The current food system has tremendous negative impact on the environment, biodiversity, water, soil and ecosystem resilience. It is also the cause of growing economic and social costs for small scale farmers and especially Indigenous peoples.
By 2050, the global population is predicted to reach 9 billion individuals and demand for food will increase to double the demand today. At the same time, agricultural and forest land needed to meet the growing food demand will not increase, and might even decrease due to trends in land conversion.
Moreover, the loss of biodiversity, including genetic diversity, and the disappearing of the related traditional knowledge of Indigenous and local communities, will undermine many agricultural systems at local level so that they will be more vulnerable to food and water crises. Fewer varieties of cultivated plants and animals are planted and raised in the world today to meet food needs. The reduced diversity of food crops results in the loss of resilience of agricultural ecosystems.