Key considerations for creating sustainable food systems
15 September 2025 — In this blog, Sarah Bailey explores the current context for sustainable food systems, considers what needs to change to ensure resilience and longevity of this critical sector and identifies core actions to support the transition. This blog is based on the learnings from the Sustainable Food: Production and Processing 8-week online course. Additional insights can be found in the latest report from CISL Fellow Paul Gilding, ‘Renewable food: A transformed and renewable food system is now possible.
Land, food, and agriculture sit at the heart of society, playing a critical role in our economy, health and culture, but also providing a powerful illustration of inaction on climate and nature challenges. Sustainable food and land systems are a growing priority for businesses across the economy; some responding to mounting risks, while others reacting to incredible opportunity.
The importance of transforming food and agriculture to achieve global climate and biodiversity goals is clear. Food production is the largest driver of land-use change globally, with agriculture taking up 44% of habitable land. From farm to fork, including land conversion, food and agriculture account for around one-third of global emissions.
Beyond emissions, biodiversity is inextricably linked to how we produce our food, with wildlife increasingly having to compete with farmed landscapes, causing negative impacts on both sides. Human health depends on the availability of healthy, nutritious, and affordable food. Water consumption, packaging, social issues such as farmers’ rights and displacement, trade, energy use; the list of impacts of our food systems is long.
“Our food system is broken. The way we produce and consume food is both the biggest driver of nature loss and a significant contributor to climate change. […] It’s not a simple problem to fix, but it can be done, if we act now.” —David Edwards, Director of Food Strategy at WWF-UK
Action to date for a sustainable food system
Food and agriculture have historically been low on the global agenda in discussions and agreements compared to climate issues. At the 27th Conference of Parties (COP 27) in December 2022, agriculture made it onto the global agenda for the first time, with a dedicated agriculture day. One month earlier, the United Nations Biodiversity COP 15 ended with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework has fundamental connections to food systems, with targets for land, ocean and freshwater biodiversity conservation.
While COP28 saw nations commit to integrate food systems into their Nationally Determined Contributions by 2025, international action has not moved at the required pace to keep up with the commitments made during these discussions and the role of food and agriculture at COP30 is high on the agenda. Strong leadership will be needed from the COP presidency to follow through on previous commitments. With the global population projected to grow to 10 billion people by 2050, and the scientific projections for climate and nature painting a worrying picture, the ability of the food system to meet the needs of the growing global population is precarious. Food systems and the markets that support them must therefore rapidly transform and private actors are key. What might this transformation look like in a resource constrained, climatically volatile and geo-politically uncertain world, and how can businesses play a role?
“Food and climate change are fundamentally linked. […] To reach net zero, we need to change the way we make and use things, and that includes food.” — Ellen MacArthur Foundation
What is a sustainable food system?
A food system cannot be truly sustainable unless it balances both environmental and human needs. The way we produce, process and consume our food needs to both protect and restore the environment alongside equitably meeting the needs of a rapidly growing global population.
A 2025 study by the Systems Change Lab identified three necessary shifts:
- Increase agricultural productivity sustainably, resiliently and without expanding into high-carbon, biodiverse ecosystems
- Reduce food loss and waste
- Ensure access to and adoption of healthier, more sustainable diets for all
The CISL online short course Sustainable Food: Production and Processing delves deeper still, identifying key social and environmental principles for a sustainable global food system.
Social principles | Environmental principles |
Produce enough healthy food which is accessible to consumers | Ecosystems are protected, conserved and regenerated |
Ethical, non-discriminatory and fair working conditions that enhance health, safety and wellbeing | Ecosystems are not overwhelmed (absorb and cycle wastes) |
Enable positive community relationships and societal value | Food system productivity no longer relies on fossil fuel-based energy and inputs |
Source: Adapted from the 'Sustainable Food: Production and Processing' course.
Context is key
The global food system is highly consolidated, with multinational corporations holding much of the power. However, it is also comprised of highly interconnected and highly contextualised local systems. The type and scale of transformation needed to meet the principles for a sustainable global food system are therefore dependent on the local context, from the landscapes and ecosystems where crops are grown and animals reared, to local culture, the workforce, and the interplay between these.
Transformation will also depend on non-food system factors such as trade, policy, regulation and where financial capital is directed. Markets will need to be redefined to become the necessary drivers of change at scale and pace.
This complexity and scale, from global to local actors, from multinational to smallholder, both within and outside the food system, means that developing solutions to transform food systems will require bold leadership and collaboration between stakeholders across the entire value chain. Businesses will need to shift mindsets to value, innovate, and build momentum for change. To realise this, individuals within companies will need to motivate greater ambition so that businesses drive the necessary disruption and innovation, rather than defending the status quo.
"To truly transform our food systems, we must think beyond individual supply chains and build partnerships at the landscape level. When businesses, communities, and nature work together, we unlock new forms of value that endure for generations." — Christèle Delbé, Head Tutor of CISL's Sustainable Food: Production and Processing 8-week online course.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership offers a range of thought leadership across sectors, from food to nature-based solutions, grounded in practitioner insights from exceptional individuals from business, policy, and academia, to help support you on your journey to a nature-positive future.
For a more comprehensive consideration and to engage with others seeking transformational change, the 8-week online course Sustainable Food: Production and Processing offers a unique opportunity to prioritise the needs of people, nature, and climate.
CISL’s work on land, food and agriculture supports our position on ‘Transforming Systems, Sectors and Places’. For more information on our work, please visit the Hub.