According to a new study, we need to change the global food system to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions "Just reducing the size of our current food system will not reduce emissions much. Instead, we need to change the nature of the global food system," said a researcher at the Potsdam climate impact Institute and published in nature food 》Benjamin bodirsky, author of a new study in the journal.
"This means that, on the one hand, people consume what they need in terms of nutritional needs, curb food waste, eat a more balanced diet, eat more vegetables and eat less animal products. On the other hand, qualitative change means more efficiency to produce food in a less polluting way: Smarter fertilizer doses or grow more productive crops. In addition, carbon pricing can help guide farmers to adopt low emission agricultural practices, Because less emissions means less payment. Taken together, this can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "
The way we produce food and manage land is responsible for up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions throughout the supply chain. "Therefore, we studied what this system would look like in a hypothetical degraded world. Based on the review of degradation recommendations, we created a set of scenarios and input them into computer simulations of food and land systems to explore their impact on food systems," explained David Chen, a researcher at the Potsdam climate impact Institute and author of the study. "We took a step back from the intense normative debate on degradation. What we found is that the current food system is basically unsustainable for any society, regardless of the rate of economic growth."
The simulation results show that slowing down the growth rate of rich countries alone will not produce considerable sustainability benefits in the food system. Under the current development model, the transfer of funds from high-income countries to low-income countries may even increase emissions. This is because when the country develops from low-income to middle-income, the change to carbon intensive diet of animal products and processed food is the most obvious.
However, when scientists included changes in consumption and efficiency driven by carbon prices, the results showed improved nutritional outcomes for all consumers, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and, therefore, reduced agricultural economic activities required for food production. Hermann Lotze Campen, co-author of the Potsdam climate impact Institute, said: "for the food industry, we can say that a certain degree of degradation will be the result of sustainable transformation, not the starting point. So basically, this is not real reduction, but different growth."
Scientists have shown that the transformation of a sustainable food system that takes into account all the costs of the environment will lead to a slight rise in food prices - especially the feelings of the poor. Therefore, any transformation must be accompanied by a well thought out policy mix, including smart tax plans, social compensation for carbon dioxide pricing and international transfers. In addition, making agriculture more climate friendly, for example by controlling the flow of nitrogen in cultivated land, requires investment. However, these costs may be offset by the restoration of ecosystem services.