Biodiversity
The diversity of life in any given area creates ecosystems of interacting individual organisms, across many species, that collectively contribute to and support many key planetary processes.
‘Cheaper food’ paradigm
Humanity’s drive for increased productivity, and the failure to account for the impacts of food production on natural ecosystems and human health, have created vicious circles that incentivize the production of ever more food at ever lower cost.
Environmental externalities
Environmental externalities refer to the economic concept of uncompensated environmental effects of production and consumption.
Extensive agriculture
This term refers to agricultural production that uses fewer chemical and technology inputs compared to intensive agriculture and is thus more ‘nature friendly’. Yields tend to be lower – for example, crop yield per area of land – compared to those delivered using intensive methods, so the same output via extensive methods requires a larger land area.
Food system
Food systems include all elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructure, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, as well as the outputs of these activities, including their socio-economic and environmental impacts.
Food systems approach
A consideration of all of the elements that comprise a food system, from production through to post-consumer waste. Rather than focusing on one specific element, such as food production, a food system approach simultaneously takes all elements of a food system into account. It recognizes that changing agriculture can arise from intervening directly in agricultural practice, or through the market by changing demand.
Intensive agriculture
This form of agricultural production maximizes productivity per unit area, particularly through the use of chemical (fertilizer, pesticides etc.) and technology inputs, and typically has a high environmental cost per unit area. However, less land is needed to produce a given amount of food than is the case with extensive farming.
Nature-based solutions
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are solutions to climate change, biodiversity decline or other environmental challenges that also offer an important means of restoring natural infrastructure and ecosystems, including forests, wetlands and soils. For example, NBS can include forest regeneration to reduce local flood risks, store carbon and preserve biodiversity.
