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26899 | What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture? | env-impacts-of-food | post | publish | <!-- wp:html --> <div class="blog-info">Our World in Data presents the empirical evidence on global development in entries dedicated to specific topics.<br>This blog post draws on data and research discussed in our entries on <strong><a href="https://owid.cloud/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a></strong>; <strong><a href="https://owid.cloud/land-use">Land Use</a></strong>; and <strong><a href="https://owid.cloud/water-use-stress">Water Use and Stress</a></strong>.</div> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Food, energy and water: this is what the United Nations <a href="https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-food-and-energy/">refers to</a> as the ‘nexus’ of sustainable development. As the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">world’s population</a> has expanded and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-real-gdp-per-capita-across-countries-and-regions?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL">gotten richer</a>, the demand for all three has seen a rapid increase. Not only has demand for all three increased, but they are also strongly interlinked: food production requires <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress">water</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources">energy</a>; traditional energy production demands water resources; agriculture provides a potential energy source. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our latest series on <em>Our World in Data</em> focuses on the environmental impacts of food. Ensuring everyone in the world has access to a nutritious diet in a sustainable way is one of the greatest challenges we face. We cover the human aspects of food and nutrition in various entries, including <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">hunger and undernourishment</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency">micronutrient deficiency</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person">food per person</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/diet-compositions">diet compositions</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/obesity">obesity</a>. In this series we focus more on the environmental consequences.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp-block-tombstone 29603 --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture? </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualization here shows a summary of some of the main global impacts:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>Food accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987">Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers</a>. <em>Science</em>, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref};</li><li>Half of the world’s habitable (ice- and desert-free) land <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#breakdown-of-global-land-use-today">is used</a> for agriculture;</li><li>70% of global <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress">freshwater withdrawals</a> are used for agriculture{ref}FAO. (2011). <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i1688e.pdf">The state of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture (SOLAW) – Managing systems at risk</a>. <em>Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations</em>, Rome and Earthscan, London.{/ref};</li><li>78% of global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants) is caused by agriculture{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987">Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers</a>. <em>Science</em>, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref};</li><li>94% of mammal biomass (excluding humans) is livestock. This means livestock <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth">outweigh wild mammals</a> by a factor of 15-to-1.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Food, therefore, lies at the heart of trying to tackle climate change, reducing water stress, pollution, restoring lands back to forests or grasslands, and protecting the world’s wildlife. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":26901} --> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-768x683.png" alt="Bar chart of how much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (26%); habitable land use (50%); freshwater withdrawals (70%); eutrophication (78%) and total mammal biomass (94%) results from food and agriculture." class="wp-image-26901"/></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> | { "id": "wp-26899", "slug": "env-impacts-of-food", "content": { "toc": [], "body": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Our World in Data presents the empirical evidence on global development in entries dedicated to specific topics.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "spanType": "span-newline" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "This blog post draws on data and research discussed in our entries on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "children": [ { "url": "https://owid.cloud/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions", "children": [ { "text": "CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "; ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "children": [ { "url": "https://owid.cloud/land-use", "children": [ { "text": "Land Use", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "; and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "children": [ { "url": "https://owid.cloud/water-use-stress", "children": [ { "text": "Water Use and Stress", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Food, energy and water: this is what the United Nations ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-food-and-energy/", "children": [ { "text": "refers to", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " as the \u2018nexus\u2019 of sustainable development. 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", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": ", 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Food, therefore, lies at the heart of trying to tackle climate change, reducing water stress, pollution, restoring lands back to forests or grasslands, and protecting the world\u2019s wildlife.