A food system transformation can enhance global health, environmental conditions and social inclusion

Abstract

The current global food system has detrimental outcomes for global health, environmental conditions and social inclusion. A coherent vision of a desirable food system can guide a sustainable food system transformation and help to structure political processes and private decisions by quantifying potential benefits, facilitating debates about co-benefits and trade-offs, and identifying key measures for desirable change. Such a transformation requires integrating measures targeting human diets, livelihoods, biosphere integrity, and agricultural management. Here, we apply a global food and land system modeling framework to quantify the impacts of 23 food system measures by 2050. Our multi-criteria assessment shows that a food system transformation can improve outcomes for health, the environment, social inclusion, and the economy. All individual measures come with trade-offs, particularly those targeting agricultural management, while few trade-offs and multiple co-benefits are linked to dietary change measures. By combining measures in packages, trade-offs can be reduced and co-benefits enhanced. We show that a sustainable food system also requires a transformation of the overall economy to stop global warming, reduce absolute poverty, and create alternative employment options. Within the context of a cross-sectoral sustainable development pathway, the food system transformation improves 14 of our 15 outcome indicators.

Agroeconomic and environmental implications of future labor market evolution

“…Conversely, the opposite trend is observed when these factors are reversed. Hence, these responses and potential feedbacks must be considered for relevant decisionmaking processes [33][34][35] .…”