Why Sustainable Food Systems are Needed in a post-COVID World

IMF Blog, July 14, 2020

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2020 will be a year of reckoning for the world’s food systems.
COVID-19 shut down half the globe in just months, producing images of panic buying, empty grocery shelves and miles-long queues at food banks that highlighted systemic imbalances.
Pandemic disruptions showed that a global food supply chain that is highly centralized and operates on a just-in-time basis is prone to falter in the face of shocks.
Specific disruptions cited:
- Harvesting and packaging became impossible in many countries as workers were blocked at borders or fell sick.
- Stocks piled up and food went to waste because restaurants and bars were closed.
- The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program expect that a “hunger pandemic” and a doubling of people starving may soon eclipse the coronavirus, unless action is taken.

Pre-pandemic food insecurity and malnutrition:
- In 2018 about 820 million people went to bed hungry.
- A third of all people lacked essential nutrients.
Overnutrition and associated diseases:
- 600 million people were categorized as obese.
- 2 billion people were overweight.
- Imbalanced diets are associated with obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases that compromise immune health.
Consequences:
- Immuno-depressed and malnourished people worldwide are suffering disproportionally the lethal consequences of COVID-19.
- Human tolls translate into huge economic costs, including lost incomes and soaring public debt.

Food production practices and environmental degradation:
- Food produced through the overuse of chemicals, in monoculture cropping systems, and intensive animal farming degrades natural resources faster than they can reproduce.
- These practices cause a quarter of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
- Livestock are responsible for about a half of that quarter.
Risks from intensive animal farming:
- Industrial animal farming operations that rear large numbers of animals in confined spaces breed lethal viruses, like the 2009 swine flu.
- Such operations spread antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” because of the overuse of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent infections.
Zoonotic risk from habitat disturbance:
- Disturbing pristine habitats to farm and hunt has allowed deadly pathogens like SARS, HIV, Ebola, to jump species and infect humans.

Rebuilding after COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity to transform the global food system to be:
- Resilient to future shocks.
- Environmentally sustainable.
- Capable of ensuring healthy nutrition for all.
United Nations agencies collectively suggest four broad shifts in the food system:

Resilient food supply chains
Efficient and effective food supply chains lower risks of food insecurity, malnutrition, and food price fluctuations.
They can simultaneously create jobs.
Rural transformation to empower small producers and retailers and mainstream them in the food systems economy can help build resilient food supply chains.

Healthy diets
Curbing the overconsumption of animal and highly-processed food in wealthier countries and improving access to good nutrition in poorer countries can:
Improve well-being and land use efficiency.
Make healthy food more affordable globally.
Slash carbon emissions.
Policy options include:
Retargeting agricultural subsidies toward healthy foods.
Taxing unhealthy foods.
Aligning procurement practices, education programs and healthcare systems toward better diets.
Expected outcomes: reduced healthcare costs globally, reduced inequality, and a healthier population better able to weather future pandemics.

Regenerative farming
Shift toward sustainable and regenerative land and ocean farming connected to strong local and regional food systems can heal soils, air and water.
Benefits include boosting economic resilience and local jobs.
Enablers include promoting sustainable farming, facilitating market access, and leveling the financial and regulatory playing field for smaller, sustainable farmers relative to large intensive farmers.

Conservation
Breeding fewer animals to accommodate a shift toward more plant-based diets in wealthier countries is key to saving pristine ecosystems.
Conservation efforts aligned with recent proposals by the UN Environment Assembly for a global framework to protect the Earth's plant and wildlife, together with bold measures to eradicate the trade of wild animals, are central to:
Restoring biodiversity.
Boosting carbon sequestration.
Lowering the risk of future pandemics.

Food systems intersect human, animal, economic and environmental health; ignoring this intersection exposes the world economy to larger health and financial shocks as climate changes and global population grows.
Prioritizing food system reforms in “build forward” agendas can:
- Make concrete inroads toward the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Strategic policy levers emphasized:
- Rural transformation and inclusion of small producers and retailers.
- Fiscal measures: retargeted subsidies and taxes to shift diets.
- Regulatory and market measures to favor sustainable and smaller-scale producers.
- Conservation frameworks and measures to curb wildlife trade.

The article closes by stressing the foundational role of public health in economic resilience, invoking Winston Churchill: “Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”

Nicoletta Batini, James Lomax, July 14, 2020

Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks
- Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks (Markdown version)
- Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks (PDF)