The future of the global food system

TLDR

Food prices are near historic lows, yet global food security—providing healthy, environmentally sustainable diets for all—remains a growing concern. This article introduces a series of reviews that examine the key drivers of the global food system up to 2050. The reviews are organized into four thematic sets: demand drivers (population growth, consumption patterns, urbanization, income distribution), supply trends (crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, wild food), exogenous pressures (climate change, water, energy, land, ecosystem services), and cross‑cutting issues (economics, waste, health). The reviews conclude that sustainable food production can be advanced through current technologies if political will is sufficient, and that early investment in research is essential to address both known and emerging challenges.

Abstract

Although food prices in major world markets are at or near a historical low, there is increasing concern about food security-the ability of the world to provide healthy and environmentally sustainable diets for all its peoples. This article is an introduction to a collection of reviews whose authors were asked to explore the major drivers affecting the food system between now and 2050. A first set of papers explores the main factors affecting the demand for food (population growth, changes in consumption patterns, the effects on the food system of urbanization and the importance of understanding income distributions) with a second examining trends in future food supply (crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, and 'wild food'). A third set explores exogenous factors affecting the food system (climate change, competition for water, energy and land, and how agriculture depends on and provides ecosystem services), while the final set explores cross-cutting themes (food system economics, food wastage and links with health). Two of the clearest conclusions that emerge from the collected papers are that major advances in sustainable food production and availability can be achieved with the concerted application of current technologies (given sufficient political will), and the importance of investing in research sooner rather than later to enable the food system to cope with both known and unknown challenges in the coming decades.