Nature study finds cutting food waste by 75% and replacing most unsustainable red meat with sustainable seafood could spare 30m sq km of land by 2050.
Combined with restoration, these reforms could recover or protect 43.8 million sq km, an area larger than Africa.
Scientists recommend restoring half of degraded land, reducing waste, and shifting diets, with a focus on Indigenous and smallholder farmers.
Without change, food production will need to rise by 34% by 2050, worsening climate, biodiversity and social crises.
Sweeping reforms to the global food system could reverse environmental damage, curb climate change and restore biodiversity by mid-century, according to a new study in the journal Nature.
A team of 21 scientists warned that land degradation is accelerating globally, with serious consequences for climate, biodiversity and food security. They set out a package of reforms which, if implemented, could restore half of the world’s degraded land by 2050.
For the first time, the study quantified how cutting food waste by 75 per cent and shifting from land-intensive animal-based diets to sustainable ocean-based food could collectively free up 30 million square kilometres of land. Combined with restoration efforts, these changes could protect or recover 43.8 million sq km between 2020 and 2050 — an area larger than Africa.
If current trends continue, the global food system will need to produce 34 per cent more food by 2050, the paper said.
“Once soils lose fertility, water tables deplete, and biodiversity is lost, restoring the land becomes exponentially more expensive. Ongoing rates of land degradation contribute to a cascade of mounting global challenges, including food and water insecurity, forced relocation and population migration, social unrest, and economic inequality,” co-author Barron J Orr, UNCCD’s Chief Scientist, said.
The authors recommend three major shifts.
Restoring 50 per cent of degraded land.
Reducing food waste by 75%.
Replacing 70% of unsustainably produced red meat with sustainably sourced seafood.
The first recommendation is reviving 13 million sq km — 3 million sq km of cropland and 10 million sq km of non-cropland — through sustainable land management involving Indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers, women and other vulnerable communities. Agricultural subsidies should shift from large-scale industrial farming to sustainable smallholders, with support for access to technology, secure land rights and fair markets.
Further, around 33 per cent of food is currently wasted – 14 per cent post-harvest and 19 per cent at retail, food service and household level. Reducing this through policies, banning cosmetic standards that reject “ugly” produce, encouraging donations, and improving storage and transport for small farmers in developing countries could spare about 13.4 million sq km of land.
Lastly, red meat from unsustainable production uses vast amounts of land, water and feed, and generates high greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing 70 per cent of it with sustainably sourced fish, molluscs and seaweed could free 17.1 million sq km of pasture and cropland. Even substituting 10 per cent of vegetable intake with seaweed products could release more than 0.4 million sq km. The authors noted these dietary shifts are mainly relevant for wealthier nations with high meat consumption, as in some poorer regions animal products remain essential for nutrition.
“This paper presents 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,” lead author Fernando T Maestre of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, said.