Towards a healthy, sustainable, humane food and farming system

“High-input, resource-intensive farming systems, which have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, cannot deliver sustainable food and agricultural production. [We need] innovative systems that protect and enhance the natural resource base, while increasing productivity. [We need] a transformative process towards ‘holistic’ approaches, such as agroecology, agro-forestry ... and conservation agriculture, which also build upon indigenous and traditional knowledge.” UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2017

As shown in the above quote, the harmful impacts of intensive animal agriculture on the environment, biodiversity, human health and food security are now well-known. Added to that is the suffering caused to animals in industrial systems. This new report by Peter Stevenson, Chief Policy Advisor at Compassion in World Farming, looks at how we can instead bring about a food and farming renaissance, by:

• Replacing distorting economics with true cost accounting
• Ending hunger and increasing the productivity of small-scale farmers in the developing world in genuinely sustainable ways
• Producing food within planetary boundaries, using agro-ecological principles and methods
• Adopting health-orientated systems for rearing animals, instead of the current heavy reliance on antibiotics
• Diversifying our sources of protein: meat analogues and artificial meat
• Eating less and better meat and dairy products
• Empowering consumers by labelling meat, dairy products and eggs as to farming method

Read the overview report here: Towards a flourishing food system

Read the full report here: Towards a healthy, sustainable, humane food and farming system