Food and Ecological Security: Identifying Synergy and Trade-offs - UNEP Policy Series Issue No. 4 June 2011

Food security is at the top of the global agenda. Almost half a century of growth in food production notwithstanding, 1 in 7 people today receive insufficient protein and energy from their diets. With the world’s population and food consumption on the rise, the pressure on the food supply system is growing. Greater urbanization and income in countries in which meat consumption has traditionally been low have sparked an upsurge in demand for meat, putting more pressure on land. These trends in demographic dynamics and consumption patterns, combined with the threat of climate change and irreversible ecosystem service degradation, lead to increased uncertainty regarding current food production models. The delivery of ecosystem services by agricultural ecosystems is becoming increasingly important, what with ever more land being put to agricultural use.