GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – 14 SEPTEMBER – New research coordinated by Global Footprint Network’s sustainability scientists in collaboration with food system experts published the article “EU-27 Ecological Footprint was primarily driven by food consumption and exceeded regional biocapacity from 2004 to 2014” today in Nature Food. The way food is provided to and consumed by Europeans represents the largest share of their Ecological Footprint at around 30 percent. The study points to the need for designing, implementing and enforcing policies across each stage of the food supply chain to advance towards the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy.

From farm to fork, food systems generate many pressures on ecosystems including land use and land use change, water depletion and pollution, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. “People in Europe are eating beyond their means in terms of imports, carbon emissions, and land and water use,” explains article author Professor Roberta Sonnino, Centre for Environment and Sustainability and Fellow of the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey. “The tendency to intervene either on the supply or on the demand side isn’t working. Rather, we need a systemic approach to address them together, as well as looking at trade policies. Instead of taking a scattergun approach, national governments must implement holistic food policies based on evidence – the sort of evidence contained within this research,” Sonnino affirms.

Humanity’s demand for biological resources and ecosystem services far exceeds the planet’s capacity to regenerate biological resources and sequester carbon dioxide emissions, as shown by the progression of Earth Overshoot Day. Similarly, and for the data analysed in the study, the Ecological Footprint of EU-27 residents constantly exceeded the region’s biocapacity and depended upon resources from outside the region to meet EU lifestyle demands.

“The EU Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy position the EU as a global leader in the transition towards more sustainable food systems and societies. However, as nearly 25 percent of the biocapacity needed to support the diets of EU-27 residents originates from non-EU countries, our analysis suggests that solely applying Farm to Fork objectives to the domestic agricultural sector will not be sufficient to meet the EU decarbonization targets and instead shifts environmental impacts to non-EU countries,” states lead author and coordinator of the research Alessandro Galli, Ph.D., Director for Mediterranean and MENA Regions, Global Footprint Network.

“Supply-side changes alone are likely insufficient to make the EU-27 food system sustainable in the terms described by the Farm to Fork Strategy. Including both nutritional and sustainability perspectives into national food-based dietary guidelines, changes in food consumption and behaviour trends can be triggered for the benefit of both planetary and human health,” elucidates author Marta Antonelli, Ph.D., Food Systems Project Lead, Global Footprint Network.

Media Contact

Alessandro@footprintnetwork.org
media@footprintnetwork.org

Additional information

NEW Nature Food paper
Interactive Ecological Footprint and biocapacity data platform
Food Footprint Platform
Earth Overshoot Day’s Power of Possibility

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is an international sustainability organisation dedicated to creating a world where all can thrive within the Earth’s means. This includes responding to climate change, biodiversity decline, and unmet human needs. Since 2003 we’ve engaged with more than 30 cities, 50 countries, and 70 global partners to improve their resource security by delivering scientific insights relevant for high-impact policy and investment decisions. www.footprintnetwork.org

