This post is part of WRI's blog series,Creating a Sustainable Food Future。该系列探讨了到2050年可持续养活90亿人的策略。所有作品都是基于为2013-2014世界资源报告。

在2050年，世界如何以一种不仅促进经济发展，还可以减少农业对环境的影响的方式养活超过90亿人的人？这是我的同事和我正在解决当前的大问题World Resources Report。

But an important follow-up question is “How will we know if we’re on the right path?”

除非决策者可以访问农业对环境的影响指标，否则他们将无法对实现可持续食品未来所需的公共政策和农民实践做出明智的选择。指标是统计措施，使决策者，农民，企业和民间社会能够更好地了解条件，确定趋势，设定目标，监控进度并比较地区和国家之间的绩效。

WRI recently reviewed a number of existing indicators on the environmental sustainability of agriculture and identified gaps.我们的分析uncovers a need for improvements in indicators as well as the data underlying them—in particular, what we call the “3Ps, 5 themes, and 7 criteria.”

The 3 Ps: Policies, Practices, and Performance

指标应寻求反映并最终影响政策，实践和绩效。这三个“ PS”形成了因果关系链。政府政策可以影响农民实践，这反过来又可以决定现场生物物理性能。例如，一项法规（一项政策）要求农民衡量她为作物灌溉提取的水，这可能会激励她转移到滴灌（一种实践），反过来又可以提高饮水效率生产（性能）。

Ideally, a portfolio of indicators on the environmental sustainability of agriculture should reflect all three parts of the causal chain. Policy indicators reflect the policies that could create the right enabling conditions or incentives for sustainable agriculture. Practice indicators reflect the on-farm practices that help realize sustainable agriculture. Performance indicators reflect the desired, on-the-ground, biophysical state associated with sustainable agriculture.

5个主题涵盖

指标应涵盖至少五个主题，每个主题都与农业对环境的重大影响有关，包括：

  • Water:Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the world’s freshwater withdrawals and for 80 to 90 percent of its freshwater consumption.

  • 必威官网是真的吗气候变化：About 13 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions came from agricultural production in 2010, mainly from cows and sheep, manure, fertilizers, rice, and on-farm energy use. Land use change, most of which is triggered by agriculture, contributed another 11 percent of global emissions.

  • 土地转换：Today, half of the world’s vegetated land is dedicated to growing food. The majority of land-use change in the world is forests, wetlands, and grasslands being converted into farms and grazing pastures—all of which can cause biodiversity and habitat loss.

  • Soil Health:Soil is being lost 10 to 40 times faster than it is being replenished, which poses a threat to long-term human food security.

  • Pollution (nutrients, pesticides):营养不足会降低土壤的生育能力并限制产量，而多余的营养物质会导致水污染和温室气体排放。化学农药（虽然有益于防止农作物损失昆虫和其他害虫），但会对人类健康，野生动植物和水质质量产生负面影响，具体取决于其毒性和使用。

7 Criteria for Effective Indicators

指标和基础数据应遵循某些标准，包括：

  • Available:大多数国家都应访问基础数据

  • Accurate:The data should be reliable and representative of on-the-ground conditions

  • 持续的：数据收集方法应该是一致的，并且在国家之间的数据可比

  • Frequent:The data should be regularly collected or updated

  • Proximate:The indicator should be a good “proxy” or representation of reality

  • 相关的：The indicator should be pertinent to the policy, practice, or performance it seeks to represent

  • Differentiating:该指标应显示国家之间的区别。

Creating a Framework of Indicators

With these three dimensions in mind, we screened a long list of national-level indicators that are currently in use or have been proposed by various sources. We found that countries today are gathering data on too few indicators to do the job properly.

那么现在需要什么呢？

  • First, at least an initial set of countries or international organizations need to agree on an appropriate set of indicators. We put together a list of candidate indicators (see Tables 1a and 1b, below). While they’ll need further analysis and vetting, they’re a good starting place for decision-makers in the environment and agricultural spaces.

  • Second, government statistics offices, research institutions, and intergovernmental organizations working on agriculture and sustainability need to gather the necessary data. Advances in remote-sensing technologies and crowd-sourcing methods could potentially help in this regard.

  • 第三，对指标的需求需要增长，尤其是政府，发展机构，私营部门和民间社会的需求。数据的供应将遵循对其的需求。也许一组2015年后的可持续发展目标可以帮助触发这一需求。

有了正确的指标，我们可以更好地衡量并在可持续食品的未来方面取得进步。