Explain how food and other products are produced and transported and how this can affect our environment and health.
Answers
The visualization here shows a summary of some of the main global impacts:
Food accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions1;
Half of the world’s habitable (ice- and desert-free) land is used for agriculture;
70% of global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture2;
78% of global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants) is caused by agriculture3;
94% of mammal biomass (excluding humans) is livestock. This means livestock outweigh wild mammals by a factor of 15-to-1.4 Of the 28,000 species evaluated to be threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List, agriculture and aquaculture is listed as a threat for 24,000 of them.5
Food, therefore, lies at the heart of trying to tackle climate change, reducing water stress, pollution, restoring lands back to forests or grasslands, and protecting the world’s wildlife.