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1. The imperative to use no more fossil fuels. The food system, and particularly farms, will have to produce all the food while rapidly phasing out fossil fuels or its derivatives, from farm to fork. Humanity, if it wants to comply with the Paris Agreement and avoid the worst of climate change, will have to get out of fossil fuel use well before 2050. Even if humanity does not want to, eventually it will be forced to quit the habit, and will face even more unpredictable climate extremes if it acts slowly. The global food system is incredibly fossil fuel dependent, with each food calorie requiring several fossil fuel calories to be produced. Currently, fossil fuel is a cheap and convenient enabler of the food system, with all its downfalls: depleting farm practices starting with excessive fertilizer use, ability to pumping massive amount of irrigation water, and operating intricate machines. Also, many fossil fuel derivates, such as plastics, are used widely from field to fork. This imperative is challenged even more by the need to part ways with fossil fuels without losing yield.
2. The imperative to increase food production and reduce food waste. There is an increasing demand for food from a growing urban population. The demand is getting amplified by shifting diets: many people seem to want ever more protein in their diet, especially animal-based protein – even though they may not have a protein shortage in their diet. Typically, protein calories take far more biocapacity than general food calories (such as starches), even if the protein is from plants rather than animals. Some of the increased food demand can be provided by cutting food loss and waste. Currently, approximately one third of food produced is wasted. But the increase in demand may be so high that there will be a need for higher yields. Growing demand is also driven by growing populations. Some may argue though that such population increases may not need to occur. But surprisingly, there is little consensus among political leaders that smaller populations would be of benefit to each region, country, or even humanity as a whole. As a result, the demographic transition may not accelerate (Explore your demographic assumptions using our downloadable scenario calculator). Therefore, higher demand is likely.
3. The imperative to contribute to food equity. Food for all is of paramount importance, given the largely uneven distribution of economic possibilities. Even though high-income areas are generally well supplied with food and struggle more with avoiding obesity among their populations, rather than food scarcity, starvation is still a real threat in many parts of the world. An estimated 3 billion people do not have access to a healthy diet, according to FAO; and diet-related non-communicable diseases are on the rise and cause disability and mortality. Given climate change, growing demand, and the need to move out of fossil fuel, the food security situation could get tighter again. Today, 72% of humanity lives in countries that run an ecological deficit and live on an income smaller than the average global income per person. This means 72% of the world population will be at a particularly brutal disadvantage competing in international markets for food once ecological deficit spending will become less of an option.
4. The imperative to avoid degradation and pollution. Farms will have to operate in ways that do not erode or contaminate their soils and waterways, now and in the future. Given our fragile planet, humanity can no longer afford to degrade or lose soil, overexploit and deplete surface and groundwater, assault biodiversity, or apply substances emitting persistent pollutants. There may even be calls for farms to become a regenerative, agroecological, or even restorative.
5. The imperative to become more resource efficient beyond fossil fuel elimination. It is not just fossil fuel input that will become ever less available. It is no longer reasonable to count on being able to access more water, particularly groundwater, more wood for structures and fences, more cotton for shading or packaging, etc.
6. The imperative to provide greenhouse gas (GHG) sinks. To live up to IPCC scenarios, agricultural land must become a sink of GHG, not a source as it is now. This means that farms will have to change practices that emit additional greenhouse gases, particularly methane. Such GHGs may come from land conversions, cattle, or rice paddies. Since IPCC scenarios all bank on quite massive net sequestration in the second half of the 21^st century, just eliminating GHGs from agricultural production may not be sufficient. While there are some promising examples of how this can be achieved, nobody knows yet how to do this at scale without diminishing food production.
7. The imperative to prepare the food system for significant climate shifts. Because we can no longer expect and depend on the usual, regular weather patterns, the food system must become climate resilient. Extremes will be more common, overlaid, most likely, with an overarching warming trend (at least as a global average). The average climate may be heating up more, or less, in your own region, with increased seasonal variance. This may affect the evapotranspiration conditions of what you grow. Therefore, it may require significant adaptation efforts, possibly growing different kinds of crops, and adjusting the contours of your territories to cope with changing water availability. Climate change mitigation will also be needed, with urban food systems playing a key role as almost 70% of global population will live in cities by 2050.
8. The imperative to navigate the inevitable technological shifts. Significant technological shifts are increasingly likely, and probably escape attempts to regulate those technologies’ use. Whether AI (artificial intelligence) is taking over farm management, robots are working the fields, or supply chains are automated, many such changes are coming, with both challenges (such as social inequity and ecological impacts) and opportunities. As a consequence, the food system professionals will have to learn new things rapidly, not yet taught at schools, and some of those professionals might get displaced. Society may be able to delay adoption of such technologies, but delays may also risk losing out on productivity gains. Science and technology will need to back up local traditional knowledge.
9. The imperative to succeed even in the absence of financial upsides. Tragically, in spite of massive ecological overshoot, the stewards of biological capital are rewarded poorly. For instance, low-income countries with high share in agriculture do not seem to benefit financially from their access to higher levels of biocapacity (see Figure 6 in “Defying the Footprint Oracle”). One reason is that the benefits from value chains, all of which depend on biocapacity, are not distributed back to the stewards of the natural capital. Most benefit of the value chain goes to the brands and urban distributors. Even if farm production increases, this does not seem to boost farm income as larger production can decrease prices. Urban markets do not value the food system sufficiently, particularly those at the foundation of the value chains.
10. The imperative to address them all in absence of societal support. All these imperatives are hitting the food system at once. It is not about picking and choosing from the 9 problems mentioned above. To succeed, humanity needs to address all of them simultaneously, and not any at the cost of any other one. Otherwise, humanity will not be able to solve its food problem. And yet, these massive challenges are not yet recognized as a societal priority. Hence Global Footprint Network and its partners’ focus to explore the implications of these challenges and contribute to identifying pathways.

For more context, visit here.

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Italy, March 9th, 2021 – Foodnected, a new project designed to promote the transition to sustainable and fair food systems in the Mediterranean region, will be launched on March 10 at a virtual event as part of the international festival Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, project partners Slow Food, Global Footprint Network, Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), and GOB Menorca announced today.

“After striving for years to stress the importance of education and raise consumers’ awareness of the value of their food and their connection with the people who produce it, we are excited to collaborate with sustainable fishing and farming organisations to progress to a world where all the actors can come together through common initiatives to improve each other’s lives through an essential aspect of what it means to be human: the food we choose to consume to not only feed our bodies, but also nurture our spirits and communities,” said Paula Barbeito, Foodnected Coordinator at Slow Food.

Funded by the MAVA Foundation over a two-year period, Foodnected is about “Connecting people and nature around local, fair and sustainable food systems.”

“Our foundation supports sustainability initiatives that protect nature and support people’s livelihoods. The way we consume and produce food impacts our environment. We believe that short-chain food systems grounded in local traditions hold a great potential to maintain and preserve  biodiversity — both cultivated and wild,” said Julien Semelin from MAVA Foundation.

Foodnected is driven by the vision of bringing producers and consumers together through a Community of Practice grounded in shared values. By shortening the distance between producers and consumers and developing an ethical code of environmental and social values for the way food is produced and consumed, the project will address shortcomings in the prevailing market system and reverse the unfair situation faced by small-scale producers.

