A preliminary impact assessment of social distancing on food systems and greenhouse gas emissions

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is transforming individuals, governments, and sectors globally. To mitigate the potential effects of COVID-19, various governments around the globe are implementing measures such as social distancing and lockdown strategies. However, these policies have unintended consequences. Although the main objective is to ensure that individuals are safe, a tradeoff exists between safety and entirely creating new challenges for society. This study explores the implications of policies such as social distance, lockdown, and curfews implemented by various national governments on food systems and greenhouse emissions. Using data from International Food and Policy Research, we identified limited transportation, lockdown, ban of public gathering, and closure of schools and religious institutions as prominent measures in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 by many countries. We observed these policies have unintended consequences for food systems and greenhouse gas emissions, mainly CO₂. Implementing these policies show that CO₂ emission reduced, and existing challenges of food systems are further aggravated with these policies. Governments need to have coordinated strategies to minimize unintended consequences of these policies.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• social distancing
• food systems
• greenhouse gas emissions
• C0₂