Among the most serious effects of climate change are harvest losses, irredeemable damage to natural resources and the erosion of
farmers’ economic viability. Year-to-year variability in yields is expected to increase throughout Europe, owing to extreme climatic events and other factors, such as pests and diseases. While we can try to adapt to its effects, we must also do our utmost to counteract climate change. Agriculture, especially intensive production systems, contribute a lot to climate change. In Europe, agricultural production accounts for about 10% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Moreover, the emissions from deforestation due to land conversions for crop or livestock production account for approximately 12% of the world’s emissions. On a global scale, emissions from the food sector as a whole (including those from deforestation and land use change, production of agrochemicals, processing and transport of food, food wastage, etc.) add up to between a third and a half of global  GHG emissions.