Page 22 - FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change

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The long view: transforming the food system under the combined challenges of climate change and the environment
The role of nutrition must be explicitly factored into policy design. Promoting nutrition is multi-dimensional and requires diverse solutions. Farm policy, including crop research and development, should expand beyond big crops and focus more attention on smaller, more adapted local crops and varieties that can contribute to resilience, adaptation and healthier food for the majority of people.
In the long run, the challenges of climate change and sustainability require us to re-examine and introduce new ecological and economic tools, processes and values.
Bringing ecological economics into the future food system requires expanding sustainability metrics to cover a range of ecological indicators (including renewable energy use intensity). We need to develop strategies to minimize (non-renewable) energy consumption per calorie of food produced.
Achieving climate-compatible and agrifood systems requires expanding our metrics beyond productivity (currently measured per unit of land, or resource) to include ecological resource valuation, management and conservation. Because of the Jevons paradox, we need to accept regulatory mechanisms as necessary complements to productivity gains.
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security