Agriculture and food systems for a sustainable future: an integrated approach

Agriculture and food systems are at the centre of the debates around post-2015 development goals and targets. Hunger and food insecurity remain major development priorities, made worse by climate change, price volatility in globalised food markets and over-consumption in wealthy countries. Existing agriculture and food systems are central to sustaining poor people’s livelihoods and are technically capable of producing adequate food for all, but they place major stress on environmental assets including soils, water, fisheries and biodiversity. Post-2015 goals and agendas need to support a transformation of food systems to make them more productive, environmentally sustainable and resilient while preserving and enhancing these livelihood benefits. The agroecological and agroindustrial technical solutions to that challenge are well advanced, but the systemic political, economic and social barriers to change are substantial and under-appreciated.