Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Climate change responses benefit from a global food system approach

Nature Food volume 1, pages 94–97 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

A food system framework breaks down entrenched sectoral categories and existing adaptation and mitigation silos, presenting novel ways of assessing and enabling integrated climate change solutions from production to consumption.

Food systems1 have not been cast effectively in either the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory guidelines2,3. Food-related emissions from agriculture, transport, industry and household consumption have traditionally been reported separately, irrespective of fundamental connections between food demand and farm-level production. Unless these are conceptualized as a unified whole, climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies associated with the food system are likely to be inefficient and possibly counterproductive.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Mitigation, adaptation and co-benefits of food system responses.

References

  1. Ingram, J. Food Secur. 3, 417–431 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Calvo Buendia, E. et al. 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2019).

  3. National Inventory Submissions 2019 (UNFCCC, 2019).

  4. The Paris Agreement (UNFCCC, 2015).

  5. Mbow, C. et al. in Climate Change and Land (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) Ch. 5 (IPCC, 2019).

  6. Jia, G. et al. in Climate Change and Land (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) Ch. 2 (IPCC, 2019).

  7. Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. Science 360, 987–992 (2018).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Fischedick, M. et al. in Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) Ch. 10 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

  9. Vermeulen, S. J., Campbell, B. M. & Ingram, J. S. I. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 37, 195–222 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention (FAO, Rome, 2011).

  11. Willett, W. et al. Lancet 393, 447–492 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Dalin, C. & Outhwaite, C. L. One Earth 1, 298–302 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Kummu, M. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 438, 477–489 (2012).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hiç, C., Pradhan, P., Rybski, D. & Kropp, J. P. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 4269–4277 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rosenzweig, C. et al. Agric. For. Meteorol. 170, 166–182 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hasegawa, T. et al. Nat. Clim. Chang. 8, 699–703 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Paul, C., Techen, A. K., Robinson, J. S. & Helming, K. J. Cleaner Produc. 227, 1054–1067 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Tubiello, F. N. in Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability Vol. 1 (eds Ferranti, P., Berry, E. M. & Anderson, J. R.) 196–205 (Elsevier, 2019).

  19. Emissions Shares (FAOSTAT, accessed 1 August 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/EM

  20. Smith, P. et al. in Climate Change and Land (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) Ch. 6 (IPCC, 2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA

    Cynthia Rosenzweig & Erik Mencos Contreras

  2. Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, New York, NY, USA

    Cynthia Rosenzweig & Erik Mencos Contreras

  3. Future Africa at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Cheikh Mbow

  4. Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, Laboratory of Agri-Environmental Modelling, Campinas, Brazil

    Luis G. Barioni

  5. University of Leeds, School of Biology, Leeds, UK

    Tim G. Benton

  6. Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, UK

    Tim G. Benton

  7. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Mario Herrero

  8. College of Micronesia-FSM, Colonia, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia

    Murukesan Krishnapillai

  9. University of Dar es Salaam, Institute of Resource Assessment, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Emma T. Liwenga

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

    Prajal Pradhan

  11. University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta G. Rivera-Ferre

  12. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, El Batan, Texcoco, Mexico

    Tek Sapkota

  13. FAO, Statistics Division, Rome, Italy

    Francesco N. Tubiello

  14. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Climate Change Lab, Beijing, China

    Yinlong Xu

  15. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Graduate School of Engineering, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Joana Portugal-Pereira

  16. Imperial College London, Centre for Environmental Policy, London, UK

    Joana Portugal-Pereira

Authors
  1. Cynthia Rosenzweig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cheikh Mbow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luis G. Barioni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tim G. Benton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mario Herrero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Murukesan Krishnapillai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Emma T. Liwenga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Prajal Pradhan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Marta G. Rivera-Ferre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Tek Sapkota
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Francesco N. Tubiello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Yinlong Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Erik Mencos Contreras
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Joana Portugal-Pereira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cynthia Rosenzweig.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rosenzweig, C., Mbow, C., Barioni, L.G. et al. Climate change responses benefit from a global food system approach. Nat Food 1, 94–97 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0031-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0031-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing