Searching for practical solutions
Today, humans are farming more of the planet than ever, with higherresource intensity and staggering environmental impacts, while divert-ing an increasing fraction of crops to animals, biofuels and other non-food uses. Meanwhile, almost a billion people are chronically hungry.This must not continue: the requirements of current and future genera-tions demand that we transform agriculture to meet the twin challengesof food security and environmental sustainability.Our analysisdemonstratesthatfourcorestrategiescan—inprinciple—meet future food production needs and environmental challenges ifdeployedsimultaneously.Addingthemtogether,theyincreaseglobalfoodavailability by 100–180%, meeting projected demands while loweringgreenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity losses, water use and water pol-lution. However, all four strategies are needed to meet our global foodproduction and environmental goals; no single strategy is sufficient.We have described general approaches to solving global agriculturalchallenges, but much work remains to translate them into action.Specific land use, agricultural and food system tactics must be developedand deployed. Fortunately, many such tactics already exist, includingprecision agriculture, drip irrigation, organic soil remedies, buffer stripsand wetland restoration, new crop varieties that reduce needs for waterand fertilizer, perennial grains and tree-cropping systems, and payingfarmers for environmental services. However, deploying these tacticseffectively around the world requires numerous economic and govern-ance challenges to be overcome. For example, reforming global tradepolicies, including eliminating price-distorting subsidies and tariffs, willbe vital to achieving our strategies.In developing improved land use and agricultural practices, werecommend following these guidelines:(1) Solutions should focus on critical biophysical and economic ‘lever-age points’ in agricultural systems, where major improvements in foodproduction or environmental performance may be achieved with theleast effort and cost.(2) New practices must also increase the resilience of the food system.High-efficiency, industrialized agriculture has many benefits, but it isvulnerable to disasters71, including climatic disturbances, new diseasesand economic calamities
ค้นหาการแก้ไขปัญหาการปฏิบัติToday, humans are farming more of the planet than ever, with higherresource intensity and staggering environmental impacts, while divert-ing an increasing fraction of crops to animals, biofuels and other non-food uses. Meanwhile, almost a billion people are chronically hungry.This must not continue: the requirements of current and future genera-tions demand that we transform agriculture to meet the twin challengesof food security and environmental sustainability.Our analysisdemonstratesthatfourcorestrategiescan—inprinciple—meet future food production needs and environmental challenges ifdeployedsimultaneously.Addingthemtogether,theyincreaseglobalfoodavailability by 100–180%, meeting projected demands while loweringgreenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity losses, water use and water pol-lution. However, all four strategies are needed to meet our global foodproduction and environmental goals; no single strategy is sufficient.We have described general approaches to solving global agriculturalchallenges, but much work remains to translate them into action.Specific land use, agricultural and food system tactics must be developedand deployed. Fortunately, many such tactics already exist, includingprecision agriculture, drip irrigation, organic soil remedies, buffer stripsand wetland restoration, new crop varieties that reduce needs for waterand fertilizer, perennial grains and tree-cropping systems, and payingfarmers for environmental services. However, deploying these tacticseffectively around the world requires numerous economic and govern-ance challenges to be overcome. For example, reforming global tradepolicies, including eliminating price-distorting subsidies and tariffs, willbe vital to achieving our strategies.In developing improved land use and agricultural practices, werecommend following these guidelines:(1) Solutions should focus on critical biophysical and economic ‘lever-age points’ in agricultural systems, where major improvements in foodproduction or environmental performance may be achieved with theleast effort and cost.(2) New practices must also increase the resilience of the food system.High-efficiency, industrialized agriculture has many benefits, but it isvulnerable to disasters71, including climatic disturbances, new diseasesand economic calamities
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