The Problem With Food and Climate — and How To Fix It | Jonathan Foley | TED

It might surprise you to learn that the food we eat and the farms that grow it, and the landscapes we've cleared all contribute to climate change and contribute in a really, really big way. Our job today is to figure out what we can actually do about it.

Well, this is also kind of a tricky topic, in part because there are just so many variables at work and so many processes, but also it's a place of a lot of confusion and misinformation. So how are we going to move forward together and try to figure out something with clarity? Well, to do that, I like to listen to the data and see what it tells us and see what we can learn from it. And the first thing the data tells us about our food system is that it's really, really big. So let's take a look at this. This is the land that we use on Earth just to grow our crops, here in green. Here's the land we use to graze our animals, here in red. Together, that's a huge amount of land. It's about 38 percent of all the land there is on Earth. To put that in perspective, all the cities and suburbs on Earth cover less than one percent of Earth's land. This is 38. Now, of this 38, 29 of it is used for animals. Either to graze or to grow animal feed. So we have a huge footprint of agriculture, and a lot of it is devoted to the animal part of our agricultural systems.

So food dominates our planet and animals dominate the food system today. That's just data. That's just the truth. So what does this mean? It means that there's some massive environmental impacts just from the sheer real estate of our food system. And we have to acknowledge that whether it's the role of agriculture in driving biodiversity loss or water pollution or degrading ecosystems all over the world. It has a huge footprint. And that footprint doesn't end just on land or in water. It extends all the way to the atmosphere and our climate system. In fact, if you look at the emissions data from the IPCC, we find that agriculture, land use and the food system as a whole contribute about 22 percent of global emissions. That's comparable to the emissions from electricity or from industry. So this is a pretty big player. Let's look under the hood and see what's involved in this. Of this 22 percent of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the food system, there are four big players. The first is deforestation. That's about half of all those food emissions at 11 percent of global emissions. Eleven percent, that's a pretty big deal. To put that in perspective, the entire US economy emits 10 to 11 percent. Deforestation is even bigger, and we don't talk about this nearly enough. Second is methane from livestock. Now we hear a lot of jokes about what cows do and all that kind of thing, but the science is actually really clear. Livestock are a huge emitter of methane, and methane is a very big driver of climate change, and we have to make that connection. Third is basically industrial farming methods, especially overusing chemicals like fertilizers and treating soil really badly. We have to think about that too. And then finally we have rice production, another methane producer at around two percent. That's also going to be really important. So the first order all of those emissions, those 22 percent come from just those four things: deforestation, livestock, industrial farming methods and rice. So we're going to have to look at all those in some detail. But that's not all. Beyond these direct emissions of food, that 22 percent, there are some indirect ways the food system emits greenhouse gas as well. For example, discarded food might end up in a landfill somewhere rotting and producing methane. And that's counted over here in the industry column. And then we have to think about all the energy and materials it takes to grow food, and then later to process, transport, package and prepare it. That's counted elsewhere in the food system as well. So when we look at these data, it tells us that, yes, food releases 22 percent of greenhouse gases directly, but when we add all the other sources, it grows to something like 34 percent, roughly a third of all the greenhouse gases on Earth. So that means it's a third of the climate problem. In other words, we cannot solve climate change unless we also address the problems of food alongside fossil fuels and energy. So that's why we're here today, to talk about why food and climate are so connected. So we have a problem. And that problem is getting bigger because the emissions of food are rising. Even in countries like the United States, where emissions of other greenhouse gases are going down, in the US emissions, electricity are going down, in industry, they're going down. They're beginning to go down in buildings and transportation, but not in food. They're still going up. And that's true throughout the world. This is the most stubborn and difficult part of the whole climate puzzle. So we need to really take this seriously.

