| Climate change | Change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and is additional to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. |
| Global warming | The process of increasing the average temperature of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere caused by massive emissions of gases that intensify the greenhouse effect, resulting from a range of human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use (such as deforestation), as well as from various other secondary sources. |
| Climate | Climate in a strict sense is generally defined as the average climate or, more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the average and variability of relevant quantities over a period ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for the average of these variables is 30 years (climatological normal), as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are mostly surface variables, such as temperature, precipitation and wind. |
| Adaptation to climate change | The local level is the bedrock of adaptation, so EU support must help increase local resilience. (Forging a climate-resilient Europe - the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change- EU document) |
| Plant-Rich Diets | Plant-rich diets reduce emissions and also tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. According to a 2016 study, business-as-usual emissions could be reduced by as much as 70 percent through adopting a vegan diet and 63 percent for a vegetarian diet, which includes cheese, milk, and eggs. |
| Regenerative annual cropping | For any annual cropping system that includes at least four of the following six practices: compost application, cover crops, crop rotation, green manures, no-till or reduced tillage, and/or organic production. |
| Reduced Food Waste | A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork. Producing uneaten food creates a whole host of resources—seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, financial capital—and generates greenhouse gases at every stage—including methane when organic matter lands in the global rubbish bin. The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions. |
| Conservation Agriculture | Conservation agriculture uses cover crops, crop rotation, and minimal tilling in the production of annual crops. It protects soil, avoids emissions, and sequesters carbon. |
| Nutrient Management | Overuse of nitrogen fertilizers—a frequent phenomenon in agriculture—creates nitrous oxide. More efficient use can curb these emissions and reduce energy-intensive fertilizer production.
Nitrogen can be more efficiently managed to reduce these effects by attending to the Four R’s:
Right source: matching fertilizer choices with plant needs.
Right time and right place: managing fertilizer applications to deliver nitrogen when and where crop demand is highest.
Right rate: ending over-application of fertilizer as “insurance.” |
| Food Loss Index | Focuses on food losses that occur from production up to (but not including) the retail level in each region.. |
