Food systems under pressure

Sustainability roundup: Food systems under pressure

Close up on man selling crops from his garden

UN land conference opens in Mongolia to accelerate global action on restoration and resilience

Article by UNCCD

Delegates from 196 countries and the European Union gathered in Ulaanbaatar on Monday, 17 August for the opening of the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Soil degradation is quietly cutting global food supplies, landmark study finds

Article by AgNavigator

Global crop yields are being significantly eroded by soil degradation, according to the first worldwide attempt to quantify its impact. Researchers estimate that reversing just 10% of human-caused soil degradation could generate enough additional food to feed more than 70 million people, while evidence suggests policies and incentives can help restore soil health

How ‘hidden’ water risks could create $6.4bn loss for agri-food giants

Article by edie

The agrifood sector is underreporting the risks associated with water use across the value chain by up to 132 times what is being disclosed, with research stating that the financial impacts of water stress amount to $6.4bn for the sector’s largest firms.

Youth lead current dietary emissions while seniors increasingly drive total emission growth

Article by Nature

Researchers evaluated dietary emissions associated with 141 products across 22 age groups in 149 countries from 2000 to 2019, combining age-specific dietary intake from the Global Dietary Database with a consumption-based emission inventory derived from FAOSTAT. Adolescents and young adults generally had the highest per capita dietary emissions, while seniors contributed most to global emission growth, particularly in high- and upper-middle-income countries.

Former food products (FFPs): A sustainable feed for poultry

Article by Food & Agri Business

FFPs could help make poultry production more sustainable by reducing reliance on human-edible feed resources, supporting a more circular agri-foodsystem and lowering feed-related emissions.

European farmers face ‘unprecedented crisis’ after successive heatwaves

Article by The Guardian

Successive intense heatwaves and an increasingly severe, continent-wide drought have left many of Europe’s farmers in an “unprecedented” crisis, with vegetable and grain growers in particular warning of “catastrophic” harvests.