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.
The intensification of livestock farming and related global trade are increasingly linked to the expansion of endemic bacterial pathogens, including zoonotic transfers to people. To preserve food security and public health, it is imperative to find measures that counter this trend.
Management practices including augmenting the ratio of organic to chemical fertilizers, implementing deep application techniques and reintegrating straw into fields can bolster food production while optimizing resource use efficiency and abating nitrogen pollution in China.
Matching phosphorus fertilizer applications to optimal thresholds required by crops mitigates the exhaustion of phosphorus resources and promotes agricultural sustainability.
Cropland fragmentation poses a significant threat to agricultural sustainability in China. Rational crop layout is required for different ecological regions to manage the fragmented croplands.
Wild forage fish can provide nutrients essential for human health, yet some nutrients may be lost when forage fish are used as aquafeeds. Reallocating a third of food-grade forage fish towards direct human consumption can optimize seafood systems to deliver dietary nutrients for feed and food at different scales.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where the affordability of a healthy diet remains a pressing concern, recent research offers fresh insights into how food prices and income influence dietary quality. These insights provide a roadmap for targeted food and nutrition policy interventions.
Ambient temperature increases occurring under climate change could induce livestock heat stress, resulting in lambing losses and an estimated economic burden of up to Australian $166 million per annum to the Australian sheep industry.
Food systems are complex and actions in one area are likely to have ripple effects in others. A newly proposed efficiency metric shows how well environmental resources used (and degraded) by food systems contribute to diet-related health outcomes.
An assessment of the supply chain reveals a rising trend in global food loss and waste, with uneven distribution across regions. Integrated interventions are necessary to reduce food waste and improve nutritional and environmental security.
The protein transition seeks to mitigate the adverse impacts of production and consumption of animal-sourced foods. Three diverse but partially overlapping narratives emerge from the scientific literature, addressing drivers of change, actionable pathways and visions for the future.
In vivo mercury demethylation by rice plants, involving neither light nor microorganisms, has major implications for human health and possibly even global mercury cycling.
Material flow and ecological network analysis of China’s coupled nitrogen and phosphorus flows shows trade-offs and synergies between food and energy systems.
Redesigning crop management practices for climate, crop and soil co-optimization has great potential to maintain high yields, mitigate social and environmental impacts, and support sustainable agricultural intensification.
The application of an integrated assessment framework in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates how anticipatory governance and decision support tools can help inform policy-making at the national level in the face of looming climate and nutrition crises.