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "alt": "Bar chart of how much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (26%); habitable land use (50%); freshwater withdrawals (70%); eutrophication (78%) and total mammal biomass (94%) results from food and agriculture.", "size": "wide", "type": "image", "filename": "Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture.png", "parseErrors": [] } ], "type": "article", "title": "What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture?", "authors": [ "Hannah Ritchie" ], "excerpt": "Feeding the world whilst reducing food's impact on the environment is one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades.\n\nWhat are food's environmental impacts?", "dateline": "November 4, 2019", "subtitle": "Feeding the world whilst reducing food's impact on the environment is one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades.\n\nWhat are food's environmental impacts?", "sidebar-toc": false, "featured-image": "Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture.png" }, "createdAt": "2019-11-04T05:42:05.000Z", "published": false, "updatedAt": "2023-04-06T17:22:39.000Z", "revisionId": null, "publishedAt": "2019-11-04T11:00:05.000Z", "relatedCharts": [], "publicationContext": "listed" } |
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2019-11-04 11:00:05 | 2024-02-16 14:22:49 | 1V8Htr3MJUBohBg0VEKBW0TwTtuTMLuqT0Fu-r_ZH91c | [ "Hannah Ritchie" ] |
Feeding the world whilst reducing food's impact on the environment is one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades. What are food's environmental impacts? | 2019-11-04 05:42:05 | 2023-04-06 17:22:39 | https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture.png | {} |
Our World in Data presents the empirical evidence on global development in entries dedicated to specific topics. This blog post draws on data and research discussed in our entries on **[CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions](https://owid.cloud/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions)** ; **[Land Use](https://owid.cloud/land-use)** ; and **[Water Use and Stress](https://owid.cloud/water-use-stress)** . Food, energy and water: this is what the United Nations [refers to](https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-food-and-energy/) as the ‘nexus’ of sustainable development. As the [world’s population](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth) has expanded and [gotten richer](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-real-gdp-per-capita-across-countries-and-regions?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL), the demand for all three has seen a rapid increase. Not only has demand for all three increased, but they are also strongly interlinked: food production requires [water](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress) and [energy](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources); traditional energy production demands water resources; agriculture provides a potential energy source. Our latest series on _Our World in Data_ focuses on the environmental impacts of food. Ensuring everyone in the world has access to a nutritious diet in a sustainable way is one of the greatest challenges we face. We cover the human aspects of food and nutrition in various entries, including [hunger and undernourishment](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment), [micronutrient deficiency](https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency), [food per person](https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person), [diet compositions](https://ourworldindata.org/diet-compositions) and [obesity](https://ourworldindata.org/obesity). In this series we focus more on the environmental consequences. What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture? The visualization here shows a summary of some of the main global impacts: * Food accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). [Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987). _Science_, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref}; * Half of the world’s habitable (ice- and desert-free) land [is used](https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#breakdown-of-global-land-use-today) for agriculture; * 70% of global [freshwater withdrawals](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress) are used for agriculture{ref}FAO. (2011). [The state of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture (SOLAW) – Managing systems at risk](http://www.fao.org/3/a-i1688e.pdf). _Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations_, Rome and Earthscan, London.{/ref}; * 78% of global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants) is caused by agriculture{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). [Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987). _Science_, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref}; * 94% of mammal biomass (excluding humans) is livestock. This means livestock [outweigh wild mammals](https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth) by a factor of 15-to-1.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). [The biomass distribution on Earth](https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506). _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref} Food, therefore, lies at the heart of trying to tackle climate change, reducing water stress, pollution, restoring lands back to forests or grasslands, and protecting the world’s wildlife. <Image filename="Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture.png" alt="Bar chart of how much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (26%); habitable land use (50%); freshwater withdrawals (70%); eutrophication (78%) and total mammal biomass (94%) results from food and agriculture."/> | { "id": 26899, "date": "2019-11-04T11:00:05", "guid": { "rendered": "https://owid.cloud/?p=26899" }, "link": "https://owid.cloud/env-impacts-of-food", "meta": { "owid_publication_context_meta_field": { "latest": true, "homepage": true, "immediate_newsletter": true } }, "slug": "env-impacts-of-food", "tags": [], "type": "post", "title": { "rendered": "What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture?" }, "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/26899" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post" } ], "author": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/users/17", "embeddable": true } ], "curies": [ { "href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}", "name": "wp", "templated": true } ], "replies": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=26899", "embeddable": true } ], "wp:term": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=26899", "taxonomy": "category", "embeddable": true }, { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=26899", "taxonomy": "post_tag", "embeddable": true } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=26899" } ], "version-history": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/26899/revisions", "count": 7 } ], "wp:featuredmedia": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media/26901", "embeddable": true } ], "predecessor-version": [ { "id": 56625, "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/26899/revisions/56625" } ] }, "author": 17, "format": "standard", "status": "publish", "sticky": false, "content": { "rendered": "\n<div class=\"blog-info\">Our World in Data presents the empirical evidence on global development in entries dedicated to specific topics.