Planetary boundaries are a framework to describe limits to the impacts of human activities, setting a safe operating space that ensures the environment’s stability and ability to self-regulate. Among all human activities, agriculture is the main contributor to the transgression of four of the nine planetary boundaries (biosphere integrity, biogeochemical flows, land-system change, and freshwater change), and a significant contributor to the one related to climate change. However, the agri-food sector usually only focuses on the latter, neglecting its impact on the remaining ones.
This critical issue is the main focus of the MARVIC- and EJP Soil-funded research conducted by Niklas Witt, Morten Graversgaard, and Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, which was recently published in the journal Ecology and Society. The scientific article, titled “Undisclosed transgressions? Lacking acknowledgements of large agrifood firms on their impacts on the planetary boundaries”, explores how the 51 largest global agri-food companies disclose their impacts related to six planetary boundaries, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
In this article, the authors classify the disclosures into four categories, from reported numeric impacts to sector-generic qualitative acknowledgements. The analysis shows that most disclosures either only include a general qualitative recognition of the negative environmental impact or mention numeric targets without disclosing any progress towards them. In turn, numeric impacts are only reported for climate change and not for the remaining boundaries.
As a result, the authors highlight the misalignment between the reported and the sector’s actual negative impacts. This not only allows companies to present a one-sided “doing good” picture of their actions but also hinders the channelling of financial flows towards more sustainable activities. More importantly, the lack of comprehensive reporting of environmental impacts distracts the agri-food sector from implementing more profound changes, which are urgently needed to reduce environmental harm. Read the full article here.
