When leaders gather for the resumed session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) next week, part of their discussions is expected to focus on the problems with humanity’s food systems.
A growing body of evidence shows that the way the planet churns out food is driving the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste, while still leaving an estimated 690 million people hungry.
At UNEA 5.2, which runs from 28 February to 2 March in Nairobi, Kenya, participants will explore how humanity can produce food that is both healthier and less damaging to the environment.
These talks are expected to also focus on farming subsidies. A joint 2021 report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) found 87 per cent of the $540 billion spent annually on agricultural support is either price distorting or harmful to nature and human health.
We recently sat down with Salman Hussain, who heads The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a UNEP initiative, to discuss the economic case for boosting nature-positive food production.
What do we mean by nature-positive food production?
Salman Hussain (SH): Intensive agriculture has environmental and economic downsides. These include nutrient pollution from fertilizer run-off, increased risks of animal and human disease spread, biodiversity loss due to monoculture and the removal of trees and hedgerows, soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. UNEP’s Making Peace with Nature report finds the loss of pollinators, such as bees and other insects, threatens annual global crop output worth between $235 billion and $577 billion. Nature-positive food production is about rethinking how we evaluate and then transform food systems to incentivize a shift away from these often-hidden negative impacts and promote food systems that provide hidden positive benefits.
Why is nature-positive food production important?
(SH): There is a common singular focus on yield per hectare, and while this does indeed link to avoiding hunger, if it is the only thing we measure and optimize, then we systematically neglect ecological and social impacts arising from unsustainable on-farm production. And we are also blind to effects beyond the farm gate – to processing, distribution, consumption and waste disposal.
Game-changing actions to boost nature-positive food production include solutions that ensure equitable livelihood opportunities, advance human health, and regenerate environmental integrity. These actions also need to be implementable at a sufficient scale to reach a large portion of the population with clear, timely and verifiable outcomes that produce significant impacts by 2030. Feeding humanity, ensuring water and energy security, and enhancing the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of nature are complementary and interdependent Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving these goals requires food systems that work with nature, reduce waste, and are adaptive to change and resilient to shocks.
What is TEEB proposing?
(SH): We propose a measurement framework under TEEB for Agriculture and Food that includes the myriad of positive and negative impacts and dependencies that the food system has on nature (and vice-versa). It would also bring to light trade-offs that are typically invisible. Where it is possible and appropriate to do so, we estimate the value of these impacts and dependencies in monetary terms, which often drives decision-making. But we try to ensure that other (non-monetary) valuations are also included.
How will the TEEB evaluation framework help farmers and consumers?
(SH): Boosting nature-positive production, evaluated through the lens of such a framework, will help make the most efficient use of environmental resources in food production, processing and distribution, and reduce biodiversity loss, pollution, water use, soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. Produced capital and human capital, such as roads and skills, have increased by 13 per cent since the early 1990s. But this has come at the expense of natural capital – the planet’s stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources – which has declined nearly 40 per cent over the same period. If we don’t change direction farmers and consumers will both lose out.
UNEP: Huge amounts of food are being lost or wasted. How will nature-positive food production reduce such losses?
(SH): Indeed, UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report finds an estimated 931 million tonnes of food, or 17 per cent of total food available, went into the waste bins of households, retailers, and food service outlets in 2019. At UNEP, we are working to support food system governance that realigns incentives to reduce food losses and other negative environmental impacts. For instance, by including food loss and waste and sustainable diets in revised climate plans, policymakers can improve their mitigation and adaptation from food systems by as much as 25 per cent.
For more information, please contact Salman Hussain: salman.hussain@un.org
Nature for Sustainable Food Systems is one of the key thematic areas of the resumed session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA5.2) to be held from 28 February to 2 March 2022. UNEA is the world’s highest environmental decision-making body. Through its resolutions and calls to action, the Assembly provides leadership and catalyzes intergovernmental action on the environment.
