{
  "title": "Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini",
  "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini",
  "overlayPath": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/index.md",
  "summary": "The IMF’s Nicoletta Batini explains why greening agricultural systems and managing food demand are critical for meeting the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change",
  "authors": [
    "NICOLETTA BATINI"
  ],
  "publishDate": "2019-12-01",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview",
      "content": "- Author: NICOLETTA BATINI, senior economist in the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office.\n- Central thesis: Greening agricultural systems and managing food demand are critical for meeting the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change.\n- Framing: A “Great Food Transformation” analogous in urgency to the “Great Energy Transformation” is required."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Hidden costs of food systems",
      "content": "- Agri-food sector emissions and resource use:\n  - The agri-food sector now creates a quarter of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions—a share expected to increase to a half of all such emissions by 2050.\n  - Another 8 percent of emissions results from non-food agriculture and deforestation.\n  - Livestock account for around 15 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases each year.\n  - Without action, by 2030 the livestock sector alone could account for 37 percent of the emissions allowable to keep warming under the 2°C target, and 49 percent if the temperature goal is 1.5°C.\n- Land and water:\n  - The agri-food sector uses about half the world’s ice- and desert-free land and three-quarters of its fresh water.\n  - Current farming methods have been found to degrade soil more than 100 times faster than new soil is formed.\n- Food security and nutrition outcomes:\n  - With a third of all food produced going to the more than 70 billion animals farmed every year on land alone, more than 820 million people worldwide went hungry in 2018.\n  - Meanwhile, 650 million people were classed as obese and about 2 billion as overweight."
    },
    {
      "heading": "1.5ºC target for food (supply, land use, diets)",
      "content": "- Supply-side transformations required (three changes):\n  - Cut global production and consumption of red meat (especially beef) and dairy by about 50 percent, through substitution of proteins supplied by plants; urgent action needed in top producers named for beef (United States, Brazil, European Union) and dairy (United States, India, China).\n  - Shift away from conventional monoculture toward organic and mixed crop-livestock farming, sustainable soil management, and ecosystem restoration.\n    - Restoring soils with regenerative practices could lock up as much as 60 tons of carbon in soil and vegetation per acre.\n    - “A mere 2 percent increase in the carbon content of the planet’s soils could offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions,” per Rattan Lal’s calculation cited.\n    - Currently a mere 1.2 percent of global agricultural land is farmed organically; projected to reach only 3.2 percent by 2024 under current policies.\n  - Better land use: planting forests and reducing deforestation; intact forests sequester twice as much carbon as planted monocultures.\n    - The proposed Global Deal for Nature targets 30 percent of earth to be formally protected and an additional 20 percent designated as climate stabilization areas, by 2030.\n- Oceans and regenerative ocean farming:\n  - World Bank: ocean farming of seaweed and shellfish in an area equivalent to 5 percent of U.S. territorial waters can produce protein equivalent to 2.3 trillion hamburgers and sequester carbon equal to the output of 20 million cars.\n  - University of Melbourne’s Tim Flannery: farming less than 10 percent of the oceans could absorb all carbon produced in a year globally and produce enough biofuel to power the world.\n- Diet shifts:\n  - Research published in Nature in 2018: the average world citizen should eat 50 percent less animal products; suggested rule: “no animal products for breakfast or lunch.”\n  - Dietary changes reduce risks of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The role of policy (economic, financial, trade, structural)",
      "content": "- Reorienting subsidies and public spending:\n  - In 2018, total subsidies to agriculture in OECD member countries reached $233 billion.\n  - Argument: redirect subsidies from unsustainable meat and dairy production toward sustainable plant-based protein production, alternative proteins, and smart farming technologies.\n- Transitional assistance to farmers:\n  - Provide direct loans, guarantee schemes, crop insurance, measures to improve land and market access to help farmers transition to organic practice.\n  - In developing economies, replace production subsidies with ecological payments to sustainable farmers; focus on women farmers and indigenous people.\n- Conservation and land tenure:\n  - Use land tenure legislation and financial and labor market incentives to favor landowners who protect ecosystems; make adoption of on-farm conservation practices a condition for receiving farm subsidies.\n  - Proposal: international fund to compensate countries for forgoing trade in commodities that threaten critical ecosystems; similar funds to create or enforce marine conservation areas.\n- Technology, information, and waste reduction:\n  - Promote climate-smart technologies and practices (biomass energy from wastes, manure management, renewable energy-based farming systems, solar/wind water pumping, drip irrigation, innovative greenhouse technologies, efficient field machinery).\n  - Need for public-private early warning systems for weather, crop yields, and seasonal climate events and public support for innovation in sustainability-enhancing agricultural technology.\n  - Policies to cut food waste: better supply chain management, e-commerce platforms for surplus, smaller retail portions, greater use of frozen food, donations programs, educational campaigns, reducing excess consumption.\n- Fiscal instruments and market signals:\n  - Taxes on “unsustainable” and “unhealthy” foods (notably meat, dairy, and ultra-processed food) could discourage overconsumption; offset these taxes with lower taxes on sustainable foods to preserve consumers’ food purchasing power while achieving health and environmental gains.\n    - Examples from estimates cited: average US retail price of a Big Mac is around $5.60; full social cost would be $12 per sandwich, which could more than halve US demand for burgers. A gallon of milk would run $9 instead of $3.50; a two-pound package of pork ribs would jump from $12 to $32.\n- Financial regulation and investment:\n  - Changes to prudential regulation to account for financial risks of institutions that lend to nonsustainable agri-food firms.\n  - Invest public funds in assets associated with sustainable land use and expand green and sustainable bond markets."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Extraordinary co-benefits (mitigation, health, economy)",
