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Urban Food Systems: How Regionalization Can Contribute to Climate Change Mitigation
journal contribution
posted on 2020-08-12, 09:13 authored by Prajal Pradhan, Steffen Kriewald, Luís Costa, Diego Rybski, Tim G. Benton, Günther Fischer, Jürgen P. KroppCities will play a key role in the
grand challenge of nourishing
a growing global population, because, due to their population density,
they set the demand. To ensure that food systems are sustainable,
as well as nourishing, one solution often suggested is to shorten
their supply chains toward a regional rather than a global basis.
While such regional systems may have a range of costs and benefits,
we investigate the mitigation potential of regionalized urban food
systems by examining the greenhouse gas emissions associated with
food transport. Using data on food consumption for 7108 urban administrative
units (UAUs), we simulate total transport emissions for both regionalized
and globalized supply chains. In regionalized systems, the UAUs’
demands are fulfilled by peripheral food production, whereas to simulate
global supply chains, food demand is met from an international pool
(where the origin can be any location globally). We estimate that
regionalized systems could reduce current emissions from food transport.
However, because longer supply chains benefit from maximizing comparative
advantage, this emission reduction would require closing yield gaps,
reducing food waste, shifting toward diversified farming, and consuming
seasonal produce. Regionalization of food systems will be an essential
component to limit global warming to well below 2 °C in the future.