Publications

Current food production and consumption trends contribute to a range of public health, social and environmental problems. The need for a transition is no longer in doubt: we must move towards a system that produces healthy food with a low impact on ecosystems, is accessible to all, and ensures fair remuneration for producers. There’s no denying that the questions we raise here are politically and socially sensitive, as food is deeply connected to cultural, economic, environmental and health issues. Nevertheless, it is essential to develop ways to foster open discussion. IDDRI and I4CE have therefore joined forces with several other actors to provide insights for the debate.

Putting Agricultural Risk Management on the Agenda  In recent years agriculture has been hit by numerous crisis in France: adverse climatic events (primarily droughts, floods, and frost) and health crisis (notably avian flu), directly impacting agricultural production. Broader crisis, such as COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also indirectly but significantly affected the agricultural sector. Climate change, the ongoing Ukraine conflict, and overall geopolitical tensions suggest that these crisis and their impacts will become a lasting pattern in the future. These are crucial factors to consider when defining and strengthening food sovereignty. 

Ecological transition of the food system raises numerous and complex questions regarding funding: How much does it cost? Who should pay? Do existing public spending contribute to it? This report aims to provide answers to the latter question. In this report, we conduct as comprehensive a study as possible of public support for the French food system in 2018, 2021, and 2024. We analyse the theoretical contribution of this funding in relation to the national framework of ecological planning set by French public authorities.

Livestock population in France has been falling for several decades (-20% for dairy cattle and -33% for sows since 2000), without necessarily reducing the quantities produced. But productivity gains will not be able to maintain production levels forever. For the decline in livestock farming to have an impact on the climate, it must be accompanied by a drop in meat consumption, but is this really happening?

Accompanying the decline in livestock numbers. All transition scenarios rely on a decline in livestock numbers to meet climate targets. Yet in France, most livestock populations are already declining. The challenge is not only to continue this trend, but also to support it, to ensure a fair and acceptable transition for livestock farmers and other players in the livestock industry. This is particularly true for the dairy sector.

In order to reach the objectives of the recently approved EU Climate Law, the agricultural sector has to simultaneously reduce significantly its level of emission, increase the amount of carbon it sequesters, and augment the production of biomass in substitution of fossil fuel – which are to be phased out in the short term. In […]

In the context of the development of the Low Carbon Label, one of the recurring questions from potential financiers is: "What am I allowed to say and do when financing certified low carbon projects? With this publication, I4CE provides operational and pragmatic answers.

Eating less animal products and wasting less reduces the budget, but increasing consumption of organic products increases it. In total, does adopting a sustainable diet increase or decrease consumer spending?

To learn more about the methodology used by I4CE to assess the contribution of financing flows to the emergence of a sustainable food system, this technical paper introduces it and identifies its limitations and key methodological challenges for the future.

One of the main elements of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2021-2027 exercise is the shift of part of the funding towards an obligation to achieve environmental results. Is that an expensive development? Environmentally effective? In order to answer these questions, this I4CE study analyses numerous mechanisms, more or less oriented towards performance obligation.