Food service directors and dietitians in many parts of the United States are having to cope with rationed water and use filtered water. Throughout the country, theEnvironmental Protection Agency reports that one third of our drinking water supply is contaminated. The water problem might well become more serious than the energy crisis. An in depth report on what has happened and what should be known about one of the nation's most urgent, but least accepted, problems is presented. Illustrative photographs and numerous tables accompany the report.

Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for the functioning of food systems: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations most, and particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 and 6 are co-dependent. Solutions for jointly improving food systems and water security outcomes include: (1) strengthening efforts to retain water-based ecosystems and their functions; (2) improving agricultural water management for better diets for all; (3) reducing water and food losses beyond the farmgate; (4) coordinating water with nutrition and health interventions; (5) increasing the environmental sustainability of food systems; (6) explicitly addressing social inequities in water-nutrition linkages; and (7) improving data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages, drawing on innovations in information and communications technology (ICT). Climate change and other environmental and societal changes make the implementation and scaling of solutions more urgent than ever. | Non-PR | 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; IFPRI4; DCA | Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies

This article investigates the relationship between the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in Brazil in an exploratory and statistical study over the period from 2000 to 2013. For that purpose, the explanatory variables considered were the following: Access to improved water; Access to electricity and Average protein supply. Furthermore, it was introduced some brief facts about WEF nexus security in Brazil. With such explanatory variables, it was performed descriptive statistics, ensuring the assumption of data normality approach, and consequently calculating the descriptive statistics and correlation. The results of correlation showed that the quantitative relation between the three factors was extremely strong. These data allowed to understand the relation between these indicators and its status as a nexus in Brazil. Therefore, it is concluded that pursuing an active policy to manage demand in WEF nexus could lead sustainability processes.

This article investigates the relationship between the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in Brazil in an exploratory and statistical study over the period from 2000 to 2013. For that purpose, the explanatory variables considered were the following: Access to improved water; Access to electricity and Average protein supply. Furthermore, some brief facts about WEF nexus security in Brazil was introduced. With such explanatory variables, descriptive statistics was performed, ensuring the assumption of data normality approach, and consequently calculating the descriptive statistics and correlation. The results of correlation showed that the quantitative relation between the three factors was extremely strong. These data allowed to understand the relation between these indicators and its status as a nexus in Brazil. Therefore, it is concluded that pursuing an active policy to manage demand in WEF nexus could lead sustainability processes.

Water and food are facing increased demands from larger and more affluent populations thus necessitating a coordinated and effective management of limited natural resources. In this study, we present an optimization model developed for optimal resource allocation towards sustainable water and food security under nutritional, socio-economic, agricultural, environmental, and natural resource constraints. The core objective of this model is to maximize the composite water-food security status by defining an optimal water and agricultural policy that ensures nutritional guidelines while still maintaining food-preferences. This policy transforms optimum food demands into optimum cropping options given the water and land footprints of each crop or agricultural product. The model performance is evaluated with a hypothetical regional case study testing a wide spectrum of cases from the water-stressed to the land-stressed extremes thus showing the model's ability to suggest fundamentally different policy approaches. Results demonstrated the sensitivity of adopted water and food security definitions in shaping water and agricultural policies, thus reinforcing the need for agreements amongst the wide range of stakeholders at global scale.

In its annual report to Congress, the Council on Environmental Quality predicted that water shortage and pollution in the 1980's will be as big an international issue as energy was in the 1970's. With the majority of the earth's water supply found in the ocean or locked in ice caps and glaciers, only 65% is available for human and agricultural use, and agriculture consumes 80% of that supply. Continuing population growth and widespread population further tax this resource. Emphasizing this concern, the United Nations sponsored Water Conferences, stressing the importance of better "water management." Improving and expanding irrigated agriculture in developing countries was recommended as the primary method of conserving water supplies. Technological advances in irrigation would not only conserve resources, but would also improve food production capabilities.

The challenge to produce more food to meet the growing world demand requires a careful, integrated and global approach, to secure the efficient use of land, water and energy at the global level, aimed at increasing productivity and food supply with production systems which are environmentally friendly. Nowadays in many regions the crop production is still developed under intensive production systems, which are deteriorating the natural resources and contributing to global warming. The purpose should be to move to more environmentally friendly production systems. To support that process it is proposed to improve the measurement of sustainable practices in crop production and to monitor the production systems in different regions to provide international comparisons and track performance over time. At the same time, trade is, and will be in the future crucial to cope with a global production system environmentally friendly providing suffice food to meet food security, given that regional production and consumption imbalances associated with regional differences in resource endowments are very relevant. However, world trade of agricultural products continues seriously limited by trade policies and could be worsened by new measures implemented by some countries during or after the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, the G20 should promote policies and measures to facilitate dialogue and information exchange on supply and demand to foster agreements between food trading partners, based on a more open trading system, aimed at reconciling both objectives: global food security and environmental sustainability. | Non-PR | IFPRI5; DCA | MTID