Sweeping reforms to the global food system could restore half of the world degraded land, curb climate change, and revive biodiversity by mid-century, according to a new study published in Nature.
A team of 21 scientists warned that land degradation is accelerating worldwide, with severe consequences for food security, water resources, and ecosystems. The study sets out a package of reforms that, if adopted, could protect or recover 43.8 million square kilometres of land between 2020 and 2050 an area larger than Africa.
At the core of the recommendations are three shifts: restoring 50 per cent of degraded land, reducing food waste by 75 per cent, and replacing 70 per cent of red meat consumption from unsustainable sources with sustainably produced seafood.
The researchers stressed that once soils lose fertility, water tables drop, and biodiversity collapses, restoration becomes “exponentially more expensive.” Barron J Orr, Chief Scientist at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), warned that unchecked degradation fuels food and water insecurity, forced migration, social unrest, and rising inequality.
The study quantified for the first time how reforms could free up vast areas of land. Cutting food waste alone currently 33 per cent globally could spare 13.4 million sq km. Shifting diets toward ocean-based foods such as fish, molluscs and seaweed could release 17.1 million sq km of pasture and cropland, particularly in wealthier countries with high meat intake. Restoring 13 million sq km of cropland and non-cropland through sustainable management with the involvement of Indigenous communities, smallholder farmers, and women was highlighted as essential.
Lead author Fernando T Maestre of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology called the proposals “a bold, integrated set of actions to tackle land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change together, as well as a clear pathway for implementing them by 2050.”
Without intervention, the global food system will need to produce 34 per cent more food by 2050, placing unprecedented pressure on land and ecosystems, the paper warned.