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Ruminating on sustainable food systems in a net-zero world

Nature Sustainability (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

For as long as sustainable food systems have been on the global agenda, the meaning of ‘sustainable’ has been hotly debated. Discussing the use and abuse of the term sustainability in the food-system context, we select a specific case to illustrate this discussion, examine various sustainability arguments and propose ways forward for reduced meat aligned with local values and global needs. A contextual, transparent and nuanced debate can avoid policies informed by vested interests and straw-man arguments, which can backfire and hurt many of the very interests that the sector and policies aim to protect.

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Fig. 1: Maintaining net-zero emissions without further climate change and negative sustainability consequences is not possible without dietary change.
Fig. 2: A local reconciliation between different types of sustainability.
Fig. 3: Schematic of transferable steps for understanding sustainability and working towards alternative and acceptable solutions within sustainability boundaries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Norwegian Research Council (NRC) grant number 300253 to NorthWesternPaths as part of the FABLE Consortium, NRC grant number 319892 to the VOM project, NRC grant number 160015/F40 on Climate change risk, German Research Foundation (DFG) grant number 390683824 to the CLICCS project and EU-H2020 grant number 101003276 to MYRIAD-EU. We thank E. U. Reed at CICERO for designing Fig. 2 and F. Gaupp at PIK for useful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Oslo, Norway

    Bob van Oort, Anne Sophie Daloz, Robbie Andrew, Fay Madeleine Farstad, Monica Guillen-Royo, Erlend Andre T. Hermansen, Nina Bergan Holmelin, Steffen Kallbekken, Anton Orlov, Jana Sillmann, Katrine Skagen & Nora Svarstad Ytreberg

  2. Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Fay Madeleine Farstad

  3. Research Unit for Sustainability and Climate Risks, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Jana Sillmann

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  1. Bob van Oort
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Contributions

B.v.O. wrote and conceived the paper. A.S.D. made substantial contributions to the writing of the manuscript. R.A., F.M.F., M.G.-R., E.A.T.H., N.B.H., S.K., A.O., J.S., K.S. and N.S.Y. contributed to the framing and argumentation of the paper through an initial workshop and contributed throughout the revision process with comments, discussions and suggestions for improvement of the text and figures.

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Correspondence to Bob van Oort.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Martin Parlasca, Susanne Rolinski and Alberto Sanz-Cobena for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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van Oort, B., Daloz, A.S., Andrew, R. et al. Ruminating on sustainable food systems in a net-zero world. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01404-9

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