Below we dive a little deeper into the content and resources available to support you in action on the selected “Big Opportunities” introduced in this Track. (Resource Hyperlinks are underlined)

1. FOOD SOURCING — Buy food from companies that use sustainable agricultural practices; implement those practices if you are an agricultural producer - Switch production if relevant or buy from agricultural operations which use carbon sequestration techniques, ecologically resilient practices, and regulate the overuse of nutrients and pesticides (especially nitrogen fertilizers). For a comprehensive overview of big picture trends and emerging solutions in global agriculture, refer to the World Resources Institute Synthesis Report “Creating a Sustainable Food Future” (WRI, 2019).

Source from agricultural operations deploying carbon sequestration techniques and ecologically resilient agricultural practices. Purchase food products derived from those practices. For sustainability information at a branded food-product level, a variety of rating/certification schemes exists to assist consumer choice and hypothetically reward best practices at a producer level through market disambiguation. Although many of these certification mechanisms may have a somewhat limited product catchment or lack some degree of face-value context that may be appropriate to your specific situation, they are generally useful (e.g., Rainforest Alliance Certified; USDA Certified Organic; Fairtrade USA; Global G.A.P., etc.). For broad proactive searches, the Environmental Working Group Food Scores Database maintains some limited environmental impact information searchable at a branded food-product level. Acknowledging a paucity of general food rating schemes which are publicly available AND take into account diverse sustainable land-use criteria, examples of private sector entities which provide in-depth criteria related to LCA and environmental/land-use impacts include Agri-Footprint and or HowGood databases/services—the author maintains no connections or affiliations with the latter two organizations)
Regulate the over usage of nutrients, pesticides & especially nitrogen fertilizers
Incentivize the increased usage of sustainable farming by smallholders and women agriculturalists (especially in the global south). On average, women make up 43% of the agricultural labor force globally and produce 60 to 80% of food crops in less developed parts of the world. However, inequality in support, capital, and development access for women because of lack of resource parity leaves almost half of the world’s agricultural labor force less efficient than what is achievable.
Facilitate equitable adaptation responses in global agriculture due to future climate change.

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2. FOOD EFFICIENCY — Reduce Food Waste & Increase Plant-rich Diets

Reduce global food waste—The foremost contributor to global emissions (Project Drawdown: Reducing Food Waste)
Increasing plant-rich diets increases the efficiency of land use by agriculture—said differently, the higher-up on the food chain your food product exists, the less efficient its production becomes, at both levels of ‘return on energy expenditure to nutritional output’ and ‘return on land-use to nutritional output’. A rule-of-thumb: every step up on the food chain above producers (or plants) requires roughly an order of magnitude more energy to derive similar nutritional output (e.g., the same amount of land and energy required to produce 10g of plant protein, will only produce 1g of animal protein). We save ourselves significant energy and land-use burdens when we are able to eliminate/reduce intermediate stages in our social nutritional procurement. Total emissions from global livestock supply chains represent roughly ~ 15% (7.1 Gigatons) of all human GHG emission (IPCC). See this UN FAO Factsheet Ensemble to learn more about sectorial and regional contributions of livestock to global emissions.

For more information on FOOD EFFICIENCY, please consult links provided by our expert lecturers in this topical area:

In addition to our Track specific expert Kate Schaffner (Manager of Kellogg’s Global Sustainable Agriculture), please see Climate Bootcamp lecture by Dana Gunders (Executive Director, ReFED) in the “Circular Value Chain” Track, focusing on how increasing plant-rich diets increases the efficiency of land use by agriculture

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3. CARBON SINKS & OFFSETS — Understand Carbon Sinks and Evaluate Carbon Offsets. Carbon offsets may provide value to ecosystems and managing the global carbon ledger broadly, but there are important considerations (verification, environmental justice, longevity, etc.). For example, simply purchasing carbon offsets does not allow you to fly as much as you want, behavior change still needed. But if there is no other alternative, carbon offsets can be a step. Additional helpful concepts when engaging carbon sinks and affiliated offsets include the following:

