The global food system needs to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to succeed in feeding a growing world population, FAO said today. "There is justifiable concern that the current dependence of the food sector on fossil fuels may limit the sector's ability to meet global food demands. The challenge is to decouple food prices from fluctuating and rising fossil fuel prices," according to an FAO paper published today during the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. High and fluctuating prices of fossil fuels and doubts regarding their future availability mean that agri-food systems need to shift to an "energy-smart" model, according to the report Energy-Smart Food for People and Climate. The food sector both requires energy and can produce energy — an energy-smart approach to agriculture offers a way to take better advantage of this dual relationship between energy and food, it says.
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/95161/icode/

To read the policy brief click here
To read the issue paper click here