      "content": "- Climate mitigation potential:\n  - IPCC’s 2019 report: by 2050, reforms of crop and livestock activities and agroforestry could mitigate up to a third of all greenhouse-gas emissions.\n  - Dietary changes alone could lead to a reduction in emissions equal to the sum of the current annual carbon emissions of the United States and India.\n  - Elimination of food waste could cut another 8–10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.\n- Biodiversity and resource benefits:\n  - Shifting production and consumption toward plant-based foods would halt deforestation and enable conservation of critical ecosystems.\n- Human health and economic wins:\n  - More nutritious, varied, safer, and more affordable food; longer and healthier lives; savings from lower health costs could stabilize global finances.\n  - Labor productivity gains from fewer work years lost to ill-health, disability, or early death.\n  - Progress toward eradicating world hunger, income inequality, and social immobility; help avert mass migration due to climate change.\n- Closing statement: “Climate health is land and seas’ health is human health is economies’ health.”\n\nFarming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- حصاد ما تزرعه أيدينا\n  - حصاد ما تزرعه أيدينا (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - حصاد ما تزرعه أيدينا (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019\n  - Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Récolter ce que l’on sème\n  - Récolter ce que l’on sème (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Récolter ce que l’on sème (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Что посеем, то и пожнем – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2019 года\n  - Что посеем, то и пожнем – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2019 года (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Что посеем, то и пожнем – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2019 года (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini"
    }
  ],
  "bullets": [
    "[Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/index.md)",
    "[Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/index.json)",
    "[Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/bundle-manifest.json)",
    "Authors: NICOLETTA BATINI",
    "Published: December 1, 2019",
    "Author: NICOLETTA BATINI, senior economist in the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office.",
    "Central thesis: Greening agricultural systems and managing food demand are critical for meeting the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on tackling climate change.",
    "Framing: A “Great Food Transformation” analogous in urgency to the “Great Energy Transformation” is required.",
    "Agri-food sector emissions and resource use:",
    "Land and water:",
    "Food security and nutrition outcomes:",
    "Supply-side transformations required (three changes):",
    "Oceans and regenerative ocean farming:",
    "Diet shifts:",
    "Reorienting subsidies and public spending:",
    "Transitional assistance to farmers:",
    "Conservation and land tenure:",
    "Technology, information, and waste reduction:",
    "Fiscal instruments and market signals:",
    "Financial regulation and investment:",
    "Climate mitigation potential:",
    "Biodiversity and resource benefits:",
    "Human health and economic wins:",
    "Closing statement: “Climate health is land and seas’ health is human health is economies’ health.”",
    "**حصاد ما تزرعه أيدينا**",
    "**Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019**",
    "**Récolter ce que l’on sème**",
    "**Что посеем, то и пожнем – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2019 года**"
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "title": "حصاد ما تزرعه أيدينا",
      "role": "document",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ar/batini.pdf",
      "summary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ar/batini.pdf.md",
        "mime": "text/markdown"
      },
      "binary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ar/batini.pdf",
        "mime": "application/pdf"
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Farming, Food and Climate Change – IMF F&D | DECEMBER 2019",
      "role": "document",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
      "summary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf.md",
        "mime": "text/markdown"
      },
      "binary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
        "mime": "application/pdf"
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Récolter ce que l’on sème",
      "role": "document",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/fr/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
      "summary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/fr/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf.md",
        "mime": "text/markdown"
      },
      "binary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/fr/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
        "mime": "application/pdf"
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Что посеем, то и пожнем – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2019 года",
      "role": "document",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ru/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
      "summary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ru/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf.md",
        "mime": "text/markdown"
      },
      "binary": {
        "path": "/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/ru/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini.pdf",
        "mime": "application/pdf"
      }
    }
  ],
  "alternates": {
    "markdown": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/index.md",
    "json": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/index.json",
    "bundleManifest": "/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/12/farming-food-and-climate-change-batini/bundle-manifest.json"
  },
  "generatedAtUtc": "2026-09-23T15:50:50.543Z"
}