We will convene a breadth of food system experts to assess prospects for net-zero emissions food systems with a goal of developing a foundation and roadmap for further research and emerging mitigation efforts, including in key regions such as the U.S., Europe, China, Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Rather than relying on previously published “black-box” scenarios of global food systems, we will begin with present emissions and systematically evaluate the potential for entirely avoiding and/or balancing those emissions by different means. In each case, we will also examine the socio-political, technological, and economic barriers, risks, opportunities, and trade-offs related to different approaches, and ultimately identify areas where further research and investment are both needed and warranted in order to support and accelerate transition to net-zero emissions food systems. Finally, we will assess demand trends for different categories of crops, livestock, fish, and algae to ensure that we are targeting the most relevant production systems.
Stabilizing Earth’s climate at any level will require net-zero emissions of longer-lived greenhouse gasses such as CO2 and N2O. Thus, even if societies successfully eliminate GHG emissions from energy systems, it is also critical to mitigate the substantial quantities of emissions related to food production, which will entail measures to avoid land-use emissions as well as protection and enhancements of terrestrial carbon sinks such that food system emissions are either entirely avoided or balanced by negative emissions. Yet a large share of the emissions related to food systems will be technologically difficult or costly to avoid/manage, and even where solutions are clear (e.g., stop deforestation), socio-economic and political barriers are often daunting and/or solutions may be at odds with other sustainability and development goals. This is especially the case because some of the major sources of land-use emissions—and biggest opportunities for nature-based negative emissions—are in low-income regions with large populations and without strong institutions or governance. Thus both the demand for food and the headwinds of climate change will increase.
The broad goals of this workshop are:
For example, discussions will cover a matrix of key emissions reduction options and major food types, in each case addressing region-specific opportunities and challenges. Major food types to be explored include cereals, oil crops, fruits and vegetables, livestock, and aquatic foods.
Emissions reductions levers to be explored across food types include:
Addressing these issues requires an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach, bridging multiple scientific communities and disciplines. The workshop will thus convene experts across domains of food system modeling, observation, and data science, spanning fields of climate mitigation, agronomy and plant biology, economics and behavioral science, chemistry and industrial structure, as well as policy and political economy. Experts across these fields have much to gain by interacting but rarely have funding to do so. Forging new solutions-oriented dialogues related to food system emissions will be a major outcome of the proposed workshop and project activities.
Other expected outcomes of this workshop include (but are not limited to):
Event Co-Chair
Event Co-Chair
The attendee list and participant profiles are regularly updated. For information on participant affiliation at the time of workshop, please refer to the historical roster. If you are aware of updates needed to participant or workshop records, please notify AGCI’s workshops team.
