The European Academies Science Advisory Council, or EASAC for short, is a nongovernmental organization based out of Europe that aims to mitigate the issues hindering agricultural environmental sustainability. In recent years, it is becoming more apparent that Europe’s current approach to their food systems, agricultural methods, and the overall region’s environment is not sustainable. Aware of the unfortunate situation, the European Academies Science Advisory Council’s addresses these issues Europe is undergoing and urges policy makers to “promote a sustainable and prosperous countryside for Europe, as well as increasing awareness relating to environmental and agricultural issues,” (EASAC). According to the European Academics Science Advisory Council, an integrative food systems approach encompassing all the steps from growing, processing, transporting, trading, purchasing, consuming, and avoiding waste is extremely needed to promote future sustainability in the region.
One of EASAC’s focuses working towards getting Europe back on the sustainable train is acknowledging climate change and its effects on their food and agriculture. In recent years, the detrimental effects of climate change have become more apparent, but many farmers and agricultural persons are just now working towards ways of mitigating the impacts impacts on the sustainability of food systems in Europe. One solution, encouraged by EASAC, the need for “introducing climate-smart agriculture” as a way to reduce the negative impacts of climate change (sciencedailiy). For example, one climate-smart agricultural practice the EASAC urges farmers to adopt is plant breeding enhancements to help cope with the dry seasons of little rain. These dry seasons and hot seasons are only going to increase with time. Therefore, climate change is a threat to livestock production because of its impact on feed crop and forage, water availability, livestock diseases and biodiversity, and overall, the sustainability of agriculture in Europe.
On the other hand, it should also be said that farming itself contributes sustainability to climate change. Alleviating this depends on land sparing, and smart agronomic management practices. EASAC puts efforts forward another solution to influence positive options for consumer behaviors associated with excessive greenhouse emissions, namely coming from meat consumptions and excessive food waste. Global demand for livestock products is expected to double by 2050 (sciencedirect). This means not only a double in high meat consumption, but also waste production, which in turn will increase the already observed effects of climate change such as longer dry seasons.
Greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise and with livestock being a main contributor to the percent’s, it is important to acknowledge when working to mitigate its negative impacts on agriculture. According to sciencedirect, “the livestock sector contributes 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, driving further climate change.” This makes livestock a key focus in alleviating emissions to improve both global food security in Europe as well as the rest of the globe. The EASAC works towards transitioning European livestock farms into sustainable productions as they recognize the need for policies that support the implementation of climate change and mitigation measures. Moreover, the EASAC helps European farmers to find alternative protein sources in hopes of mitigating the emission problems that comes from producing large quantities of livestock.
The European Academies Science Advisory Council’s second goal targets consumers of high meat consummation in hopes of educating them that their behavior needs must also be adjusted. In doing this, the EASAC hopes to decrease the demand for high protein livestock and therefore decrease the production of it, which then would decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that affect the overall sustainability of European’s agricultural environment. There is a dual benefit for European’s that are looking to change their dietary practices and meat consumption. Both benefits to their overall health of themselves and their environment by alleviating harmful greenhouse gas emissions that would come from adjusting the consumptions patterns. High consumption countries in meat and dairy, namely Europe, need to be modified in order to avoid issues such as overconsumption and obesity, and rather instead to promote healthier diets and practices.
One option suggested by the European Academies Science Advisory Council is the adoption of World Health Organization guidance on healthy diets. Adopting this among Europeans would “reduce the regions mortality by up to 10% and food-related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70% by 2050” (science direct). Obesity remains one of Europe’s main public health issues, and EASAC offers information of new innovative diets to help mitigate the problem. For example, different types of insects can be great substitutes for high protein diets without causing overconsumption and obesity. For those that aren’t interested in the insect option, EASAC also offers substituting high protein meats with substitute sources such as cell-cultured meat. Both of these practices, EASAC projects, will form part of the Food 2030 agenda. Overall, not only would less consumption of high protein livestock be practiced, but the EASAC goal working towards transitioning European livestock farms into sustainable productions would become more recognized.
In addition to changing Europe’s dietary patterns, the EASAC third main focus aims to implement the latest agricultural practices and technologies to serve sustainability needs in the future of food production in Europe. Not only would these new technologies help farmers, but it would also increase the yields and quality of production, which then increases the sustainability of Europe’s agricultural environment. As the technology of our world advances, so do many of the farming practices today, and many farmers find it hard to adapt or keep up with the changing technologies. Many may even find it easier to work within the older, more traditional practices. However, the EASAC is pushing for policy makers to adopt newer technologies such as products based on genomics innovations. The EASAC notes how beneficial the adoption of new technologies will be for farmers hoping to mitigate climate change, and to also increase their yields and overall quality of their products. In turn, this will then only benefit Europe’s sustainability of their agricultural environment.
Moreover, according “Europe’s current approach to food, agriculture, and the environment is not sustainable,” an article published by Science Daily, “large data sets based on comparable and verifiable methodology, are a vital tool to support innovation throughout the food system and to prepare for risk and uncertainty” (sciencedaily). EASAC highly stresses the importance of precision agriculture in creating a sustainable agricultural environment. Precision agriculture is an important site specific crop management concept for European farms focusing on autonomous agriculture, aquaponics, and hyperspectral imaging to detect plant diseases. Precision agriculture allows farmers to better observe, measure, and respond to inter and intra-field variability in crops. The EASAC’s goal is to promote a better understanding of the benefits of research and innovation of precision farming, as it is a main contributor to increasing the sustainability of future European countries.
In conclusion, the European Academies Science Advisory Council’s food systems approach is essential in hopes of mitigating the most pressing problems of Europe’s current state. These problems include, climate change and its impacts on the sustainability of livestock production, human health, and of course sustainable land and water use. Europe’s approach to how their food systems work, their agricultural environment, and their overall environment dealing with their population is critical because their actions affect others around the world. Currently, the state Europe is in currently in terms of food and agriculture, which has huge implications for health and climate change, is not sustainable. The European Academies Science Advisory Council’s aim to mitigate agricultural environmental sustainability has just begun and with the adoption of many of their ideas and goals, Europe will soon see positive changes alleviating the effects of the issues that hinder its sustainability.