Policy mix for a low-carbon food system

The current food system accounts for approximately a third of the global greenhouse gas emissions, necessitating an urgent shift toward low-carbon food production and consumption practices. Carbon pricing can help internalize the negative externalities of deriving animal-based protein. There have been suggestions to complement meat and dairy taxes with softer policy tools, such as behavioral nudges, that instead encourage people to adopt plant-based diets. Nonetheless, both hard and soft tools have limitations when applied in isolation-taxation is perceived to be unpopular, while softer tools might be ineffective. In this perspective, we argue that innovations to this policy toolkit are key for a food systems transformation. Our proposition includes novel hard policy tools, such as the Emission Trading System (ETS), and seemingly softer policy tools, such as Voluntary Carbon Offsetting (VCO), both of which can be combined with softer tools like nudge and nudge+ interventions. We argue that policy innovations, as well as sequencing soft and hard tools, could enhance existing food policies, by creating a more socially acceptable pathway toward the urgently needed transition to a sustainable food system, thereby improving the effectiveness of these policies.