Listen: How agriculture can feed the world sustainably

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Sustainability is vital to feed an clothe a growing world, but big changes are needed if agriculture is to adhere to the Paris Agreement says Berry Marttin.

"Producing food consumes 12 mega tonnes of gas emissions and if we want to stay within the boundaries of two degrees as we agreed, then food production has to go down to four mega tonnes."

Marttin took time out from attending Rabobank's Farm2Fork Summit 2019 in Sydney to talk to The Country's Jamie Mackay about the climate change issues facing agriculture.

"We have to be almost five times as efficient in producing food and that's quite a challenge for us all."

Listen below:

Marttin hopes that through the use of technology, agriculture will get to a stage where it is not only carbon neutral, but carbon negative, however "that's still a long way to go".

One way to achieve this could be a circular economy which means there is no waste said Marttin.

"Today waste represents a third of all foods that we produce."

"A full circular economy [means] you would close the gap to zero."

If agriculture is to feed the growing world population it can not continue using current methods, said Marttin.

"My view is yes - technologically we can feed everybody - but the planet can not have that, because of the boundaries."

However Marttin remained hopeful for the future.

"The challenge is out there, we're going to feed everybody with good nutrition and no climate impact."

Find out more about the Farm2Fork 2019 summit here.