Eating the Planet Press Briefing Nov 2009

November2009

EATING THE PLANET?

How we can feedthe world without trashing it

EATING THE PLANET?Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth

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CONTENTS

03THE CHALLENGE04KEY FINDINGS05SUMMARY OF STUDY METHODS

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Forests

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Key variables and inputs

09STUDY RESULTS

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Feasibility of diet and farming scenarios

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Land availability

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Feasibility by diet

11WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF STUDY RESULTS

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Environmental and health impacts of increasing meat consumption

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Reducing meat consumption: benefits for animals, people and the planet

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The effects of climate change

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Fuelling the world in 2050 – possible bioenergy scenarios

15CONCLUSIONS16POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS19REFERENCESFigures and tables

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Figure 1. World regions used in this study

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Table 1. Basic characteristics of the four diets

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Table 2. Feasibility analysis of all 72 scenarios

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Table 3. Modelled climate impact on cropland yields in 2050 with and withoutCO

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fertilisationThis briefing paper was produced by Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth.It summarises an original study undertaken by researchers at The Institute of Social Ecology,Alpen Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Vienna, Austria, and Potsdam Institute for Climate ImpactResearch, Potsdam, Germany, and draws out implications and recommendations arising fromthe research findings. The authors of the full research report are: Karl-Heinz Erb, HelmutHaberl, Fridolin Krausmann, Christian Lauk, Christoph Plutzar, Julia K. Steinberger, ChristophMüller, Alberte Bondeau, Katharina Waha, Gudrun Pollack. The full research report can befound at:

www.foe.co.uk/eatingtheplanet/fullreportwww.ciwf.org/eatingtheplanet

Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth

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EATING THE PLANET?

The escalating demands of a growing andincreasingly affluent world population areputting the natural world under mountingpressure. Human use of land, along withclimate change, is undermining the Earth’sability to deliver vital life-support services.

While “Green Revolution” technologies suchas progress in plant breeding, fertiliserproduction, pesticide use and mechanisationhave resulted in increases in yields andefficiencies, they have also had majorwidespread negative environmental andsocial impacts. These include the degradationof soils and ecosystems around the world,excessive use of water and loss of crop andspecies diversity. Biodiversity is being lost upto 1,000 times as quickly as it would naturally(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).Farming around the world is both affectedby, and a contributor to, climate change,with 22 per cent of emissions generated byagriculture of which 80 per cent comes fromlivestock production (McMichael

et al

., 2007).Intensive animal production has boostedproduction yields but these developmentscome at a severe price – these systems includeproduction methods that cause significantand widespread animal suffering, such as theselection of animals for rapid growth, leadingto lameness and other physiological disorders,and the use of cages and crates whichseverely restrict animal behaviour.The world population is expected to increasesignificantly in the coming decades, withcurrent predictions indicating that it will reach9.16 billion by 2050. The number of hungrypeople in the world is increasing and is nowover one billion (FAO, 2009). At the sametime, around the same number of people aredefined as obese – overweight to a levelwhich endangers their health - highlightinghow damaging the global food system is.Whilst the food crisis is not new, recentfluctuations in commodity prices havebrought political attention to the challengeof feeding a growing world population.Agribusiness has been quick to promotefurther intensification of crops and livestockfarming, including genetically modifiedcrops. However, a major internationalassessment of agriculture (IAASTD, 2008)suggested a different approach, highlightingthe huge environmental and social costs ofintensive agriculture. The UN-sponsoredassessment was produced over four years andinvolved a multi-disciplinary team of 400scientists. Its findings have been endorsed by58 governments, including the UK. ProfessorBob Watson, (now the Chief ScientificAdvisor for the UK Department ofEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs), whochaired the process, concluded at the launchthat “business as usual is not an option”.Instead the assessment recommended thatresearchers should urgently work withfarmers’ and communities’ traditionalknowledge to deliver agro-ecologicalproduction – farming that balancesenvironmental sustainability, social equityand economic viability.Feeding the world sustainably, fairly andhumanely in the coming decades, underincreasing pressures due to climate change, isone of the greatest challenges facinghumanity. Friends of the Earth andCompassion in World Farming commissioneda study to model how the Earth can providesufficient food and fuel for its likelypopulation in 2050 while meeting thefollowing objectives:

•Reducing agriculture’s environmental impact

•Reducing animal suffering throughhumane methods of livestock farming•Protecting areas that are critical to life onEarth such as tropical forests•Tackling the contrast of widespreadobesity in some world regions andmalnourishment in others•Investigating the potential for the use ofbiomass for energy provision where it canbe sustainably produced and is proven toreduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

THE CHALLENGE