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Planet-proofing the global food system

Nature Food volume 1, pages 3–5 (2020)Cite this article

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Without a great food system transformation, the world will fail to deliver both on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. There are five grand challenges to be faced, by science and society, to effect that transformation.

Food is failing us. The global food system is the single largest greenhouse-gas-emitting sector in the world1, and by far the largest cause of biodiversity loss, terrestrial ecosystem destruction2, freshwater consumption, and waterway pollution due to overuse of nitrogen and phosphorus3. It holds a firm grip over the stability of the Earth system and the future of humanity. Unhealthy food is the world’s biggest killer, with diet-related chronic disease estimated to be responsible for 11 million premature deaths in 2017 alone4. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of people — more than 900 million — are undernourished. This increase is due in part to armed conflict, but climate change and the water–food–environment nexus are increasingly identified as amplifiers of social instability5,6.

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Fig. 1: An estimate of the global food system’s transgression of planetary boundaries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany

    Johan Rockström, Ottmar Edenhofer & Juliana Gaertner

  2. Bioversity International, Montpellier, France

    Fabrice DeClerck

Authors
  1. Johan Rockström
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  2. Ottmar Edenhofer
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  3. Juliana Gaertner
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  4. Fabrice DeClerck
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Correspondence to Johan Rockström.

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Rockström, J., Edenhofer, O., Gaertner, J. et al. Planet-proofing the global food system. Nat Food 1, 3–5 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-019-0010-4

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