Summary
This analysis quantifies safe operating spaces for food systems by translating planetary boundaries into specific budgets and constraints for global food production and consumption. The authors find that current food systems transgress all nine boundaries, with dominant impacts on biosphere integrity, land use, freshwater and nutrient cycling. The work identifies six critical intervention areas—emissions reduction, halting habitat conversion, fertiliser redistribution, pesticide and antibiotic restriction, and freshwater preservation—required to bring food systems within safe limits without compromising yields.
UK applicability
The findings are relevant to UK agricultural policy and food strategy, particularly regarding commitments to net-zero emissions, biodiversity net gain, and nutrient management. The boundaries framework could inform UK-specific sectoral targets for fertiliser use, pesticide reduction, and agricultural land-use planning, though UK-specific modelling would be needed to determine precise operating margins within these global budgets.
Key measures
Food system boundaries across nine planetary boundary domains (biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, climate change, novel entities, and others); greenhouse gas emissions budgets; fertiliser input distributions; pesticide and antibiotic use limits; freshwater flow preservation
Outcomes reported
The study calculated food system boundaries as proportional shares of nine planetary boundaries and proposed budgets across these boundaries. It assessed the extent to which global food systems currently transgress safe operating spaces and identified key interventions required to achieve sustainability.
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