Actions to Transform Food Systems Under Climate Change

Steiner A, Aguilar G, Bomba K, Bonilla JP, Campbell A, Echeverria R, Gandhi R, Hedegaard C, Holdorf D, Ishii N, Quinn K, Ruter B, Sunga I, Sukhdev P, Verghese S, Voegele J, Winters P, Campbell B, Dinesh D, Huyer S, Jarvis A, Loboguerrero Rodriguez AM, Millan A, Thornton P, Wollenberg L, Zebiak S. 2020. Actions to transform food systems under climate change. Wageningen, The Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Our food systems are failing us. This is the overarching message from the wealth of literature on food systems.1 Analysis by Bene and colleagues finds that this growing body of literature focuses on four main types of failures: food systems’ inability (i) to produce greater quantities of food to feed a growing world population, (ii) to meet nutritional needs, and (iii) to benefit everyone equally and equitably, with both over- and underconsumption rife in current food systems, plus (iv) the negative impacts of food systems on the environment and natural resources.1 Last but far from least, climate change is increasingly having severe negative impacts on food systems, while food systems themselves are part of the problem through direct and indirect emissions.2 Our score for the global food system: cause for grave concern.