Global food production must stay within the planet’s safe boundaries
Globally, food production damages natural ecosystems, exhausts freshwater supplies, pollutes rivers and coastal seas, and releases an excess of greenhouse gases. In other words, the food sector has significant responsibility for driving the environment beyond planetary boundaries, the safe operating space we should stay within to avert large-scale and abrupt environmental degradation.
- In 2009, a group of internationally renowned scientists identified nine processes that regulate the stability of the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
- For each of these processes, the scientists proposed a quantitative planetary boundary within which humanity could continue to thrive for generations to come. In a 2015 update, the scientists concluded that four of those boundaries had already been breached: climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and phosphorus and nitrogen pollution have now reached unsafe levels.
- The planetary boundaries framework has generated enormous interest among scientists, policymakers, and the general public. It has been an especially effective guide for making food systems more sustainable.