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Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds

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By illuminem briefings

· 2 min read


illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Guardian or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: A comprehensive economic study suggests that transforming the global food system could yield up to $10 trillion in annual benefits, improve health, and significantly mitigate the climate crisis
The current food system is found to be more destructive than beneficial, contributing to environmental and medical costs.

🔭 The context: Food systems are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and are a major factor in climate change, leading to potentially catastrophic temperature rises
The study, likened to the influential Stern review on climate change, emphasizes the enormous hidden costs in the current food system, including impacts on human health and environmental degradation.

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: The study highlights the severe environmental impact of current food practices, including their contribution to global warming, biodiversity loss, and excessive freshwater use
A reformed food system could be a significant step towards reducing these impacts and achieving global sustainability goals.

⏭️ What's next: The proposed transformation includes shifting subsidies from harmful large-scale monocultures to sustainable practices, changing diets, and investing in efficient technologies
This could eradicate undernutrition, decrease premature deaths, and limit global warming, but it requires significant economic investment and political will.

💬 One quote: "The global food system holds the future of humanity on Earth in its hand," said Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the study's authors.

📈 One stat: The hidden costs of the current food system, including its impact on climate change, health, and natural resources, are estimated at $15 trillion.

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