Part Four / What We’ve Done About It

4.13 Designing New Food Systems

All online sources accessed on

  1. Scientists are in strong consensus Willett, W., et al., ‘Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems’, Lancet, 393 (10170), 2019: 447–92, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.

    the supply side … also matters Poore, J., and Nemecek, T., ‘Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers’, Science, 360 (6392), 2018: 987–92, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216.

    cattle were so valued for their manure Bogaard, A., et al., ‘Crop manuring and intensive land management by Europe’s first farmers’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (31), 2013: 12589–94, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305918110.

  2. damaging biodiversity and ecosystem functions Lassaletta, L., et al., ‘Food and feed trade as a driver in the global nitrogen cycle: 50-year trends’, Biogeochemistry, 118, 2014: 225–41, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9923-4.

    the biggest bang for carbon in food systems Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Climate Change and Land 2019: An IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems, ed. P. R. Shukla et al., 2019, https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/.

    the greatest driver of these ecosystems’ destruction Curtis, P. G., et al., ‘Classifying drivers of global forest loss’, Science, 361 (6407), 2018: 1108–11, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau3445.

    the politically tricky challenge … centres on growing more with less Constance, D. H., et al., eds., Contested Sustainability Discourses in the Agrifood System (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018).

    efforts towards sustainable intensification Bonilla-Cedrez, C., et al., ‘Fertilizer and grain prices constrain food production in sub-Saharan Africa’, Nature Food, 2 (10), 2021: 766–72, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00370-1.

  3. these present their own problems Carlile, R., and Garnett, T., ‘What is agroecology?’, Table, 9 June 2021, https://www.tabledebates.org/building-blocks/agroecology.

    The highest priority for change is the 5 per cent of calories Poore and Nemecek, ‘Reducing food’s environmental impacts’.

    Their primary concern is to optimize inputs Xie, H., et al., ‘Prospects for agricultural sustainable intensification: a review of research’, Land, 8 (11), 2019: Article 157, https://doi.org/10.3390/land8110157.

    preferably coupled with diversification into mixed land uses Vermeulen, S., et al., Healthy Diets from Sustainable Production: Indonesia, Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy and Chatham House, 24 January 2019, https://www.chathamhouse.org/2019/01/healthy-diets-sustainable-production-indonesia.

    a cow on a modern European industrial farm Herrero, M., et al., ‘Biomass use, production, feed efficiencies, and greenhouse gas emissions from global livestock systems’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (52), 2013: 20888–93, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1308149110.

  4. About 20 per cent cover of bushes and trees Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change and Land 2019; Willett et al., ‘Food in the Anthropocene’.

    Rangeland management systems based on sustainable grazing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change and Land 2019.

    calls for repurposing the more than $500 billion worth of subsidies Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme, A Multi-Billion-Dollar Opportunity: Repurposing Agricultural Support to Transform Food Systems, 2021, https://doi.org/10.4060/cb6562en.

    progress on deeper societal issues Huyer, S., ‘Closing the gender gap in agriculture’, Gender, Technology and Development, 20 (2), 2016: 105–16, https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852416643872.