“Business as usual in our globally interconnected food system will not bring us food security and environmental sustainability. Several converging threats – from climate change, population growth and unsustainable use of resources – are steadily intensifying pressure on humanity and world governments to transform the way food is produced, distributed and consumed…”
This was from the summary of recommendations released today for policy makers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. The Commission, which was set up by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) earlier this year, is made up of 13 high level international experts from a diverse range of agriculture-related disciplines and geographic areas.
The experts have reviewed the existing evidence base in order to come up with a set of concrete policy actions for transforming the food system in the face of climate change. The seven high- level recommendations include significantly raising the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainably intensifying agricultural production on the existing land base while reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and reducing losses and waste in the food system.
The release of the Commission’s “Summary for Policy Makers” was timed to inform pivotal, upcoming meetings on climate change, including the UN climate conference in Durban, starting later this month and the Rio+20 Earth Summit next year. “Efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and the food system,” said Dr Bruce Campbell, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, which convened the independent commission in February 2011. “The commission’s invaluable contribution is to provide scientists and policy makers with the most authoritative, evidence-based action steps to date to achieve global food security.”
The Commission’s detailed final report will be issued in 2012.
For more information, and to download the recommendations visit the CCAFS page.
Photo credit: ILRI