are already leading the charge to capitalise on these opportunities, but a strategic reframing that today’s hidden costs are tomorrow’s new markets still needs to go mainstream”, the authors claim.
The need for urgent change is not obvious, the authors describe. But change is inevitable if one takes a closer look:
"On the surface, food and land use systems have been doing well in recent decades. Despite a growing global population, more and more people enjoy affordable, safe and plentiful food. But dig deeper, and the end-to-end system losses are well over 50 percent as a result of poorly allocated land and water resources, slow diffusion of best farming practice beyond large farms, under-investment in rural infrastructure and human capital, and food loss and waste amounting to one-third of primary production.2 Food and land use systems also generate “hidden” environmental, health and poverty costs estimated at almost $12 trillion a year, a number larger than the value of the system’s world output measured at market prices.
Current food and land use systems cause up to 30 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change and are the leading cause of the continuing conversion of the world’s tropical forests, iv grasslands, wetlands and other remaining natural habitats – and thus the main culprit of the ongoing “sixth extinctionv ” of biodiversity.
In addition to the direct impact of agricultural pollution on public health, food systems generate widespread malnutrition. More than 820 million people, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, still regularly go hungry. At the same time, some 680 million adults are obese. On current trends, half of the world’s population will suffer from malnutrition and related health effects by 2030, placing a heavy financial and operational burden on health services and reducing productive potential.
These perpetuate poverty and inequality. Two-thirds of the 740 million people living in extreme poverty (on less than $1.90 a day purchasing power parity (PPP) 2011) are agricultural workers and their dependents. Where smallholders participate in markets that are becoming structurally more concentrated, they often receive minimal returns: coffee farmers earn around one percent of the retail value of a cup of coffee sold on high streets across the world.
Underinvested, inequitable food and land use systems consign many to lives of constant insecurity. The future looks grim unless these costs are tackled now. Modelling carried out for this report shows that leaving food and land use systems on their current trajectory would put the SDGs and the Paris Agreement targets beyond reach. Catastrophes previously considered “tail end” risks, such as concurrent crop failures in several of the world’s main food-producing regions, would become increasingly likely, causing untold human misery."
Full report here: https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-GrowingBetter-GlobalReport.pdf