Assessing environmental impacts of response strategies for sustainable food system transformation

The global food system is recognized as the largest source of pressure on the Earth's stability, and there is a pressing need for a swift global transformation toward a sustainable food system, which is also crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement goals. While various response strategies have been developed to achieve the sustainable food system, it remains unclear how different response strategies and their combinations interactively affect global environmental functions. Here, we use a system dynamics-based integrated assessment model to quantitatively assess the effects of five representative response strategies, which are well-recognized to be potential for achieving a sustainable food system, and their combinations on the global environment. We use six boundary indicators, corresponding to six key Earth system processes and indicating the safe-operating spaces of the global food system, to define the global environmental performance. Our results show that the effects of response strategies may have a synergistic effect or counterbalance. While some individual strategies are sufficient to maintain certain boundary indicators within their safe zones, only the combination of all strategies can simultaneously prevent all boundary indicators from entering high-risk zones. More coordinated solutions within and outside the global food system are required to restore all boundary indicators to their safe zones.