Searchinger, Tim

Creating a sustainable food future a menu of solutions to sustainably feed more than 9 billion people by 2050 Final report, July 2019 Creating a sustainable food future Tim Searchinger [and three others] ; editor Emiily Matthews. - Washington, DC World Resources Institute 2019 - 556 pages color illustrations, color maps. 28 cm - .

Executive summary --
Scope of the challenge and menu of possible solutions. A recipe for change --
A tale of three gaps --
Additional sustainability criteria --
Menu for a sustainable food future --
Course 1: Reduce growth in demand for food and other agricultural products. Menu item: reduce food loss and waste --
Menu item: shift to healthier and more sustainable diets --
Menu item: avoid competition from bioenergy for food crops and land --
Menu item: achieve replacement-level fertility rates --
Poverty implications of restricting growth in food demand --
Course 2: Increase food production without expanding agricultural land. Assessing the challenge of limiting agricultural land expansion --
Menu item: increase livestock and pasture productivity --
Menu item: improve crop breeding to boost yields --
Menu item: improve soil and water management --
Menu item: plant existing cropland more frequently --
Menu item: adapt to climate change --
How much could boosting crop and livestock productivity contribute to --
Closing the land and greenhouse gas mitigation gaps? --
Course 3: Protect and restore natural ecosystems and limit agricultural land-shifting. The causes and consequences of agricultural land-shifting --
Menu item: link productivity gains with protection of natural ecosystems --
Menu item: limit inevitable cropland expansion to lands with low environmental opportunity costs --
Menu item: reforest abandoned, unproductive, and liberated agricultural lands --
Menu item: conserve and restore peatlands --
Course 4: Increase fish supply. Menu item: improve wild fisheries management --
Menu item: improve productivity and environmental performance of aquaculture --
Course 5: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production. Menu item: reduce enteric fermentation through new technologies --
Menu item: reduce emissions through improved manure management --
Menu item: reduce emissions from manure left on pasture --
Menu item: reduce emissions from fertilizers by increasing nitrogen use efficiency --
Menu item: adopt emissions-reducing rice management and varieties --
Menu item: increase agricultural energy efficiency and shift to nonfossil energy sources --
Menu item: focus on realistic options to sequester carbon in agricultural soils --
The need for flexible regulations --
The complete menu: creating a sustainable food future. Combining menu items: three increasing levels of global ambition --
A tale of three gaps, revisited --
Insights from the menu combinations --
Cross-cutting policies for a sustainable food future --
Farm structures, large land acquisitions, property rights, and contractual arrangements --
Carbon-pricing strategies and financing of climate-smart agriculture --
Strengthening research and development --
Conclusions.

"By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on the planet. Can we produce enough food sustainably? World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future shows that it is possible - but there is no silver bullet. This report offers a five-course menu of solutions to ensure we can feed everyone without increasing emissions, fueling deforestation or exacerbating poverty. Intensive research and modeling examining the nexus of the food system, economic development, and the environment show why each of the 22 items on the menu is important and quantifies how far each solution can get us"--Publisher's description.

9781569739631


Food supply.
Food security.
Sustainable agriculture.