Challenges and Opportunities for the Global Food System

Abstract

Abstract The urgency of the climate crisis demands a reduction in fossil fuel emis-sions, and agriculture and food systems that reduce, avoid, and remove greenhouse (GHG) emissions, and reduce negative biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects on the climate. The daunting challenge is, however, how to sustainably provide food for a world of ~9 billion people in 2050 with ~6.5 billion of these people living in urban areas without exacerbating the climate crisis. Urban agriculture (UA) can provide some of the fruit and vegetables consumed by urban dwellers but cereal and livestock production depend on a significant external non-urban area. Some of the UA practices can be combined with those of organic agriculture (OA) but effects of this combination on the climate are uncertain. New modes of production such as rooftop farming and vertical indoor farming including soilless practices and hydro-ponics have also been introduced in UA. If more food can be grown in urban areas, the pressure on converting non-agricultural land for agriculture and its associated climate impact can be reduced. Overall, rather than adhering to a fixed set of prin-ciples such as those associated with OA, regenerative agriculture (RA), agroecology or conservation agriculture (CA), site-specific soil and land-use management prac-tices for more sustainable and climate-friendly and -resilient agriculture and food systems must be developed and studied in collaboration with farmers, ranchers and land managers on experimental fields and on working lands. Financial incentives are needed to reward the implementation of site-specific practices such as those associated with carbon farming as a service to society while at the same time pro-ducing more sustainable and climate-positive food.Keywords World population · Best management practices · Site-specific practices · Sustainable intensification · Mix of agricultural systems · Deforestation · Urban population · Urban expansion · Megacities · Urban agriculture · Rooftop farming · Hydroponics · Vertical farming · Edible landscapes · Circular economy system · Voluntary carbon market · Carbon farming · Payments for ecosystem services · Social cost of carbon · Private sector · Co-creation of knowledge · Climate crisis6.1