Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation
- Abstract
Recent studies show that current trends in yield improvement will not be sufficient to meet projected global food demand in 2050, and suggest that a further expansion of agricultural area will be required. However, agriculture is the main driver of losses of biodiversity and a major contributor to climate change and pollution, and so further expansion is undesirable. The usual proposed alternative—intensification with increased resource use—also has negative effects. It is therefore imperative to find ways to achieve global food security without expanding crop or pastureland and without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Resource Type
- Peer-reviewed article
- Authors
- Bojana Bajzelj Keith Richards Julian Allwood Pete Smith John Dennis Elizabeth Curmi Christopher Gilligan
- Publication
- Nature Climate Change
- Volume
- 4
- Pages
- 924-929
- Date
- Aug 31, 2014
- DOI
- 10.1038/NCLIMATE2353
- Organization Type
- Academic
- Health and Human Impact
- Food security
- Climate and Environmental Impacts
- Biodiversity Food/crops
- Emission Sources
- Agriculture/forestry Land use Waste
- Solutions
- Land use Sustainable agriculture/local food systems