“Gaining fair access to resources and markets is a fundamental struggle for small-scale low-impact fishers who make up the majority of the European fleet. We believe that working together with others is essential to achieving a positive and meaningful change in our food systems. To be viable, fishers must be rewarded for the value they add through their good practices. On the other hand, consumers need to be able to easily identify sustainable, healthy and fair products, and to know their story, so they can value and select them,” said LIFE Executive Secretary Brian O’Riordan.

Ultimately, Foodnected intends to facilitate the emergence of short-chain food systems that work for nature and people – both consumers and the small-scale producers who depend on them for their livelihood.

The project is scheduled to unfold in three phases. First, it will clarify an approach to fair and sustainable food systems through nurturing the development of a Community of Practice composed of actors along the value chain.

“All of us – as citizens, producers and consumers – can play a central role in the transition towards sustainable food systems. But making the right choices depends on the possibility to rely on scientifically-sound information. For this reason, relying on a science-based approach to identify pertinent practices is going to be a strong aspect of this project. By applying Ecological Footprint accounting, we will be able to quantitatively monitor the impact of such practices,” said Alessandro Galli, senior scientist and the Mediterranean-MENA Program Director at Global Footprint Network.

Second, pilot initiatives will be implemented to develop market solutions for fair and sustainable food production and consumption at local level, especially in the Balearic Islands (Spain).

“The work we’ve been developing through our local network of farmers is set to enjoy a wider impact thanks to this collaborative project. We’re excited to be actors and to witness firsthand how we can accelerate change at home and inspire other communities,” said GOB Menorca’s Programme Director Miquel Camps.

Finally, the project aims to share lessons at a regional level. Results from the first two phases will be disseminated through advocacy work at national and wider regional – Mediterranean (GFCM) and EU – levels, especially within the framework of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and in the context of the FAO International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (in 2022).

Foodnected launch event is to take place on Wednesday, March 10 at 2:00 pm CET. Anyone interested in learning more about the project is invited to attend. Information about event details and access can be found here.

Additional Resources

Press Release in Italian, French and Spanish

About Slow Food

Slow Food is a global network of local communities founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and counteract the rise of fast-food culture. Since its founding, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. www.slowfood.com

Media contact: Alessia Pautasso (Italy) +39 342 864 1029 ~ a.pautasso@slowfood.it

About LIFE

The Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) is an organisation of organisations of small-scale fishers around Europe. LIFE represents the interests of 31 organisations in 15 EU Member States associating around 10,000 small-scale fishers across all European sea basins from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Its mission is to commit small-scale fishers (SSF) to fishing in a low-impact manner, to transform low-impact SSF into an attractive and economically viable profession, which sustains fish stocks and protects the marine environment, and contributes to prosperous coastal communities. www.lifeplatform.eu

Media contact: Brian O’Riordan, Executive Secretary, deputy@lifeplatform.eu, +32 486368855

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is an international sustainability organization that is helping the world live within the Earth’s means and respond to climate change. Since 2003 we’ve engaged with more than 60 countries, 40 cities, and 70 global partners to deliver scientific insights that have driven high-impact policy and investment decisions. Together, we’re creating a future where all of us can thrive within the limits of our one planet. www.footprintnetwork.org

Media contact: Laetitia Mailhes (France) +33 650 979 012 ~ laetitia.mailhes@footprintnetwork.org

About GOB Menorca

GOB Menorca is a non-profit organisation established in 1977. Its basic objective is to help achieve a truly sustainable economy by making human activities compatible with the preservation of the environment. GOB Menorca has several lines of work: land protection, marine conservation, recovery of wild fauna, promotion of sustainable gardening, environmental education, and the Agricultural Stewardship Programme (called Custòdia Agrària).

The Agricultural Stewardship Programme, which is based on the signing of an “Agreement on Sustainable Agrarian Practices”, aims to create, encourage and channel social alliances that, together with public initiatives, can achieve the maintenance and recovery of the local agricultural sector, while guaranteeing the preservation of the landscape and its associated biodiversity. GOB is considered an entity of Public Utility and has received numerous awards and recognitions from both public administrations and private companies. It counts with over 1.400 members and is considered a main influencing actor in the island.

Media contact: Jara Febrer (Spain) +34 971350762 – jfebrer@gobmenorca.com

About the MAVA Foundation

MAVA was born from the passion and vision of its founder, Luc Hoffmann, an extraordinary naturalist who believed fiercely in protecting the planet’s wild splendor.

The MAVA Foundation conserves biodiversity for the benefit of people and nature by financing, mobilizing and strengthening its partners and the conservation community. MAVA also accompanies them on their conservation journey, helping them develop the skills they need and strengthening their ability to deliver. mava-foundation.org/

Media Contact: Julien Semelin, julien.semelin@fondationmava.org

The post Slow Food, Global Footprint Network, Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) and GOB Menorca launch joint project to accelerate the transition to sustainable food systems appeared first on Global Footprint Network.