{"id":20367,"date":"2021-02-03T22:35:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=20367"},"modified":"2023-05-06T14:14:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T12:14:03","slug":"our-global-food-system-is-the-primary-driver-of-biodiversity-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/our-global-food-system-is-the-primary-driver-of-biodiversity-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UN Environment Programme, 3 February 2021 &#8211; Press Release | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/news-and-stories\/press-release\/our-global-food-system-primary-driver-biodiversity-loss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">A new Chatham House report\u00a0highlights that\u00a0the global\u00a0food system\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0primary\u00a0driver of biodiversity loss.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate, unless we change the way we produce food.\u00a0Further destruction of ecosystems and habitats will threaten our ability to sustain human populations.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">The new report calls for an urgent reform of food systems, suggesting three interdependent actions:\u00a0changing global dietary patterns, protecting and setting aside land for nature, and farming in a more nature-friendly and biodiversity-supporting way.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Policy makers are urged to take a system-wide approach to account for the impacts of food systems, develop global guidance for change, and translate this to national targets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>London, 3<sup>\u00a0<\/sup>February, 2021<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>&#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/resources\/publication\/food-system-impacts-biodiversity-loss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0new\u00a0Chatham House\u00a0report, supported by\u00a0the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Compassion in World Farming,\u00a0describes three\u00a0actions\u00a0needed for food system\u00a0transformation\u00a0in support of biodiversity, and\u00a0sets out\u00a0recommendations\u00a0to embed\u00a0food system reform\u00a0in high level political events over the coming\u00a0UN \u2018Super\u00a0Year\u2019\u00a0for\u00a0Nature.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our\u00a0global\u00a0food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture\u00a0alone\u00a0being\u00a0the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction.\u00a0The global rate of species extinction today is higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the last decades our\u00a0food systems\u00a0have\u00a0been\u00a0following\u00a0the \u201ccheaper food paradigm\u201d,\u00a0with a goal of\u00a0producing\u00a0more food\u00a0at\u00a0lower\u00a0costs\u00a0through increasing\u00a0inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, energy, land and\u00a0water.\u00a0This\u00a0paradigm\u00a0leads\u00a0to\u00a0a vicious circle:\u00a0the lower cost of food production creates a bigger demand for food that\u00a0must\u00a0also\u00a0be produced at a lower cost through more intensification and further land\u00a0clearance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The\u00a0impacts of producing more food at\u00a0a\u00a0lower cost are not limited to biodiversity loss.\u00a0The\u00a0global food system is\u00a0a\u00a0major driver of climate change, accounting for around 30% of total\u00a0human-produced\u00a0emissions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the new report, a\u00a0reform of\u00a0food systems\u00a0is\u00a0a matter of urgency\u00a0and should\u00a0focus\u00a0on three\u00a0interdependent\u00a0actions:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>Firstly,\u00a0<strong>globaI\u00a0dietary patterns need\u00a0to\u00a0move\u00a0towards\u00a0more plant-heavy diets<\/strong>, mainly due to the disproportionate impact of animal agriculture on biodiversity, land use and the environment.\u00a0Such a shift,\u00a0coupled with\u00a0the reduction of global food waste,\u00a0would\u00a0reduce\u00a0demand\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0pressure on the environment and land,\u00a0benefit\u00a0the\u00a0health\u00a0of populations around the world, and help reduce the risk of pandemics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>Secondly,<strong>\u00a0more land needs to be protected and set aside for nature.<\/strong>\u00a0The greatest gains\u00a0for biodiversity will occur when we preserve or restore whole ecosystems. Therefore,\u00a0we need to avoid converting land for agriculture. Human dietary shifts are essential in order to preserve existing native ecosystems and restore those that have been removed or degraded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>Thirdly,<strong>\u00a0we need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting way, limiting the use of inputs<\/strong>\u00a0and replacing monoculture with polyculture farming practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dietary change is necessary\u00a0to enable land to be\u00a0returned to nature, and\u00a0to allow\u00a0widespread adoption of nature-friendly farming without increasing the pressure to\u00a0convert natural land to agriculture.\u00a0The more the first\u00a0action\u00a0is taken up in the form\u00a0of dietary change, the more scope there is for the second and third\u00a0actions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The findings and\u00a0recommendations\u00a0of the\u00a0new Chatham House\u00a0report were\u00a0presented\u00a0today,\u00a0during\u00a0an online event which included\u00a0speakers\u00a0from UNEP, Chatham House and Compassion in World Farming,\u00a0as well as\u00a0Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder \u2013 the Jane Goodall Institute &amp; UN Messenger of Peace.\u00a0An\u00a0inspiring\u00a0panel discussion followed\u00a0with\u00a0Louise\u00a0Mabulo,\u00a0a chef, environmentalist and UN\u2019s Young Champion of the Earth from the Philippines, and Lana\u00a0Weidgenant, Vice-Chair of Shifting to Sustainable Consumption Patterns at the UN Food Systems Summit and Deputy Director of Zero Hour International.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/news-and-stories\/press-release\/our-global-food-system-primary-driver-biodiversity-loss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UN Environment Programme, 3 February 2021 &#8211; Press Release | Source A new Chatham House report\u00a0highlights that\u00a0the global\u00a0food system\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0primary\u00a0driver of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate, unless we change the way we produce food.\u00a0Further destruction of ecosystems and habitats will threaten our ability to sustain human populations. The new report calls for an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[345,162,50],"tags":[135,300],"class_list":["post-20367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-in-the-news","category-news","tag-biodiversity","tag-paper","thematic_area-agroecology","thematic_area-future-of-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/panorama-2405958_1920.jpg","wpml_translations":[{"language_code":"en","post_id":20367,"original":true}],"custom_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1613382932:2"],"_edit_last":["2"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_thumbnail_id":["20370"],"_wp_old_date":["2021-02-15"],"wpl_sidebar_option":["on"],"wpl_featured_image_post":["off"],"wpl_share_buttons":["on"],"_wpml_media_has_media":["1"]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9KkNM-5iv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20378,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20367\/revisions\/20378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}