The world’s population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, with rising numbers of people concentrated in urban areas and expanding middle classes. This means that food consumption patterns will continue to shift, with demand growing for processed foods and value-added products. Now, however, large populations still struggle to meet their daily food needs; currently about 815 million people worldwide are food-insecure. Addressing persistent food insecurity, and doing so in a sustainable way, remains one of the gravest challenges facing today’s policy makers.
To help address this challenge, and in the lead up to the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires Nov. 30-Dec. 1, members of the B20 (Business 20) and T20 (Think20, including IFPRI) engagement groups released a joint statement with their recommendations for a sustainable global food future. These address four main themes, outlined below:
Eradicate malnutrition, undernourishment, and obesity
The various forms of malnutrition place significant health and economic burdens on populations and countries. For instance, approximately 150 million children around the world suffer from stunting, while at the same time 600 million adults struggle with obesity and related diseases such as diabetes. The B20-T20 recommendations on nutrition include: Increasing consumer education on the importance of a healthy diet and active lifestyle; establishing public-private partnerships to strengthen local food value chains in developing countries; strengthening the role of the Codex Alimentarius as a global set of guidelines for food production and safety; and establishing coordinated voluntary guidelines for investments in sustainable food systems.
Ensure environmental conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation
The global agricultural sector currently accounts for 69 percent of water use, 36 percent of land use, and 20-24 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the B20 policy paper on sustainable food systems, making it a major factor in climate change. At the same time, increasingly climate-driven natural disasters are affecting agricultural production and prices. The B20-T20 recommendations say that food producers should adopt sustainable production practices to help mitigate, adapt to, and increase climate resilience. Public and private stakeholders should promote investments in the development of new technologies and innovations to ensure that key resources are used both sustainably and effectively. In addition, ecosystem management programs should also be coordinated and financed across countries and the array of stakeholders.
Develop and adopt new technologies and innovations
The joint statement emphasizes the need for developing countries to encourage small and medium enterprises across the food system to adopt of new innovations. In addition, a common measure of sustainable agricultural productivity should be established across countries to aid in more reliable data collection and monitoring, and both public and private sector stakeholders should increase investment in agricultural R&D.
Minimize food loss and waste
As much as one third of all food produced globally is either lost in the pre-harvest, harvest, or processing stages, or wasted by distributors and end consumers. Reducing this loss and waste should play a crucial role in ensuring food security for the world’s growing population, the statement says. That will require establishing a standardized measurement of food loss and waste, incentivizing investments in infrastructure (storage, transport, communications, et al.) in developing countries to better connect producers and consumers, and educating consumers on the importance of reducing food waste in the home. The global food trade can also play a key role in reducing food loss and waste and ensuring food security. Markets that function efficiently can better match food supply to demand, ensuring that more food is both accessible and affordable globally. Removing barriers to this trade can help increase countries’ comparative advantage gains and stimulate investment in production technologies and innovations. Finally, efficiently functioning global food value chains can help to find alternative uses for food that is currently lost or wasted.
The joint statement and the recommendations played a crucial role in shaping several points in the G20 Leaders Declaration. In particular, this marks the first time the B20 and T20 focused specifically on modernizing global food systems (including processing, transportation, and marketing), representing an important recognition of the role that such efforts play in meeting current challenges of food security, climate change, and nutrition.
Sara Gustafson is a Communications Specialist with IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institutions Division.
