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Greening the Economy with Agriculture

Greening the Economy with Agriculture – Although UN Member States have not yet come to an agreement on the definition of the green economy, they recognize that an efficient, functioning economy is a precondition for addressing the environmental and social pillars of sustainability.

Therefore, the green economy is seen as a key implementation tool for sustainable development. UNEP defines the green economy as one that results in “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental and ecological scarcities”.

GEA refers to ensuring the right to adequate food, as well as food and nutrition security – in terms of food availability, access, stability and utilization – and contributing to the quality of rural livelihoods, while efficiently managing natural resources and improving resilience and equity throughout the food supply chain, taking into account countries’ individual circumstances.

GEA can be achieved by applying an ecosystem approach to agriculture, forestry and fisheries management in a manner that addresses the multiplicity of societal needs and desires, without jeopardizing the options for future generations to benefit from the full range of goods and services provided by terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems.

Therefore, GEA strives to:

• achieve food and nutrition security through an appropriate balance between domestic production and trade.

• contribute to achieving the right to adequate food for all;

• ensure decent rural livelihoods.

• use traditional and scientific knowledge to maintain healthy ecosystems that integrate food production and respect natural resource constraints.

Greening the Economy with Agriculture

GEA means that the entire food supply system needs to become resilient to the harmful effects of climate change and macro-economic shocks in the face of growing global population and food demand, which will require fundamental shifts in the approach to the food and nutrition systems.

No green economy without food and nutrition security

The agricultural sector – including crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and food processing – will play a vital role in the transition to a green economy. Croplands, pastures and forests occupy 60 percent of terrestrial land, agriculture uses 70 percent of globally withdrawn freshwater, and the sector as a whole provides livelihoods for 40 percent of the world’s population. The agricultural sector depends heavily on natural resources for its production processes and can both cause environmental harm and provide environmental benefits.

While current practices contribute to over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, good management practices can result in an almost carbon-neutral sector, as well as the creation of environmental services and the generation of renewable energy, while also achieving food security. The agricultural sector can also be an engine for economic development and the creation of millions of green jobs, especially in the poorest countries.

Consequently, there can be no green economy without the agricultural sector. At the same time, food and nutrition security will have to be achieved as an integral part of the green economy. This is because food and agriculture systems are threatened by climate change, resource degradation and poverty – the same problems that the green economy is designed to tackle.

Only an economic system that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, will be able to deliver food security for over nine billion people, by 2050, in a resource-constrained world.

Green jobs for smallholders

Small rural households, which still constitute two-fifths of humanity, are increasingly under pressure and agricultural employment and opportunities have to be increased in a green economy.

Out-migration from rural areas is expanding urban slums, with concurrent inability of these poor urban dwellers to access food and water. Support to smallholders is essential to both achieving food security and preserving natural resources.

Farming, forestry and fisheries operations in both developed and developing countries play a fundamental role in the provision of landscape management and the provision of
ecological and cultural services.

More diverse food systems and off-farm diversification – such as value addition, rural-urban food networks, Agri- and eco-tourism, small-scale forest-based enterprises – offer livelihood opportunities in employment-scarce settings (especially, but not only, in least developed countries), while improving land stewardship.

Sustainability through nutritious diets

In a world facing increasing competition for scarce resources (e.g. water), resource degradation (e.g. soils), increased uncertainty (e.g. climate change), volatility (e.g. fuel and food prices), conflict (e.g. land tenure) and wastage (e.g. one third of all food is lost during post-harvest handling and retailing), food and nutrition security has become an issue of efficiency, resilience to shocks and distributional equity.

The problem of undernourishment, with roughly one billion people going hungry, is super-imposed by the problem of micronutrient malnutrition, with roughly 1.7 billion people 1. overweight and obese. At both ends of the spectrum, individuals are not deriving sufficient nutrition from their diets.

Improving nutrition through better diets can also reduce the ecological impact of dietary choices. A shift to more sustainable diets would trigger upstream effects on the food production (e.g. diversification) and processing chain.

Improved diets, in terms of micro-nutrients density and quality will be more sustainable, resulting in substantial gains for both the environmental and public health.

Accounting for environmental and social impacts through full-cost pricing of food

Making the transition to GEA will require reflecting the true costs – economic, environmental and social – of different systems in the price of products. This entails internalizing external costs associated with resource depletion and environmental degradation and setting of incentives that encourage sustainable and resilient practices that create positive externalities (e.g. payments for environmental services).

Markets and trade will play an important role to create a level playing field, especially for poor producers in developing countries. Scaling up social protection systems will be needed to protect vulnerable groups from adverse effects of changes in relative prices.

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