Stop clearing and transformation of high carbon-fixing ecosystems, many of which additionally house significant allotments of global biodiversity. Furthermore, encourage practices and enterprises that are linked to protection of high carbon-fixing ecosystems or promote utilization in a restored capacity. Priority ecosystems in need of strategic protection—or restoration if previously disturbed for human activities—include: Primary Forests (all global old growth forests, though especially in the tropics, sub-tropics and coastal mangroves, as well as old-growth temperate and boreal forests/ regions); Grasslands; Tropical Forest; Old-Growth Temperate Forest.
o For perspective on the rates of global deforestation, see Global Forest Watch
o For an applied business case towards valuing the array of services of the world’s forests, see The Staggering Value of Forests—and How to Save Them (BSG, 2020)
Incentivize the utilization of degraded and abandoned land for carbon sequestration. Cultivating carbon-fixing biomass on non-viable, former agricultural land will become increasingly relevant as new carbon off-set assets are sought within future carbon markets and cap-and-trade arrangements. Applied carbon fixation schemes include largely leveraging support and investment in the following arenas: Tree Plantations / Afforestation projects (on Degraded Land); Restoration of Abandoned Farmland (especially in developing regions); Bamboo Production / Plantations; Perennial Biomass Production; Ocean based Seaweed Farming and cultivation.
Protect Global Peatlands. Additionally, maintain integrity through at-scale peatland rewetting projects where necessary. Although these ecosystems only comprise 3% of the earth’s land area, they are second only to oceans in the amount of carbon they store—twice that held by the world’s forests. Disruption of any of their fixation potential through disturbance and/or significant ground moisture loss can result in immense greenhouse releases in very short amounts of time. In short, expressly avoid commercial engagements which necessitate the transformation or drainage of such ecosystems.
Promote general restoration, just expansion, and legal security of Indigenous Peoples’ forest tenure. Under indigenous peoples’ forest tenure, deforestation and emissions are significantly reduced, with deforestation and degradation rates significantly lower than the global average. Indigenous peoples have claim to large tracts of forest land around the world, and the current global trend is that indigenous peoples’ legal forest tenure is on the rise. Granting indigenous peoples and local communities secure tenure to manage their lands thus results in carbon benefits in the form of reduced emissions from deforestation and continued carbon sequestration (as well as biodiversity conservation benefits from preserved forests along with other synergies); it is also an important goal in the domain of restorative global justice to formally uplift indigenous land tenure, many modes of which were deeply fractured during the multiple centuries of colonialism and thereafter usurped by vested commercial interests and remain unresolved into the present day.
Invest in and incubate emerging forms of engineered carbon sequestration methods/technologies. Examples include large scale production of Biochar from waste biomass and atmospheric carbon recapture, although many of the technologies are still in their infancies

For more information on CARBON SINKS & OFFSETS, please consult links provided by our expert lecturers in this topical area:

Dr. Jonathan Foley, Project Drawdown (Session 2 Plenary Speaker)

“Carbon Offsets Should Make You Nervous”
“Supporting Sinks and Improving Society”

Kelly Hamrick, The Nature Conservancy (Food & Ecosystems Track Speaker)

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4. PROTECT & RESTORE ECOSYSTEMS — Understand that humans are part of an ecological system, and protection of all of the interconnected elements of that system is necessary for human survival and the survival of others in our shared biosphere

Stop deteriorating and land-transformation activities in ecosystems which house significant allotments of global biodiversity. This includes a broad range of ecosystems and contexts especially prevalent to the equatorial latitudes (Tropical Rainforests, Coral Reefs, Mangroves, etc.), but also applies to broader continental and global biogeographic systems (River & freshwater systems, estuaries, islands, etc.). For some perspective, tropical rainforests only constitute ~6% of global terrestrial land area, but may comprise nearly 80-90% of total global biodiversity (World Wildlife Fund), or types of biological species. In this way, it is important to note that although all ecosystems are invaluable within their specific contexts, they are not all equal in store-housing the endowment of biological diversity. Therefore, the geographies of certain human land-use activities generate distinctly different levels of impact on the integrity of the biosphere—so be contentious. See the WWF’s “Living Planet Report 2020” for more information on status, threats, and solutions to the world’s biodiversity crises. The “Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Policy Maker Summary” by IPBES (2019) provides similarly robust coverage in the areas of ecosystems, ecosystem services, and biosphere integrity as well.
In the OCEANS & FRESHWATER domain, actions towards protecting and restoring ecosystems may entail the following:
o Protect Coastal Wetlands & Facilitate Restoration
o Exclusively source sustainable seafood from trade certified and/or otherwise sustainably managed ocean fisheries and aquaculture operations (Marine Stewardship Council, Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Global Aquaculture Alliance, GLOBAL G.A.P, Seafood Watch, OceanWise, Goodfish Guide, etc.). FishChoice is a meta-aggregator of a variety of these seafood rating schemes and presents a good place to start a search/review at a product level.
o Advocate for the expansion of Marine Protected Areas
o Implement adaptation responsive ventures in coastal communities and labor centers—primarily with respect to known levels of sea level rise, extreme weather event resilience, and shifting economic sectors.
o Reduce marine ecosystem contamination—namely from agricultural runoff (fertilizer / pesticides), toxic chemical pollution, plastics, and other novel entities.

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4. INNOVATION in R&D — Support innovation in R&D by using Biomimicry to “Ask Nature” for answers to design questions. Reflect on best practices, often looking to the well-established proving ground of biological design honed through eons of natural selection. Understand ecosystem services currently being leveraged, acknowledge impacts, and seek solutions which deploy restorative ends, not simply substitutions for ecosystem services.

For More information on INNOVATION in R&D, please consult links provided by our expert lecturer, Lex Amore (Food & Ecosystems Track Speaker):

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5. POLICY — Advocate for policies that support regenerative agriculture, food efficiency, and protect and restore ecosystems in both land and water.

Blue New Deal

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For additional actions in the Food & Ecosystems sectors, please visit Project Drawdown’s detailed summary of options with respect to FOOD, AGRICULTURE & LAND USE; LAND SINKS, and COASTAL AND OCEAN SINKS

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Networking with Sustainability Leaders - June 14

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