Food, Agriculture & the Environment: Can We Feed the World & Save the Earth?

Author:

Tilman David1,Clark Michael2

Affiliation:

1. DAVID TILMAN, a Fellow of the American Academy since 1995, is Regents Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in the College of Biological Sciences and Director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve at the University of Minnesota. He is also Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and Theoretical Extensions (with Ann P. Kinzig and Stephen...

2. MICHAEL CLARK is a Graduate Student in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. He is the author, with David Tilman, of “Global Diets Link Environmental Sustainability and Human Health,” which appeared in Nature 515 (2014).

Abstract

Secure and nutritious food supplies are the foundation of human health and development, and of stable societies. Yet food production also poses significant threats to the environment through greenhouse gas emissions, pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services from the conversion of vast amounts of natural ecosystems into croplands and pastures. Global agricultural production is on a trajectory to double by 2050 because of both increases in the global population and the dietary changes associated with growing incomes. Here we examine the environmental problems that would result from these dietary shifts toward greater meat and calorie consumption and from the increase in agricultural production needed to provide this food. Several solutions, all of which are possible with current knowledge and technology, could substantially reduce agriculture's environmental impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, land clearing, and threats to biodiversity. In particular, the adoption of healthier diets and investment in increasing crop yields in developing nations would greatly reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture, lead to greater global health, and provide a path toward a secure and nutritious food supply for developing nations.

Publisher

MIT Press - Journals

Subject

History and Philosophy of Science,Political Science and International Relations,Social Sciences (miscellaneous),Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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