169 research outputs found
Introduction to Food System Transformation for Sustainable Development
No full textOur food systems are broken. They not only fail to end the ‘triple burden’ of malnutrition, i.e., micronutrient deficiencies, undernutrition and overweight or obesity, but also exhibit substantial environmental impacts. One-third of the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. Most importantly, food systems are a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries, e.g., biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows. Therefore, they are an obstacle to achieving numerous Sustainable Development Goals. However, response options are available for the sustainable transformation of food systems at various stages, from pre-production to post-consumption. Transforming food systems towards more sustainable forms is crucial to converting the negative linkages of food systems with SDGs into positive ones. In this context, this companion explores, examines, and demonstrates how the transformation of food systems will contribute to sustainable development
Conclusion: Directionality and diversity of food system governance partnerships toward sustainable futures
No full textThe chapter presents a nuanced understanding of equitable partnerships for global goals (SDG17) and concludes the companion. We begin with a theoretical understanding of why current governance approaches to equitable partnerships fail to deliver anything meaningful, with a particular focus on the inertia of incumbent actors for transformative change. Then, we discussed the seven domains of partnership identified in SDG 17 to discuss what governance approaches may work and what disruptions are needed to unlock the incumbency and power relationships that prevent food system transformations. In conclusion, we summarize how this companion provides specific and evidence-based insights to develop more performative post-2030 agenda for just and sustainable food system transformations
Dataset for embodied crop calories in animal products
Full text link<p>This dataset provides data on crop and animal calories produced, and crop calorie used as livestock feed in 5 min grid for the year 2000 in million kilocalories (10e6 kcal). Ratio between crop calorie used as livestock feed and crop calories produced ("crop balance for livestock"), and crop calorie used as livestock feed and animal calories produced ("embodied crop calories") are provided in percentage. Please refer to Pradhan et al. (2013) for methods regarding how the data are generated.</p>
<p>Pradhan, Prajal, Matthias KB Lüdeke, Dominik E. Reusser, and Jürgen P. Kropp. "Embodied crop calories in animal products." Environmental Research Letters 8, no. 4 (2013): 044044. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/044044</p
Trade-offs among human, animal, and environmental health hinder the uniform progress of global One Health
Full text linkThe One Health (OH) approach, integrating aspects of human, animal, and environmental health, still lacks robustly quantified insights into its complex relationships. To fill this knowledge gap, we devised a comprehensive assessment scheme for OH to assess its progress, synergies, trade-offs, and priority targets. From 2000 to 2020, we find evidence for global progress toward OH, albeit uneven, with its average score rising from 61.6 to 65.5, driven primarily by better human health although environmental health lags. Despite synergies prevalent within and between the three health dimensions, over half of the world's countries, mainly low-income ones, still incur substantial trade-offs impeding OH's advancement, especially between animal and environmental health. Our in-depth analysis of synergy and trade-off networks reveals that maternal, newborn, and child health are critical synergistic targets, whereas biodiversity and land resources dominate trade-offs. We provide key information for the synergetic and uniform development of global OH and policymaking.</p
Chapter 3. Ending all forms of malnutrition through food system transformation
No full textEnding all forms of malnutrition (SDG 2 Target 2.2) and transforming food systems to promote health and well-being is a complex and multifaceted challenge. As the case studies from countries that have achieved notable success in addressing malnutrition revealed, nutrition interventions are not only about individualised dietary recommendations and behavioural change but also determined by structural and spatial injustices. It is essential to address the root causes of malnutrition, including poverty, inequality, and lack of access to nutritious foods. This may involve implementing policies and programs that promote sustainable agriculture and food systems and increasing access to education, healthcare, and social safety nets for vulnerable populations. These initiatives could involve promoting sustainable farming practices, reducing food waste, and returning to producing and consuming healthy local crops and crop varieties that thrive in extreme environments and have unique nutritional values (e.g., iron-rich beans and millets)
Moving beyond the colonial single-track education for food system transformation toward sustainability
No full textThis chapter examines how higher education and vocational training can come together as a dual-track education embracing humanist pedagogy to train a new generation capable of leading food system transformation using a country case study of Nepal. The case study unveils the influence of colonialism on education, which is evident in the establishment dates of major universities, although the narrative is that the country has never been colonised. Analysis of five technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programs in food, agriculture and forestry revealed a notable lack of food system sustainability concepts in the curricula. The curricula did not adequately cover the sustainable food system transformation and the Sustainable Development Goals. This chapter concludes that a dual-track postsecondary education where TVET offerings can incorporate sustainability concepts and provide a seamless transition to higher education, removing the widely held stigma that vocational training is only for low-achieving students
Chapter 4. Sustainable food systems for health and wellbeing
No full textNutrition is essential for human health, and beliefs and practices about food and nutrition have evolved over time, including social acceptance of communal eating and traditional healing practices. Lifestyle changes resulted in modern food systems and eating practices that recognise nutritional individuality and a shift towards more personalised medicine, which tailors dietary advice to a person’s specific requirements. A healthy, diverse diet for disease prevention and overall well-being is promoted by today’s food recommendations, which emphasise whole, nutrient-dense foods. The triple burden of malnutrition, encompassing undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overweight or obesity, risks health and wellbeing. Several nutrition-cascading safety nets have been implemented around the world to combat malnutrition, but their success depends not only on individual behaviour changes but also on structural inequality leading to social injustices
Quantitative approaches to explore synergies and trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
No full textCountries are not on track to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rescuing the 2030 Agenda requires prioritizing SDGs based on an understanding of complex SDG interactions. Many methods are used to unentangle SDG interactions, from literature reviews to modelling. Among these methods, this chapter provides an overview of quantitative studies on SDG interactions, including a diverse SDG data landscape. We provide insights into selected studies on SDG interactions and their data used, methods applied, and findings obtained. These studies mainly include statistical analysis of SDG interactions based on longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses. Some studies further used the results obtained from the statistical analyses to build SDG networks and systems models. We also provide a brief account of other methods. This chapter highlights the need to use quantitative and qualitative methods for a holistic understanding of SDG interactions, including their local and context-specific mechanisms
Vattnets roll som restorativ komponent på små urbana platser
Full text linkModernization and urbanization has its share of dire consequences, mainly stress related problems which has been on rise all over the world. Intense densification has made cities devoid of open spaces. Nevertheless, the need of spaces with restorative potentials is much felt in order to mitigate the stress related problems of the urbanites. Hence, the thesis is based on understanding the role of water or water features and its qualities in fostering psychological restoration in small urban environments.
Two types of studies— onsite observation (qualitative) and preference study (quantitative) was carried out to learn the importance of water or water features in the urban environment and to find the restorative qualities of water features. The qualitative observation which was carried out in the cities of Sweden and Nepal has help identify people’s fondness for water, while the quantitative study has revealed qualitative parameters of water features which may aid restoration.
The results from both the studies indicate that water or water features in urban areas may foster restorative qualities of an environment. Hence, the knowledge reflected by the thesis can be referred as guidelines by architects, designers, planners and even policy makers to create or transform a place into a power place that supports psychological restoration which in both short and long term will benefit public health and overall wellbeing of the city dwellers
Nahrungsmittelnachfrage und -Versorgung im Globalen Wandel
No full textAnthropogenic activities have transformed the Earth's environment, not only on local level, but on the planetary-scale causing global change. Besides industrialization, agriculture is a major driver of global change. This change in turn impairs the agriculture sector, reducing crop yields namely due to soil degradation, water scarcity, and climate change. However, this is a more complex issue than it appears. Crop yields can be increased by use of agrochemicals and fertilizers which are mainly produced by fossil energy. This is important to meet the increasing food demand driven by global demographic change, which is further accelerated by changes in regional lifestyles. In this dissertation, we attempt to address this complex problem exploring agricultural potential globally but on a local scale. For this, we considered the influence of lifestyle changes (dietary patterns) as well as technological progress and their effects on climate change, mainly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, we examined options for optimizing crop yields in the current cultivated land with the current cropping patterns by closing yield gaps. Using this, we investigated in a five-minute resolution the extent to which food demand can be met locally, and/or by regional and/or global trade. Globally, food consumption habits are shifting towards calorie rich diets. Due to dietary shifts combined with population growth, the global food demand is expected to increase by 60-110% between 2005 and 2050. Hence, one of the challenges to global sustainability is to meet the growing food demand, while at the same time, reducing agricultural inputs and environmental consequences. In order to address the above problem, we used several freely available datasets and applied multiple interconnected analytical approaches that include artificial neural network, scenario analysis, data aggregation and harmonization, downscaling algorithm, and cross-scale analysis.
