Food security and greenhouse gas emissions
How the food industry can cut greenhouse gas emissions and secure food for the World's growing population
Longer and more frequent weather extremes such as droughts are already affecting food production. This is set to become worse very soon.
Scientists Warning Europe’s mission is to protect the future of our planet, our children, and other creatures that share our World.
The World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency paper was endorsed by 14,594 scientists from 158 countries and identified six priority areas for global action.
Business as usual has already led us to “code red” for humanity and all species. The need for action has grown even more urgent, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Action must be well underway in the next five years.
There’s still time to act
What do you want the future to look like? And how are we going to get there? If central government, local government and businesses act now, we'll look back and wonder what took us so long to overcome the obstacles we now face.
Where are we now?
Humanity is using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet’s biocapacity can regenerate. That’s equivalent to using the resources of 1.7 Earths. But if everyone on Earth lived like the average UK resident, we’d need 2.6 planet Earths.
After decades of improving nutrition levels, since 2014 the number of undernourished people in the world has risen. Longer and more frequent weather extremes such as droughts are already affecting food production. This is set to become worse very soon.
The food system is responsible for more than a quarter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It also uses 70% of our freshwater, causes most deforestation and the accompanying nutrient run-off leads to freshwater pollution and coastal dead zones.
According to Professor Chris Rhodes, one of the authors of the Scientists’ Warning into Action paper “Doubling our food production in order to feed the predicted world population will increase GHG emissions if we continue with the current industrialised agricultural system”.
The largest source of methane emissions globally is agriculture - especially farming livestock for meat and dairy products. We can reduce these emissions, but they are impossible to stop completely. To keep global heating below 1.5C, we'll need enormous reductions in methane emissions by 2050.
Nitrous oxide is the third-largest direct contributor to global heating. It's caused by the use of excessive nitrogen fertilizer, burning fossil fuels and industrial processes.
Having wasted precious decades, we now face severe timelines to speed up our climate change solutions. The faster we can invest in the future, the less it will cost in the long term.
With your help, it won’t be too late
We need widespread conservation, restoration and rewilding to help natural habitats recover.
The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration would mean setting aside 30% of land and water by 2030 to protect biodiversity. This is essential - even if it feels impossible within the current economic and political systems.
“The economic benefits of such interventions exceed nine times the cost of investment, whereas inaction is at least three times more costly than ecosystem restoration”. The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration
There are more efficient ways of using nitrogen fertilizer to reduce the chance of polluting our water sources. There’s an opportunity to improve how efficiently we plant too.
Crops such as beans, peas and lentils have the ability to capture nitrogen in the atmosphere and transform it into reactive nitrogen on their own. Growing more legumes – either on their own or alongside other crops – is one of the easiest ways we can keep the soil healthy.
We can’t solve our climate and biodiversity emergency with the same wasteful practices that created them.
What you can do
“Modern industrial agricultural methods can no longer feed the world, due to the impacts of overlapping environmental and ecological crises linked to land, water and resource availability”.
Reducing food waste can substantially reduce demand for food. Reducing harvest, storage and processing losses will require large investments in infrastructure, information systems and farmer training from leaders.
There have been many initiatives to reduce waste in domestic, retail and hospitality sectors. There is some hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of halving food waste by 2050 through cooperation between large food retailers.
National governments can help speed up the changes through agricultural subsidies and incentives. Helping workers from traditional industries to move into new jobs that help to restore lost and degraded habitat will help meet climate and biodiversity targets.
Our business and government leaders need to build a roadmap of action at local, regional, national, and global levels to achieve the goal of setting aside 30% of land and water by 2030.
Shifting production from high impact foods (such as animal products) to low impact foods (such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains) has had lots of coverage in the media. Consuming less meat and dairy products is something positive that individuals can do to help.
Even with such shifts, reducing the environmental impact of farming is also required. Farming practices must be adjusted to become more regenerative and less environmentally degrading methods.
We need to talk to the people in power
The time for empty delayed commitments toward 2050, as a distant future is over. Action is needed now.
The need for global collaboration and widening public awareness will profoundly challenge every one of us, and our systems of planning, cooperation and governance.
Everything we know and love is at stake.
Get involved
Please help us set a world record before the end of COP26 by encouraging anyone you know with a science degree of any kind (medical, social, environmental, or any other science) to add their signature to the Scientists Warning into Action paper. The paper and all the relevant details are available on: https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/signature