So basically, we have a crisis in food and climate because it's a huge emitter of greenhouse gases. It's getting worse. And it's a problem where there's a lot of confusion and kind of misinformation flowing around, and we don't often know what to do. So this is where we need a plan. We need a science-based plan that helps us move forward through the challenge of food and climate change. Well, what's the first step of the plan? The first step of the plan, always, in climate change, is to cut the emissions. Always, whether it's electricity or industry or transportation. You always start by cutting the primary pollution. Why? Well, one analogy we often use is a bathtub. If a bathtub is overflowing and pouring out into the floor or damaging your house, what's the first thing you do? You turn off the faucet, then you go look for the sponge to clean up the rest of the water. So let's turn off the faucet of pollution and turn down these huge sources. To do that, there are four key pillars we can follow to do it. The first is to be more efficient. Just like insulating buildings or driving hybrid cars, efficiency is a good place to start. So within the food system, we have a lot of opportunities for efficiency, especially by cutting food waste and food loss. And there's astonishing numbers here. It turns out about 30 to 40 percent of all the food grown on Earth is never eaten. So that means that 30 to 40 percent of all the land and water and greenhouse gases it took to grow food weren't even necessary. So cutting food waste turns out to be a big lever in stopping climate change. We also need to look at diets. Now this one gets a little bit tricky and people don't like to talk about it, but we're going to need to because it turns out some foods end up emitting a lot more greenhouse gases than others. Just look at the top things on this list of greenhouse gas emissions per pound of food. What do they all have in common? They're all animal products. And then look at beef at the top of the list. It's literally off the chart. And it emits 100 pounds of greenhouse gases for one pound of beef on average. Some of it is even more than that. Now just stop and think about that for just one second. It turns out a pound of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel there is, releases about four pounds of CO2, but producing one pound of beef produces 100 pounds of greenhouse gas. This makes beef the most climate-polluting substance you and I will normally encounter in our lives. So this is kind of a big deal. And that's one of the reasons among many, that shifting diets towards more plant-rich options is a good idea for climate. Now, it doesn't mean everybody goes vegan tomorrow. Even small, targeted changes can make a big, big difference.

We also have to think about ways of protecting forests and other ecosystems from being cleared. One of the things we have to be concerned about is commodity agriculture, especially clearing forests for more beef, more soybeans, which are used for animal feed, and palm oil. Those are some of the biggest clearers of tropical rainforest, and we have to look for those all over the world. And there are many ways we can stop deforestation and stop this clearing of forest. We can work with Indigenous communities to protect their land into the future. We can clean up global supply chains. We can fix global carbon markets. Many, many things we can do here. We also have to improve farming methods so we don’t emit as much from the farmer’s field. We can blend a lot of different techniques here, whether it borrows from organic agriculture or conventional or precision ag or whatever. We can borrow lots of good ideas and find ways to reduce emissions. One of the things we'll have to do is pay particular attention to fertilizers, because they're a big, big polluter, not only to the atmosphere but also to water. And some places in the world use way too much fertilizer, more than the crops could ever actually use. And it turns out those areas shown in yellow could dramatically lower their fertilizer use without affecting yields at all and improve emissions greatly. So there's some great opportunities here. And finally, we can fix the rest of the food system, whether it's in transportation, refrigeration, packaging, cooking food, all of that. And together, we have a whole system of solutions that improves efficiency, protect ecosystems from being cleared, improve the way we farm and improve the rest of the food system. These are all put together as kind of an ensemble of solutions and it works really, really well. Beyond cutting emissions, we can also remove some carbon in the food system as well. But just like other sectors, we have to be a little bit careful about carbon removal. It never takes the place of cutting emissions. Why? Well, in this case, because it starts off really, really small. All the carbon removal on land today is less than a 10th of a percent in the ag system, and we are emitting 22 percent. So it's small. Also, there's a limit to how much we can store in soils and vegetation and how long we can store it. So we have to be careful there. And we also want to make sure we never distract from the real job of cutting emissions in the first place. But nevertheless, we have some great opportunities to cut emissions and remove carbon and add these two new pillars. For example, we can rewild old agricultural lands, bringing them back to nature, whether it's forests or prairies or coastal ecosystems, or we can practice regenerative agriculture on our working lands and build up soil carbon and vegetation cover in ways that store carbon, improve soil health, and improve water quality in really great ways. So putting this all together, we have an enormous toolbox of solutions. First, cutting emissions and removing carbon through rewilding and regenerative agriculture. We have all these tools in this toolbox, and we should use them as a kind of combined effort, as a toolbox, as a portfolio. Because there's no silver-bullet solution to solving the food and climate dilemma at all. There just isn't one, I wish there was. But what we have to do is use this whole portfolio of solutions, have them work together and find a way forward. So how are we going to move forward here? Well, I think we actually have an incredible opportunity facing us today. While the food and climate crisis is an enormous challenge, of course, I also see it as an incredible opportunity. And that opportunity is to build an entirely better food system. We could have a food system that truly nourishes the world, today and into the future. We could have a food system that reduces pressure on nature and even help restore some of it. And we could have a food system that actually stops climate change. That's entirely possible and at our fingertips today. And we could do all of this at the same time. And what's so beautiful today is this is already possible. None of this requires some new technology. It requires us to change. That's it. And we just need to choose it. But if we do, we can follow the science, and we can collaborate across this whole range of solutions and actually unlock a much better future. Thank you very much. (Applause)