Globally, we identified sixteen dietary patterns between 1961 and 2007 with food intakes ranging from 1,870 to 3,400 kcal/cap/day. These dietary patterns also reflected changing dietary habits to meat rich diets worldwide. Due to the large share of animal products, very high calorie diets that are common in the developed world, exhibit high total per capita emissions of 3.7-6.1 kg CO2eq./day. This is higher than total per capita emissions of 1.4-4.5 kg CO2eq./day associated with low and moderate calorie diets that are common in developing countries. Currently, 40% of the global crop calories are fed to livestock and the feed calorie use is four times the produced animal calories. However, these values vary from less than 1 kcal to greater 10 kcal around the world. On the local and national scale, we found that the local and national food production could meet demand of 1.9 and 4.4 billion people in 2000, respectively. However, 1 billion people from Asia and Africa require intercontinental agricultural trade to meet their food demand. Nevertheless, these regions can become food self-sufficient by closing yield gaps that require location specific inputs and agricultural management strategies. Such strategies include: fertilizers, pesticides, soil and land improvement, management targeted on mitigating climate induced yield variability, and improving market accessibility. However, closing yield gaps in particular requires global N-fertilizer application to increase by 45-73%, P2O5 by 22-46%, and K2O by 2-3 times compare to 2010. Considering population growth, we found that the global agricultural GHG emissions will approach 7 Gt CO2eq./yr by 2050, while the global livestock feed demand will remain similar to 2000. This changes tremendously when diet shifts are also taken into account, resulting in GHG emissions of 20 Gt CO2eq./yr and an increase of 1.3 times in the crop-based feed demand between 2000 and 2050. However, when population growth, diet shifts, and technological progress by 2050 were considered, GHG emissions can be reduced to 14 Gt CO2eq./yr and the feed demand to nearly 1.8 times compare to that in 2000. Additionally, our findings shows that based on the progress made in closing yield gaps, the number of people depending on international trade can vary between 1.5 and 6 billion by 2050. In medium term, this requires additional fossil energy. Furthermore, climate change, affecting crop yields, will increase the need for international agricultural trade by 4% to 16%.
In summary, three general conclusions are drawn from this dissertation. First, changing dietary patterns will significantly increase crop demand, agricultural GHG emissions, and international food trade in the future when compared to population growth only. Second, such increments can be reduced by technology transfer and technological progress that will enhance crop yields, decrease agricultural emission intensities, and increase livestock feed conversion efficiencies. Moreover, international trade dependency can be lowered by consuming local and regional food products, by producing diverse types of food, and by closing yield gaps. Third, location specific inputs and management options are required to close yield gaps. Sustainability of such inputs and management largely depends on which options are chosen and how they are implemented. However, while every cultivated land may not need to attain its potential yields to enable food security, closing yield gaps only may not be enough to achieve food self-sufficiency in some regions. Hence, a combination of sustainable implementations of agricultural intensification, expansion, and trade as well as shifting dietary habits towards a lower share of animal products is required to feed the growing population.Der Mensch beeinflusst die landwirtschaftlichen Erträge unmittelbar durch anthropogen verursachte Treiber des globalen Wandels, wie Bodenerosion, Wasserknappheit und Klimawandel, wovon er und seine Lebensmittelversorgung wiederum direkt betroffen sein werden. Einerseits steigert der Einsatz von Agrochemikalien und mithilfe fossiler Energien erzeugte Dünger die landwirtschaftlichen Erträge. Andererseits tragen Bevölkerungswachstum sowie die Tendenz zu kalorienreichen Ernährungsweisen zu einer vermehrten Nahrungsmittelnachfrage von 60-110% von 2005 bis 2050 bei. Das Decken der wachsenden Lebensmittelnachfrage bei gleichzeitiger Reduktion des landwirtschaftlichen Ressourcenverbrauchs und Umweltbelastungen stellt eine zentrale Herausforderung für die globale Nachhaltigkeit dar. In diesem Rahmen versucht diese Arbeit, die Potentiale der globalen Landwirtschaft auf kleinräumiger Skala auszuloten. Hierbei werden Prognosen zu Auswirkungen von Ernährungsmustern und Veränderungen der landwirtschaftlichen Produktionsmethoden unter Beibehaltung der der Anbaufolge und deren Einfluss auf den Klimawandel berücksichtigt. Projektionen basierend auf räumlich hoch aufgelösten Daten lassen Aussagen darüber zu, inwieweit die Nahrungsmittelproduktion lokal sichergestellt werden kann und falls nicht, wie dies durch regionalen und/oder globalen Handel erfolgen kann. Frei verfügbare Datensätze und Ansätze, wie künstliche neuronale Netze, Szenarioanalysen, Downscaling und skalenübergreifende Methoden werden zur Bearbeitung genutzt.
