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

_IMF Blog, July 14, 2020_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Why Sustainable Food Systems are Needed in a post-COVID World](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/14/why-sustainable-food-systems-are-needed-in-a-post-covid-world)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/14/why-sustainable-food-systems-are-needed-in-a-post-covid-world/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/14/why-sustainable-food-systems-are-needed-in-a-post-covid-world/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/14/why-sustainable-food-systems-are-needed-in-a-post-covid-world/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Nicoletta Batini, James Lomax
- Published: July 14, 2020

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### Overview: COVID-19 as a reckoning for food systems
- 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.

### Health and nutrition challenges
- 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.

### Environmental impacts of current food production
- 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.

### Economic reset: opportunity to transform food systems
- 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.

### Policy implications and priorities
- 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.

### Closing
- 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*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks**
  - [Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks (Markdown version)](/3/a-bp285e.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks (PDF)](/3/a-bp285e.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf;charset=UTF-8"}

---

## References

- [soaring public debt](https://blogs.imf.org/2020/07/10/fiscal-policies-for-a-transformed-world/)
- [quarter of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.htm)
- [Curbing the overconsumption of animal and highly-processed food in wealthier countries](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/02/26/Macroeconomic-Gains-from-Reforming-the-Agri-Food-Sector-The-Case-of-France-46583)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/14/why-sustainable-food-systems-are-needed-in-a-post-covid-world_