The Economics of Sustainable Food

The world’s food systems are contributing significantly to global environmental challenges.

Agri-food – the world’s systems for producing and transporting food, as well as people’s dietary choices – play a bigger part in climate change than even fossil-fuel burning does. To meet the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the goals of the Paris Agreement, the world will have to green its food systems, and people will have to change the way they eat. Agriculture accounts for at least one-fifth and possibly more than two-thirds of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which, within food systems, primarily result from deforestation, the burning of fossil fuels, livestock methane releases and nitrous oxide discharged from soils and livestock operations. Livestock alone produce about 15% of all global GHG emissions.

Agricultural and fishing practices are harming the planet in other ways, too, such as by water use and pollution, fish stock depletion, the destruction of aquatic habitats and ongoing mass extinctions. Beyond their environmental impacts, the world’s food systems also contribute to economic inequality...