<br>This blog post draws on data and research discussed in our entries on <strong><a href=\"https://owid.cloud/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a></strong>; <strong><a href=\"https://owid.cloud/land-use\">Land Use</a></strong>; and <strong><a href=\"https://owid.cloud/water-use-stress\">Water Use and Stress</a></strong>.</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Food, energy and water: this is what the United Nations <a href=\"https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-food-and-energy/\">refers to</a> as the \u2018nexus\u2019 of sustainable development. As the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth\">world\u2019s population</a> has expanded and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-real-gdp-per-capita-across-countries-and-regions?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL\">gotten richer</a>, the demand for all three has seen a rapid increase. Not only has demand for all three increased, but they are also strongly interlinked: food production requires <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress\">water</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources\">energy</a>; traditional energy production demands water resources; agriculture provides a potential energy source.\u00a0</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our latest series on <em>Our World in Data</em> focuses on the environmental impacts of food. Ensuring everyone in the world has access to a nutritious diet in a sustainable way is one of the greatest challenges we face. We cover the human aspects of food and nutrition in various entries, including <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">hunger and undernourishment</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency\">micronutrient deficiency</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person\">food per person</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/diet-compositions\">diet compositions</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/obesity\">obesity</a>. In this series we focus more on the environmental consequences.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are the environmental impacts of food and agriculture? </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization here shows a summary of some of the main global impacts:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Food accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). <a href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987\">Reducing food\u2019s environmental impacts through producers and consumers</a>. <em>Science</em>, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref};</li><li>Half of the world\u2019s habitable (ice- and desert-free) land <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/land-use#breakdown-of-global-land-use-today\">is used</a> for agriculture;</li><li>70% of global <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress\">freshwater withdrawals</a> are used for agriculture{ref}FAO. (2011). <a href=\"http://www.fao.org/3/a-i1688e.pdf\">The state of the world\u2019s land and water resources for food and agriculture (SOLAW) \u2013 Managing systems at risk</a>. <em>Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations</em>, Rome and Earthscan, London.{/ref};</li><li>78% of global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants) is caused by agriculture{ref}Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). <a href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987\">Reducing food\u2019s environmental impacts through producers and consumers</a>. <em>Science</em>, 360(6392), 987-992.{/ref};</li><li>94% of mammal biomass (excluding humans) is livestock. This means livestock <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth\">outweigh wild mammals</a> by a factor of 15-to-1.{ref}Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). <a href=\"https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506\">The biomass distribution on Earth</a>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 115(25), 6506-6511.{/ref}</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Food, therefore, lies at the heart of trying to tackle climate change, reducing water stress, pollution, restoring lands back to forests or grasslands, and protecting the world\u2019s wildlife. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"683\" src=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-768x683.png\" alt=\"Bar chart of how much of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (26%); habitable land use (50%); freshwater withdrawals (70%); eutrophication (78%) and total mammal biomass (94%) results from food and agriculture.\" class=\"wp-image-26901\" srcset=\"https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-768x683.png 768w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-400x355.png 400w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-619x550.png 619w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-150x133.png 150w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-1536x1365.png 1536w, https://owid.cloud/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture.png 1635w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" /></figure>\n", "protected": false }, "excerpt": { "rendered": "Feeding the world whilst reducing food’s impact on the environment is one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades.\n\nWhat are food’s environmental impacts?", "protected": false }, "date_gmt": "2019-11-04T11:00:05", "modified": "2023-04-06T18:22:39", "template": "", "categories": [ 1 ], "ping_status": "closed", "authors_name": [ "Hannah Ritchie" ], "modified_gmt": "2023-04-06T17:22:39", "comment_status": "closed", "featured_media": 26901, "featured_media_paths": { "thumbnail": "/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-150x133.png", "medium_large": "/app/uploads/2019/11/Environmental-impacts-of-agriculture-768x683.png" } } |