ABSTRACT
This chapter examines origins and consequences of discordant policies, and investigates challenges associated with overcoming the differences. It explores options that could either harmonize future policy designs or mitigate their conflicting purposes. The chapter addresses following areas where agriculture and food policy goals can exhibit divergent interests and agendas: Trade policies; Environment, natural resource, and climate policies; Nutrition policies. It examines efforts to intentionally align policy goals, including conservation cross-compliance, and proposals to better synchronize global food and agricultural policies. Private organizations, academic institutions, and related interests who carefully study the relationships among food needs, agricultural output potential, and sustainable environmental capacities are calling for major changes in policy. The Global Panel emphasizes that policy interventions must be chosen judiciously because their impacts can produce either beneficial or harmful effects on human nutrition. The Global Panel advises governments to carefully design and implement science-based policies in a manner that intentionally enhances both food quality and quantity for favorable nutritional outcomes.
