Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
This study explores the magnitude, spatiotemporal variation and drivers of nitrous oxide emissions from Chinese livestock production over the past four decades. Scenario analysis is used to estimate emissions mitigation potential of different measures, their associated marginal abatement costs and the social benefits.
Income reduction in high-income regions is insufficient for mitigating food systems greenhouse gas emissions. A deeper transformation is required that changes consumption patterns and prices emissions.
Food exports impact biodiversity in countries directly involved in trading and beyond. This study calculates food trade flows among high-hotspot, low-hotspot and non-hotspot countries, including high- and low-income ones, over 2000–2018. The amount of land saved through the imports is calculated for 189 food items.
Elimination of hunger will require shifts in crop usage by 2030. Calories will need to be obtained from crops currently harvested for purposes other than direct food consumption. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, will likely fall short even if all harvested calories are used directly as food.
Planning investments in agricultural inputs can be challenging when economic returns vary widely over time and locations. Applying a random forest algorithm to a large experimental maize trial dataset of 21,400 observation points, this study generates yield response curves and estimates economic return to fertilizers in 25 sub-Saharan African countries.
The environmental impacts of more sustainable diets vary across regions. Using linear optimization, this study compares the reductions of global warming potential, water use and land use associated with the replacement of animal-sourced foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Three diet types were considered to meet nutritional adequacy and consumption constraints.
Between 1998 and 2016, tillage intensity across the US corn–soybean cropping systems shifted from a decreasing to an increasing trend. The decreasing tillage intensity is correlated to the wide adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops, whereas the tillage reintensification is found to be related to the emergence of herbicide-resistant weed species after 2008. The growing tillage intensity resulted in increased GHG emissions and undermined the GHG mitigation achievements from other activities or other sectors.
European soybean demand is highly dependent on imports. The data-driven relationships between climate and soybean yield show that the suitable area is much larger than the current soybean harvested area in Europe. A self-sufficiency level of 50% (100%) would be achievable in Europe under historical and future climate if 4–5% (9–11%) of the current European cropland were dedicated to soybean production.
Modelling analysis shows that the current rates of annual rice yields of the Southeast Asia region will not be able to produce a large rice surplus in the future unless the exploitable yield gap is narrowed down substantially within the next 20 years.
Genomic analyses reveal Escherichia coli samples from livestock in China have a third more plasmids than 50 years ago, contributing to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Greenhouses and vertical farming enable food production in cities, but their energy and energy-related land demands may affect their overall sustainability in specific regions. Through geospatial and mathematical modelling, this study compares open-field and two indoor farming methods for vegetable production in nine city-regions around the world.
High-resolution maps of livestock production in China indicate that dietary and production changes to lower nitrogen pollution could generate human and ecosystem benefits that outweigh the costs.
Emissions abatement efforts in the agriculture, forestry and land-use sector are vital to achieve climate change mitigation targets, but their effects on food security remain poorly understood. Using six global agroeconomic models, this study explores how afforestation, bioenergy and non-CO2 emissions reductions could impact agricultural prices and the risk of hunger under different scenarios.
The reduction of food loss and waste is urgent, yet strict food waste regulations can be costly and unpopular. Drawing on a large set of survey experiments conducted in a high-income country, this study assesses the positive impact that specific policy framing, design and feedback may have on citizens’ level of support to these regulations.
Spatial planning and policy could guide China’s livestock sector towards reducing human exposure to ammonia—provided that 5–10 billion animals are relocated across the region.
The pace of dietary shifts towards the EAT–Lancet dietary guidelines varies widely across countries. By analysing the supply of 15 essential foods in 172 countries over almost six decades, this Article estimates the level of convergence of national diets with the EAT–Lancet reference diet and the impact that closing such a diet gap would have on national and global water footprints.
Quantifying the long-term (LT) response of crop yields to nitrogen fertilizer is critical to improving nutrient management practices. Based on 25 LT field experiments, this study develops a generic LT nitrogen response function for global cereals to characterize the yield impacts, associated LT economic benefits and external costs of changing nitrogen inputs.
Overexposure to ozone compromises crop yields, yet accurate estimates of such impact in Asia have been hindered by limited empirical data. This study assesses relative yield losses of three main crops in Japan, China, and South Korea through O3 exposure–response relationships based on monitoring data and experiment-based sensitivities.
A self-powered electrical stimulation system that harvests wind and raindrop energy has the capacity to stimulate crop growth via the all-weather triboelectric nanogenerator. A small-scale experiment shows that the system can increase ~26.3% of the germination speed and ~17.9% of yield for peas.
Bovine satellite cells undergoing myogenic differentiation in a chemically defined, serum-free medium are comparable to those undergoing serum starvation—demonstrating the suitability of this formulation for cultured meat production.