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With the world’s population set to grow from 7 billion today to more than 9 billion by 2050, it’s clear that our food system needs to change – urgently.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Today, a considerable share of natural resources on our planet are used to create food, specifically, 69% of water and 34% of land.
Production and irregular consumption of food have become real threats to nature. Over-exhaustion of natural resources has been generating effects such as soil erosion, degradation of forests and others. On the other hand, food production facilitates emissions of greenhouse gases, increasing it by at least 24%.
Meanwhile, millions of people on Earth are starving (more than 820 people). The Global Report on Food Crises indicates that 135 million people face acute food insecurity; 75 million children suffer from malnutrition, and 17 million from growth retardation. These numbers have been rising year after year.
The good news is that there are huge opportunities to feed the world in a way that works with nature, not against it. Do things differently, and we can stop forests turning into fields, keep rivers flowing, restore soil fertility, and reverse the loss of life on Earth – all the while ensuring there’s enough nutritious food for every person, now and in the future.
© Joe Buglewicz / WWF-US
© Meg Gawler / WWF
We are committed to working with local vulnerable communities who live adjacent to protected areas and improving their livelihoods by making food production more sustainable.
According to the statistics, one-third of the total food supply is wasted, which implies that if food were distributed regularly, or people started using as much food as actually necessary, many things could have changed globally.
In this regard, many countries implement projects to meet domestic needs and to provide food to other countries when possible.
Furthermore, a sustainable food provision system is required not only to feed the world’s population but also to protect nature. The available food resources could soon become insufficient to meet the needs of the rapidly growing human population. Therefore, it is extremely important to improve the system of food production, distribution, consumption, and management of excess quantities now.
In Armenia, the rate of poverty is high in certain regions, but it is precisely there that actual potential exists to promote agricultural development, realize other favorable projects, and make more sustainable use of resources.
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73%
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We can make the food system work for people and nature.
By improving production efficiency and strengthening underperforming farmland, we can safeguard forests and grasslands and reduce the impact on rivers – helping to restore wildlife populations and protect the livelihoods of many millions of people. Better production systems can also keep nature healthy in other ways – for example, making sure soils are healthy, and naturally regenerating land rather than simply extracting from it.
If we shift to diets with food that is good for people and planet, and make sure food is distributed more fairly and efficiently, we can feed everyone without destroying yet more nature. We can also improve public health by addressing both malnourishment and overeating.
In addition to protecting nature and feeding people, these changes to our food system we can make a real difference to efforts to tackle the ongoing climate change crisis and so help protect life on our planet for generations to come.
"The good news is we can feed the world without destroying more forests, rivers and oceans."
WWF Food Team Leader
© David Bebber / WWF-UK
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