Achieving food security in the face of climate change

The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change has reviewed the scientific evidence to identify a pathway to achieving food security in the context of climate change. Food systems must shift to better meet human needs and, in the long term, balance with planetary resources. This will demand major interventions, at local to global scales, to transform current patterns of food production, distribution and consumption. Investment, innovation, and deliberate effort to empower the world's most vulnerable populations will be required to construct a global food system that adapts to climate change and ensures food security while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and sustaining our natural resource base.

Key Recommendations:

• Integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies
• Significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade
• Sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of agriculture
• Target populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity
• Reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits worldwide
• Reduce loss and waste in food systems, particularly from infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits
• Create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions