The global food system is the biggest driver for the destruction of the natural world, and a shift to mainly plant-based diets is, according to the report, crucial to stem the damage.
Agriculture is the biggest threat to 86% of the 28,000 species known to be in danger of extinction, the Chatham Thinktank report said. Without change, the loss of biodiversity will accelerate and threaten the world’s ability to sustain humanity, he said.
The cause is a vicious cycle of cheap food, the report says, where low costs cause greater demand for food and more waste, with more competition than management costs even lower through more clearing of natural soil and the use of polluting fertilizers and pesticides.
The report, supported by the UN Environment Program (Unep), focused on three solutions. The first is a shift to plant diets, because cattle, sheep and other livestock have the greatest impact on the environment.
More than 80% of the global agricultural land is used to raise animals, which provides only 18% of the required calories. Reversing the rising trend of meat consumption removes the pressure to clean up new soil and further damage wildlife. It also frees existing soil for the second solution, which restores natural ecosystems to increase biodiversity.
The availability of land also supports the third solution, according to the report, which farms in a less intensive and harmful way, but accepts lower yields. Organic yields average about 75% of those of conventional intensive farming.
The confirmation of the global food system will also address the climate crisis, the report said. The food system causes about 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, of which more than half come from animals. Changes in food production can also address the ill health of 3 billion people, who are underfed or overweight or obese, and who spend billions of dollars a year on health care.
“Politicians still say ‘my job is to make food cheaper for you’, no matter how toxic it is from a planetary or human health perspective,” said Chimam House professor Tim Benton. “We need to stop arguing that we should subsidize the food system in the name of the poor and rather deal with the poor by bringing them out of poverty.”
Benton said the impact of the food system on climate and health is widely accepted, but that biodiversity is too often seen as a “fun to have”.
Susan Gardner, director of Unep’s ecosystem division, said the current food system is a ‘double-edged sword’ that offers cheap food but does not take into account the hidden costs to our health and the natural world. “Reforming the way we produce and consume food is an urgent priority,” she said.
Jane Goodall, the well-known conservationist, said that the intensive farming of billions of animals is seriously damaging the environment and that the inhuman conditions that new pandemic diseases are endangering in humans: “It must be phased out as soon as possible.”
On Tuesday, Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta concluded in a historical review that the world poses an extreme danger by the failure of economics to take into account the rapid depletion of biodiversity.
According to the Chatham House report, the world has lost half of its natural ecosystems and that the average population size of wildlife has dropped by 68% since 1970. In contrast, farm animals, mainly cows and pigs, now make up 60% of all mammals by weight, with humans making up 36% and animals only 4%.
In the reform of the global food system, “the merging of the global food consumption around mainly plant-based diets is the most important element”, the report states. For example, a switch from beef to beans by the American population is said to release countries equivalent to 42% of U.S. agricultural land for other uses, such as rebuilding or more nature-friendly farming.
In another example, the report said that if the permanent pasture around the world, which was once forested, were to be returned to its hometown, it would store 72 billion tons of carbon – roughly equivalent to seven years of global fossil fuel emissions. Benton said the report does not advocate that all people should become vegan, but that it should follow healthy diets that result in much less meat.
The year ahead offers a potentially unique opportunity to redesign the global food system, Benton said with a major UN summit on biodiversity and climate, as well as the world’s first summit on UN food systems and an international summit on Nutrition for Growth. The report also states that the large sums spent by governments as countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic are opportunities for ‘policy-making that gives equal priority to public and planetary health’.
Philip Lymbery, at Compassion in World Farming, said: “The future of farming must be nature-friendly and regenerative, and our diets must become more plant-based, healthy and sustainable. Without ending the factory farming, we run the risk that we will have no future at all. ”