nsuring access to enough healthy food for all, in a world increasingly shaped by climate change and resource constraints, requires taking action now.
The pandemic-induced global economic slowdown caused the global Ecological Footprint, which measures human demand on nature, to shrink by almost 10% compared to last year. As a result, Earth Overshoot Day is August 22nd—it was July 29th in 2019. By this date, humanity will have used as much from nature as Earth can replenish in the whole year.
The reduction of the Ecological Footprint came unexpectedly as governments imposed lockdowns to control the pandemic. As such, it cannot be mistaken for progress towards sustainability. Forced through global disaster, the shift we experienced is anything but a thoughtfully designed transformation. This being said, it points to what is possible. And it highlights the urgency to act now to secure a future where we all thrive within the means of our planet.
Starting with food. Already today, about half the Earth’s biocapacity is occupied by food production. The way we produce, distribute, and consume food determines about 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and causes 37% of all GHGs emissions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragilities of the global food system. It led to border closures and disrupted food-supply chains, worsening malnutrition while increasing food loss and waste. From farm to fork to disposal, a radical re-design is needed to address the global syndemic of climate change, undernutrition, and obesity.
The existing food system is highly energy intensive. On average, we use 5.7 calories of fossil fuel to provide each calorie of dairy product or meat—cooking aside. For bread or grains, we use about one calorie. In addition, many crops and livestock feeds often travel long distances before reaching consumers, as less than a third of the world population satisfies its demand for crop-based foods from within 100 km.
Increased mechanization of agricultural practices and the green revolution have allowed food supplies to keep pace with the needs of a growing population over the past six decades. But they also compromised natural ecosystems, affecting yield growth: compared to a yearly growth rate of 1.7% during 1961-2007, yields of main staple crops are predicted to increase by a mere 0.8% a year during the period 2007-2050. Meanwhile, the nutritious value of food has diminished, with empty calories becoming the cheapest and most-readily available food, fueling obesity and other non-communicable diseases.
The long circuits that shape the global food system are rife with vulnerabilities. For instance, climate-induced sea level rises and temperature increases in Vietnam—the second largest world’s rice exporter—have led to bad harvest seasons which in turn cause supply shortages in many countries. Travel restrictions for migrant farmworkers at harvest time can cause crops to rot, as seen recently in the UK and Italy, impacting the local economy and food supply. Resource dependency between nations becomes especially problematic when compounded by compromised trade exchanges or even border closures—as with COVID-19—increasing nations’ exposure to food shocks.
Eating shapes our future. It is a political act, as Wendell Berry put it. Each meal gives us, as citizens and consumers, the opportunity to shape resilient food systems: buying from farmers shortens the supply chain to just one degree of separation between producer and consumer, supporting the economic resilience of local food hubs; choosing foods that are produced locally and through regenerative practices contributes to decarbonizing the food system while improving the natural ecosystems we depend on; consuming predominantly unprocessed plant-based foods boosts the low-carbon, health-nurturing cycle between humans and Earth. Ensuring that healthy and sustainable diets are affordable for all is possible, but will require some combination of higher income, nutritional assistance, and lower prices for up to three billion people, according to FAO. Last but not least, preventing food waste is essential to lowering our food footprint: from field to kitchen, more than one third of food is lost or wasted.
Governments are well aware that national food resilience and public health are at stake. The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe has been working on Dietary Patterns for Health and Sustainability guidelines to provide nations with best practices for sound policy making. Thanks to the effort of the FAO’s former Director-General da Silva, food wastage has been growing on governments’ radars: in February 2016, France enacted Loi Garot, a legislation designed to cut the national food waste in half by diverting five million tons of food surpluses from landfills by 2025. The country retains the top position of the Food Sustainability Index. Italy followed suit with a similar law in August 2016. And the EU recently issued the Farm to Fork strategy to build a resilient, equitable and healthy food system to become the global standard for sustainability.
On the food production side, the path to resilience has been carefully mapped out by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The 58 signatory countries agreed with more than 400 world scientists that “Business as usual is not an option” and that agriculture must be weaned off oil while sustainable yield improvements can be found in agroecological practices, with agricultural production made resilient through a tightly woven fabric of small family operations. Unfortunately, only a couple of countries have followed up by updating their agricultural policies with pro-agroecology mandates despite agroecology advocacy by Olivier De Schutter, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
As COVID-19 weighs on communities around the world, the realization that accessing healthy food can never be taken for granted has emerged as an essential lesson. Earth Overshoot Day reiterates the point: we can move the date of Earth Overshoot Day 32 days by improving the food system’s resilience and sustainability. The path lies in plain sight: a decarbonized, regenerative, short-chain, waste-free, season-dependent food system allowing our plates to be filled with healthy, sustainably-grown, plant-dominated and tasty foods.
Yes, it takes wise policies. And still, one of the most powerful tools for this transformation may be the fork in your hand.
a global affairs media network
Earth Overshoot Day and COVID-19 Bring Food System Challenges into Focus
August 21, 2020
Ensuring access to enough healthy food for all, in a world increasingly shaped by climate change and resource constraints, requires taking action now.