Für den Zeitraum von 1961 bis 2007 konnten 16 globale Ernährungstypologien identifiziert werden. Diese spiegeln vor allem eine Tendenz hin zu fleischhaltiger Kost wider. Durch den hohen Anteil tierischer Produkte verursachen kalorienreiche Ernährungsmuster, wie in Industrieländern üblich, hohe pro Kopf Emissionen von 3,7-6,1 kg CO2eq./Tag und übersteigen die pro Kopf Emissionen von 1,4-4,5 kg CO2eq./Tag einer kalorienarmen Ernährungsweise in Entwicklungsländern. Weltweit werden 40% aller landwirtschaftlichen Erzeugnisse als Futtermittel genutzt, was bedeutet, dass aus einem regional variierenden Wert von weniger als 1 kcal bis 10 kcal Getreide, 1 kcal tierische Produkte erzeugt werden. Im Jahr 2000 konnten lokale und nationale Nahrungsmittelproduktionen die Nachfrage von 1,9 bzw. 4,4 Milliarden Menschen erfüllen. Trotzdem sind ca. 1 Milliarde Menschen in Asien und Afrika auf interkontinentalen Handel angewiesen um ihre Lebensmittelnachfrage zu decken. Bei alleiniger Betrachtung des Bevölkerungswachstums wird ein Anstieg der globalen landwirtschaftlichen Treibhausgasemissionen bis zum Jahr 2050 auf jährlich 7 Gt CO2eq. deutlich, während die Nachfrage nach angebauten Futtermitteln gegenüber 2000 annähernd gleich bleiben wird. Das Hinzuziehen von Ernährungsgewohnheiten zeigt, dass zwischen 2000 und 2050 ein Anstieg der Treibhausgasemissionen auf 20 Gt CO2eq. pro Jahr und eine 1,3-fach gesteigerte Nachfrage nach Futtermittel möglich ist. Der zusätzliche Einbezug von technologischem Fortschritt ergibt, dass Emissionen auf jährlich 14 Gt CO2eq. und der Anstieg der Futtermittelnachfrage auf das 0,8-fache reduziert werden können. Daraus geht die Erkenntnis hervor, dass je nachdem, wie erfolgreich Ertragslücken geschlossen werden, 1,5 bis 6 Milliarden Menschen vom internationalen Handel abhängig sind, welcher mittelfristig zusätzliche fossile Energie benötigt. Der Einfluss des Klimawandels auf Ernteerträge wird den Bedarf an internationalem Handel mit landwirtschaftlichen Produkten um 4% bis 16% erhöhen. Weiterhin lässt sich schlussfolgern, dass insbesondere veränderte Ernährungsgewohnheiten, im Gegensatz zu Bevölkerungswachstum, die Nachfrage nach Getreide, die landwirtschaftlichen Treibhausgasemissionen sowie den internationalen Handel mit Nahrungsmitteln erhöhen werden. Durch adäquaten Technologietransfer und technologischen Fortschritt lassen sich Ernteerträge steigern, landwirtschaftliche Emissionen senken und die Effizienz der Umwandlung von Futtermittel in tierische Produkte erhöhen. Abhängigkeiten vom internationalen Handel könnten durch den Konsum lokaler und regionaler Produkte und durch Diversifizierung von Erzeugnissen verringert werden. Zur Schließung von Ertragslücken sind ortsspezifische Maßnahmen erforderlich, wie die nachhaltige Verwendung von Düngemitteln und Pestiziden, Bodenverbesserung, Maßnahmen zur Abschwächung klimabedingter Ernteschwankungen sowie ein verbesserter Marktzugang. Um die Ernährung einer wachsenden Weltbevölkerung zu gewährleisten, ist eine Kombination aus nachhaltiger Intensivierung und Ausweitung der Landwirtschaft, des Handels sowie Ernährungsmuster mit geringeren Anteilen tierischer Produkte notwendig
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