The war in Ukraine has rekindled the debate about food security and self-sufficiency. Proposals based on further intensification and increased production as the appropriate response to the associated supply crises disregard the negative environmental impacts of this approach. Proposals to reduce dependencies on inputs such as mineral fertilisers and fossil fuels, with a massive expansion of extensive production systems such as organic agriculture, overlook the fact that these systems produce lower yields.
In their article in Swiss Articultural Research, FiBL researcher Adrian Müller and his colleagues draw the following conclusions:
- A vision for the future of food and agriculture in Switzerland and the EU is emerging: less livestock, less waste, more cropland to produce food directly instead of producing animal feed.
- This will require a radical and long-term transformation of food systems. But we can – and must – act now.
- The war in Ukraine is an additional reason to act now by identifying the steps that will be necessary for this transformation in the coming years and progressing the restructuring process.
- Even initial steps towards reducing animal feed production on cropland would create new opportunities to respond to short-term supply crises.
The full article is available on the Swiss Agricultural Research website.
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Links
- agrarforschungschweiz.ch: Scientific article "Für krisentauglichere Ernährungssysteme: weniger tierische Produkte, weniger Abfälle" (in German)
- agrarforschungschweiz.ch: Article "Less Meat, Less Waste ‒ War and Crises Are a Call for Change"