To deflect future world food crises created by climate change and growing consumer demand, a Cornell-led international team of economists, scientists and business experts has created a road map for global agricultural and food systems innovation, reform and sustainability.
The group’s report – “Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems,” funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability – was published Dec. 10 on the Nature Sustainability website, in collaboration with its sibling journal, Nature Food.
“By any measure, our world’s food systems are phenomenally productive, responsive and adaptable, as we can now feed almost 5 billion in a healthy way,” said Chris Barrett, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor in Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, who leads the project.
“But that means nearly 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. And with inevitable population growth, income growth and the climate change that’s already baked into the food system, our current agricultural gains and methods are not sustainable,” said Barrett, also a faculty member in the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and in the Department of Economics (College of Arts and Sciences). “Globally, we can’t continue on this path without destroying the planet and imperiling billions of people.”