SOS: A comprehensive food revolution is urgently needed. By Eva Saldaña, Executive Director of Greenpeace Spain

By Eva Saldaña, Executive Director of Greenpeace Spain

Food is a universal human right, not an excuse for profit for a few at the expense of general harm. With the climate crisis accelerating, the energy transition, despite its imperfections, is at least underway. But, unfortunately, it is insufficient if the other pending transition : the food transition, is not addressed . We urgently need to ask ourselves: What will we be eating in 2050? Who will produce our food? On what soil and with what water will it be grown? Will anything alive remain in the sea?

There is a serious global food crisis, in which the breached planetary boundaries, including the climate emergency and biodiversity loss, are intertwined with an economic and debt crisis, a health crisis, and a geopolitical crisis. All of this fosters a fragile system, highly dependent on imported resources, making it vulnerable and not very self-sufficient. The current food system is disconnected from the territory , generating negative impacts on ecosystems, rural areas, human health, and animal welfare. It is failing to adapt to the conditions of climate change, such as rising temperatures and water scarcity.

Multiple impacts of a model on the brink of collapse

This translates into a completely unviable model, with increased greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of water resources, land grabbing and abuse, soil destruction, reduction of biodiversity, and water and soil pollution, a profitability crisis for those who work on land and at sea, a deterioration in the diet for consumers, and growing food insecurity.

This situation is maintained thanks to a legislative and political framework that prioritizes increasingly large companies and investment funds, which practice intensive models entirely dependent on inputs produced in third countries and orient their agricultural and fishing activities toward global markets dominated by unequal competition based on purely economic criteria. In this way, they focus their production on "commodities," not food. The result: price fluctuations, devaluation of primary-sector labor, and a lack of generational renewal. It also affects the rest of the population, through our diets, which are increasingly unhealthy and increasingly determined by market prices. We are facing a model on the brink of collapse.

Warning signs: until when?

We see it in our daily lives: olive oil jugs turned into alarming luxury items, the European Union losing almost 40% of its small and medium-sized farmers in just 15 years, the Amazon devastated by the Santander-funded meat giant JBS, the alarming decline of pollinators due to pesticides, overexploited fishing grounds, entire villages without water due to nitrate contamination from slurry on mega-farms, shellfish gatherers warning that they will be the last generation, entire fields devastated by DANA in the Mediterranean, tractor-trailers blocking main roads throughout Europe, a quarter of the food produced for human consumption going straight to the trash, and more than 600 million people facing hunger by 2030.

But is there a solution to this utter absurdity? Yes, although the current system has brought us to the brink of collapse, we still have time to avoid the fall: it's time to take action and launch a comprehensive food transition in Spain. And how? With a model that is sustainable, fair, healthy, and socially viable.

We need a true food revolution . At Greenpeace, we've been working for two years, in direct dialogue with committed people in agriculture, livestock, and fishing, and with the help of science, to develop the Sustainable Food Model we're presenting these days, with five powerful levers for change and 32 proposals to advance the comprehensive food transition.

Adapted production, sustainable fishing and a healthy diet

We are talking about a model that encompasses both production and consumption, and is committed to a 100% agroecological approach to agricultural production by 2050, with practices adapted to the local environment and responsible use of water, favoring traditional rainfed crops and native breeds . The non-use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, as well as a drastic reduction in intensive livestock farming with fewer pigs and more extensive agroecological livestock farming . In the marine sector, it is committed to sustainable fishing and aquaculture with low environmental impact and high social value. All of these practices have a positive impact on a range of socio-environmental indicators, including population retention in rural and coastal environments, food security, and employment. They also foster the biocultural knowledge necessary to better adapt to climate change and bioregional conditions within the Mediterranean climate.

With the proposed model, the food system would go from being the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2050 to becoming, at least in Spain, a carbon sink, with 116% fewer emissions. Food waste would be reduced by more than half, and the population's access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods for all would be guaranteed, based on a planetary health diet, which prioritizes the consumption of plant-based foods, an increase in legumes, and a reduction in animal-based foods. Water pollution by nitrates would cease to be a problem, decreasing by 57%, and biodiversity would be enhanced. All this would generate a 35% increase in employment overall in the sector , which, combined with appropriate policies, would foster generational renewal and the real inclusion of women.

Given the horizon, it is therefore urgent to establish a clear roadmap accompanied by participatory governance: articulating resources, financing, deliberative processes, and coherent and ambitious public policies that promote the creation of robust social networks to support long-term food transformation processes, as well as integrating food into broader urban policies, such as climate, housing, transportation, and health. Otherwise, the scenario we face will become increasingly unsustainable and with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Do we want to eat in 2050? We definitely do. Transforming the entire food cycle holistically, involving all stakeholders, would place us at the forefront of environmental and social sustainability. It's more urgent and necessary than ever to sow alternative futures.

Eva Saldaña

Executive Director of Greenpeace Spain

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