E
nsuring access to enough healthy food for all, in a world increasingly shaped by climate change and resource constraints, requires taking action now.
The pandemic-induced global economic slowdown caused the global Ecological Footprint, which measures human demand on nature, to shrink by almost 10% compared to last year. As a result, Earth Overshoot Day is August 22nd—it was July 29th in 2019. By this date, humanity will have used as much from nature as Earth can replenish in the whole year.
The reduction of the Ecological Footprint came unexpectedly as governments imposed lockdowns to control the pandemic. As such, it cannot be mistaken for progress towards sustainability. Forced through global disaster, the shift we experienced is anything but a thoughtfully designed transformation. This being said, it points to what is possible. And it highlights the urgency to act now to secure a future where we all thrive within the means of our planet.
Starting with food. Already today, about half the Earth’s biocapacity is occupied by food production. The way we produce, distribute, and consume food determines about 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and causes 37% of all GHGs emissions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragilities of the global food system. It led to border closures and disrupted food-supply chains, worsening malnutrition while increasing food loss and waste. From farm to fork to disposal, a radical re-design is needed to address the global syndemic of climate change, undernutrition, and obesity.
The existing food system is highly energy intensive. On average, we use 5.7 calories of fossil fuel to provide each calorie of dairy product or meat—cooking aside. For bread or grains, we use about one calorie. In addition, many crops and livestock feeds often travel long distances before reaching consumers, as less than a third of the world population satisfies its demand for crop-based foods from within 100 km.
Increased mechanization of agricultural practices and the green revolution have allowed food supplies to keep pace with the needs of a growing population over the past six decades. But they also compromised natural ecosystems, affecting yield growth: compared to a yearly growth rate of 1.7% during 1961-2007, yields of main staple crops are predicted to increase by a mere 0.8% a year during the period 2007-2050. Meanwhile, the nutritious value of food has diminished, with empty calories becoming the cheapest and most-readily available food, fueling obesity and other non-communicable diseases.
The long circuits that shape the global food system are rife with vulnerabilities. For instance, climate-induced sea level rises and temperature increases in Vietnam—the second largest world’s rice exporter—have led to bad harvest seasons which in turn cause supply shortages in many countries. Travel restrictions for migrant farmworkers at harvest time can cause crops to rot, as seen recently in the UK and Italy, impacting the local economy and food supply. Resource dependency between nations becomes especially problematic when compounded by compromised trade exchanges or even border closures—as with COVID-19—increasing nations’ exposure to food shocks.
Eating shapes our future. It is a political act, as Wendell Berry put it. Each meal gives us, as citizens and consumers, the opportunity to shape resilient food systems: buying from farmers shortens the supply chain to just one degree of separation between producer and consumer, supporting the economic resilience of local food hubs; choosing foods that are produced locally and through regenerative practices contributes to decarbonizing the food system while improving the natural ecosystems we depend on; consuming predominantly unprocessed plant-based foods boosts the low-carbon, health-nurturing cycle between humans and Earth. Ensuring that healthy and sustainable diets are affordable for all is possible, but will require some combination of higher income, nutritional assistance, and lower prices for up to three billion people, according to FAO. Last but not least, preventing food waste is essential to lowering our food footprint: from field to kitchen, more than one third of food is lost or wasted.
Governments are well aware that national food resilience and public health are at stake. The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe has been working on Dietary Patterns for Health and Sustainability guidelines to provide nations with best practices for sound policy making. Thanks to the effort of the FAO’s former Director-General da Silva, food wastage has been growing on governments’ radars: in February 2016, France enacted Loi Garot, a legislation designed to cut the national food waste in half by diverting five million tons of food surpluses from landfills by 2025. The country retains the top position of the Food Sustainability Index. Italy followed suit with a similar law in August 2016. And the EU recently issued the Farm to Fork strategy to build a resilient, equitable and healthy food system to become the global standard for sustainability.
On the food production side, the path to resilience has been carefully mapped out by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The 58 signatory countries agreed with more than 400 world scientists that “Business as usual is not an option” and that agriculture must be weaned off oil while sustainable yield improvements can be found in agroecological practices, with agricultural production made resilient through a tightly woven fabric of small family operations. Unfortunately, only a couple of countries have followed up by updating their agricultural policies with pro-agroecology mandates despite agroecology advocacy by Olivier De Schutter, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
As COVID-19 weighs on communities around the world, the realization that accessing healthy food can never be taken for granted has emerged as an essential lesson. Earth Overshoot Day reiterates the point: we can move the date of Earth Overshoot Day 32 days by improving the food system’s resilience and sustainability. The path lies in plain sight: a decarbonized, regenerative, short-chain, waste-free, season-dependent food system allowing our plates to be filled with healthy, sustainably-grown, plant-dominated and tasty foods.
Yes, it takes wise policies. And still, one of the most powerful tools for this transformation may be the fork in your hand.
