Overview of main challenges and opportunities in food and agriculture

A large number of challenges to the future of agriculture have been identified within the OECD work on Long-Term Scenarios for Food and Agriculture. This chapter explores the following seven challenges in further depth within the context of the three long-term scenarios: i) food and nutrition security, ii) economic sustainability of farming iii) biodiversity and scarcity of natural resources iv) agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution v) diets and nutrition vi) trans-boundary livestock diseases and vii) food safety. While the three “worlds” of Individual, Fossil Fuel-Driven Growth, of Citizen-Driven, Sustainable Growth and of Fast, Globally-Driven Growth all present common risks, such as those related to the environment, their magnitude varies substantially between scenarios. The performance of each of these scenarios is compared in order to facilitate the identification of strategies to manage risks and avail of future opportunities, which will be discussed in Chapter 3.