Professor Hannah Daly:

I might add that research on mitigation options in agriculture focuses on technological solutions. The research on a holistic, transformative approach that meets climate and biodiversity as well as economic and social goals is much more limited in volume. In Volume 4, in the summary for policymakers, we stated: "Sustainable diets, reducing food waste and rebalancing land use, including a managed reduction in the number of ruminants, can reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions and make land available for forestry, wetland restoration and nature". I return to the definition of transformative change, which includes valuing climate and the environment within decision-making. Farmers do not get paid for services they give to climate or biodiversity. All the economic incentives are for production and removing biodiversity features. This is certainly not blaming farmers, and that narrative is not helpful in getting the action we need. It is economic signals and the economic paradigm we are in, which promote production over climate and biodiversity, that is causing that.