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A person holds a plate of freshly picked yellow, green, and purple vegetables in Nepal

© Karine Aigner/WWF-US

Food

Produce enough food to nourish everyone in the world while reducing the environmental footprint of food systems

It’s time to reconsider food

Around the globe, food production, distribution, management, and waste threaten wildlife, wild places, and the planet itself.

Today, 7.3 billion people consume 1.6 times what the earth’s natural resources can supply. By 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion, and the demand for food will double.

So how do we produce more food for more people without expanding the land and water already in use? We can’t double the amount of food. Fortunately, we don’t have to—we have to double the amount of food available instead. In short, we must freeze the footprint of food.

In the near-term, food production is sufficient to provide for all, but it doesn’t reach everyone who needs it. About 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted each year—four times the amount needed to feed the more than 800+ million people who are malnourished.

By improving efficiency and productivity while reducing waste and shifting consumption patterns, we can produce enough food for everyone by 2050 on roughly the same amount of land we use now. Feeding all sustainably and protecting our natural resources.

WWF works to secure a living planet that will sustain a more affluent population. From refining production and distribution to combating waste and environmental impacts, we want to improve how the world grows, transports, and consumes this precious fuel.

Priority commodities

Cattle in pasture and fog, Bahia state, Brazil

© Adriano Gambarini / WWF-Brazil

Beef

A dairy cow

© WWF

Dairy

A large and crowded school of silver fish

© Erling Svensen / WWF-Canon

Farmed salmon

Ocean salmon farm in Norway

© Alis Leonte

Farmed seafood

Person hauls seaweed in from the ocean

© Matt Horwood / WWF-UK

Farmed seaweed

A pile of raw shrimp

© Shutterstock

Farmed shrimp

Round net pens on the water for farming fish

© Shutterstock

Other farmed seafood

A color photo showing a green farm field with storm clouds on the horizon

© Bokic Bojan / Shutterstock

Soy

Atlantic bluefin tuna jumping out of water

© Frédéric BASSEMAYOUSSE / WWF-Mediterranean

Tuna

Yellowfin tuna swimming above a large net

© naturepl.com / Doc White / WWF-Canon

Wild-caught seafood

Making food sustainable

Three farm workers use green sprinkler cans to water plantings

© Kate Holt / WWF-UK

Sustainable agriculture

Underwater photo pointing up to surface, showing several large fish at the bottom of a stream

© WWF-US / Drew Crandall

Sustainable seafood

News and stories

Why food matters

A group of women and children in colorful clothing and head wraps, eating from a bowl of nuts that one of the women is holding

© James Morgan / WWF-US

In the next 40 years, increased demand for food will put pressure on agricultural, aquaculture and fishing resources that are already strained. The strain to produce crops and sell food at affordable levels will impact the planet and the world’s poor. Local communities, industry leaders, governments, and non-governmental organizations must work together to produce better and consume more wisely.

How WWF is taking action on food

WWF works with partners to feed the world while conserving the Earth’s precious natural resources.

Certification standards

One of the biggest threats to biodiversity and ecosystems is where and how we produce food. WWF is working with retailers, buyers and producers responsible for key food commodities to establish credible, certification standards. These standards—including those already established for aquaculture, beef, soy, cotton, sugar and palm oil—measurably reduce key environmental impacts.

Artfully crafted appetizers with a chef placing a placard on the top of each one that says "Farmed responsibly, ASC certified"

© ASC

Increase the supply of more sustainably sourced food

WWF is dedicated to building innovations for sustainability. We support producer improvement projects for priority food crops and promote sustainable supply chain solutions for food companies. These business solutions help companies reduce environmental impacts, become more profitable, and provide cases to shape the way we think about becoming more sustainable in the future.

Illustration of fishing boats on ocean at sunrise

© WWF

From bait to plate

Preventing illegally caught seafood from entering our food chain

Dive in

Increase demand of more sustainably sourced food

WWF is engages companies, platforms, sectors and governments to reduce key impacts of food production. This includes convincing priority companies and sectors to use purchases and investments to drive more sustainable food production.

Education and action

Produce better and consume more wisely. That’s the message but it will take entire sectors, platforms or even countries to move the needle on sustainability. WWF encourages enabling conditions and enforcement of policies that encourage more sustainable and efficient food production and consumption. We help businesses understand how they can contribute to a more sustainable brand. We also create awareness of the issue for US consumers, from shopping wisely to reducing food waste.

Reducing food waste

An effective food strategy must address the issue of food loss and waste. In order to meet global food security needs, as well as the food demands of an increasingly affluent global population, we will need to both increase productivity and efficiency, as well as reduce food waste.

A pile of rotting apples

© Shutterstock / Nick Hawkes

Projects

People in colorful clothing sitting around at meal

© Jonathan Caramanus / Green Renaissance / WWF-UK

Ensuring sustainable plates

The urgent need to transform the world’s food systems is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We need to feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050 without destroying even more of the world’s remaining biodiversity or fueling climate change.
Aerial photo of a bridge over a river that connects to a dirt road in a desert landscape

© Green Renaissance / WWF-US

Mozambique’s Lifeline: Nature

Mozambique is instituting a five-year strategy that makes the sustainable management of natural resources and the environment a priority, and to the creation of a program that will focus on protecting the country’s natural capital.

Publications

Vegetables in bag on a counter

© Shutterstock

Help stop food waste

Every year, we throw away over 30% of our food—wasting the water, soil, and energy used to produce it while driving up grocery bills. Tell your representatives to support two common-sense bills in Congress.

Take action

Experts