New research shows the world isn’t doing nearly enough to fix its food problem

A new report finds the world is falling far short of goals meant to fix global food systems, including targets set a decade ago by United Nations countries to end hunger and poverty, plus climate goals from the Paris Agreement. The deadline for most of these targets is 2030, and researchers behind the study say hitting that date is now nearly impossible for most measures.

The report, from the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, tracks about 50 measures across nearly every country, from the cost of healthy food to farm yields to greenhouse gas emissions tied to growing and producing food. Farming and food production make up roughly a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and the report finds those emissions are still rising rather than falling. To hit net-zero emissions from food systems by 2030, every region of the world would need to speed up its progress by about 70 percent a year for the next four years, something the lead researcher called essentially impossible. She notes, though, that some individual countries are doing better than their region as a whole.

The researchers also looked at what happens if the deadline moves to 2050 instead of 2030, and found the world looks much closer to reaching its nutrition and environmental goals on that timeline. That doesn't mean the next few years don't matter, the researchers say, but it does suggest the focus should be less on hitting an exact date and more on building steady, realistic progress. This is a global policy story rather than one with a specific step for homeowners to take right now.