For an abundance of reasons, the world’s food systems need to become far more energy-efficient and sustainable if we want to successfully feed the world’s population by 2050. Humanity needs to redress our use and waste of both energy and water in agriculture, food preparation and transportation. Thankfully, we have the technologies to get it done — we just need the will and, in some cases, the political momentum. Here’s a look at the problem and some of the emerging solutions.

The Problems — and Why Current Methods Aren’t Working

The proximate problem here is that the global human population will reach 9.8 billion souls by 2050. We need to rethink many of the practices and process we’ve been using to keep ourselves fed so far. As our population has grown, we’ve gotten better at scaling our farming operations to grow with it. Unfortunately, we haven’t been keeping tabs on its carbon footprint. In other words, we’ve been neglecting collateral damage and punting specific problems down the road for future generations to sort out.

Presently, human agriculture represents 50 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. Moreover, we can trace an estimated 70 percent of water table pollution, including rivers and streams, back to farming practices.

“Farm to fork” is one phrase you may have heard about potential “solutions” to problems within our food supply chain. The trouble is, the concept behind this phrase is not efficient — at least, not efficient enough to scale up, to the degree we need, to feed the world’s incoming billions. It is a sound model for a community-based supply chain, but trying to meet the needs of nations with “farm to fork” reintroduces many of the same problems it’s attempting to eliminate, including transporting food to where people need it most.

There are several other components we need to look at, all at once, to see the full picture. A great deal about how we grow and consume food needs to change, and new technologies aren’t always the solution.

Energy and Fuel Inefficiencies in Animal Agriculture and Food Service

Meeting the energy needs of the agricultural industry in the developed and developing world alike still leans on fossil fuels essentially by default. There is no way around it: Well-developed countries need to switch as much of their existing production infrastructure over to renewable energies as possible, right now. And if it comes down to it, we need to help less-developed countries navigate this transition, too.

Which renewable energies? All the usual suspects have abundant applications in an agricultural setting:

• Solar
• Wind
• Biomass
• Hydroelectric
• Geothermal heat

A variety of companies and processes are involved in moving food products from the farm to processing plants and eventually to stores. These transportation services are a part of the larger food industry carbon footprint and will benefit from the electric and autonomous trucks coming soon from Tesla, Volvo, Waymo, Uber and many others.

The food service apparatus, including preparing raw plant and animal matter for sale and consumption, also appears in need of a widespread retrofit, in light of newer efficiency standards that have rendered some older appliances and equipment obsolete from an energy-saving perspective.

Wasted Opportunities in Animal Agriculture

You likely noted the reference to “biomass” above, which is anything but a footnote. Solar power might be the most renewable energy there is, but a potential runner-up is the output of biomasses from the world’s farms. Wood and other fibrous materials — plus animal and municipal waste and byproducts from soybean, sugarcane and cotton production — are all prime candidates for use in biodiesel production and ethanol fermentation, anaerobic fermentation and other processes which result in fuel for farming outbuildings and even mechanized equipment.

It’s somewhat inaccurate to call this “free energy,” but it feels relatively close. Currently, the ratio of energy required to actual food produced in the U.S. stands at 10 to 1. Reclaiming some of the potential energy from our production processes, including the keeping and grazing of farm animals, could go a long way toward narrowing this ratio.

New Technologies and Dietary Habits May Transform Our Use of Water and Energy

You may have already followed some of the drama surrounding the debut of “lab-grown” or “meatless” meat. Remembering the proteins arranged in these products are identical to the ones in, for example, a leg of lamb might help us banish some of our squeamishness. It may also help to think about what a massive burden our current approach to growing and eating meat represents for our planet.

It takes as many as 660 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. On the other hand, some pioneers in the field of meatless meats indicate their approach might use as much as 75 percent less water and emit 87 percent fewer greenhouse emissions — and still wind up with, reportedly, a burger eerily similar to the “real thing,” albeit without the huge carbon footprint, wasted water and animal suffering.

In many cases, our inefficient use of energy goes hand in hand with our wasteful use of water. So it is in the United States, which, while relatively successful in feeding its population, does so with a recklessness that’s putting future generations in peril.

The American appetite for meat is one reason lab-grown alternatives are timely and encouraging. Americans’ consumption of meat has been on a steady uphill climb since around 2014, and we presently consume several times more meat than some other developed countries.

Keeping animals and eating meat products is just one way our current approach to agriculture puts a strain on our water table, however. The World Bank recommends that the next few years see widespread public and private investment in, among many other priorities, bringing our irrigation systems up to a standard appropriate for a world that’s hardening itself for impending climate change.

All of the above means our work is cut out for us if we want to transform the world’s food systems. We need to:

• Transition farms to sustainable fuel sources
• Transition food preparation facilities to more efficient handling and production equipment
• Transition freight and trucking companies to electric trucks
• Transition some animal and plant products to more sustainable “synthetic” alternatives
• Transition citizens in the developed world to a better-rounded diet

Some of these tasks require us to find balance. Others merely ask us to adopt solutions that have been in front of us for some time now.