Changing the status quo to feed the world

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 13:18

A new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that up to 25% of the world's food production may become lost due to environmental breakdown by 2050." Food prices are on the increase, that fish stocks are declining and that cereal feed for livestock will aggravate poverty although alternatives solutions exist. The list goes on. Climate change is another factor that will affect human food supplies though water scarcity, increased spread of invasive pests such as insects – all potentially depressing future yields.

Notably, the report’s seven point plan for the COP 15 climate change conference in Copenhagen this December focuses on the re-organizing of food market infrastructure to address the problem rather than increasing production.

According to UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner’s “Green revolution in a Green Economy … with a capital G” he says “We need to deal with not only the way the world produces food but the way it is distributed, sold and consumed, and we need a revolution that can boost yields by working with rather than against nature.”

Developing countries, especially organic farmers, will play and important part of the new Green Economy, as sales trend indicate a significantly increasing sales and popularity. “Simply ratcheting up the fertilizer and pesticide-led production methods of the 20th Century is unlikely to address the challenge”, says Achim Steiner. “It will increasingly undermine the critical natural inputs and nature-based services for agriculture such as healthy and productive soils, the water and nutrient recycling of forests, and pollinators such as bees and bats.”

Steiner said the report also shone a light on perhaps one of the least discussed areas—food waste, from the farm and the seas to the supermarket and the kitchen. “Over half of the food produced today is either lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain. There is evidence within the report that the world could feed the entire projected population growth alone by becoming more efficient while also ensuring the survival of wild animals, birds and fish on this planet,” he added.

The report ‘The environmental food crisis: Environments role in averting future food crises’ can be accessed at www.unep.org or at http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/food-crisis.

The report was released during the 25th session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 16-20 February. More information can be found online at: www.unep.org/gc/gc25