title: Leverage points for improving global food security and the environment.
abstract: Achieving sustainable global food security is one of humanity's contemporary challenges. Here we present an analysis identifying key "global leverage points" that offer the best opportunities to improve both global food security and environmental sustainability. We find that a relatively small set of places and actions could provide enough new calories to meet the basic needs for more than 3 billion people, address many environmental impacts with global consequences, and focus food waste reduction on the commodities with the greatest impact on food security. These leverage points in the global food system can help guide how nongovernmental organizations, foundations, governments, citizens' groups, and businesses prioritize actions.
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. pcwest@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: West
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Peder M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Engstrom
authors.affiliation: Center for the Environment, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Nathaniel D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Kate A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Brauman
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.affiliation: Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC 20009, USA.
authors.forename: Emily S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cassidy
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Graham K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Deepak K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn, Katzenburgweg 5, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siebert
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D002149:Energy Intake; D004777:Environment; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008460:Meat; D012275:Oryza; D011153:Population; D014908:Triticum; D014481:United States