18 Jan Cropland footprint included in DELTA 2.0 scenarios
The DELTA Model® version 2.0 has just been launched on the SNi website. The new version includes information on the cropland area required to produce food crops under various future food system scenarios, DELTA’s first step into the environmental resource requirements and impacts of the global food system.
The purpose of the DELTA Model® was to show the nutritional outcomes of future changes to the global food system. This allows nutritional sustainability – a key aspect of food system sustainability – to be analysed for today’s population and the growing population of the future.
Sustainability encompasses more than just nutrition. Economic, environmental, and social considerations must also be made. Beginning the DELTA Model®’s progress down this path, version 2.0 begins assessing the environmental sustainability of the global food system by calculating the likely cropland area needed when food production changes.
For more on how the cropland area is calculated and some early results, see our recent Thought for Food on the topic. Many thanks to our collaborators who volunteered their time to testing DELTA 2.0. The latest version also coincides with our new DELTA Model® logo, pictured above.