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In the runup to the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, global progress on nutritional security and environmental sustainability has slowed. A new framework aims to help countries accelerate their ambitions, allowing them to set and monitor targets across food systems.
Holistic indicator frameworks are needed to track food systems transformation. This Analysis shows the application of a framework recently developed by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative to all UN member states, revealing current status, data gaps and priority actions.
Data on aquatic food loss and waste are limited outside small-scale fisheries, and major gaps exist for aquaculture species that make up half of global production. This study estimates loss and waste in the US aquatic food supply chain from 2014 to 2018, including the top ten species groups that together represent 89% of the country’s aquatic food supply.
During COP28, Brazil has announced it will join the world’s biggest oil cartel, casting doubt over the country’s future contribution to the advance of a more sustainable food–climate agenda.
Increasing nitrogen (N) fertilization does not proportionally increase crop production. The integrative application of knowledge-based N management by synchronizing crop N demand with N supply is effective for enhancing crop N uptake while reducing its losses to the environment.
Understanding the general responses of soil gross N cycling to commonly used knowledge-based N management practices on a global scale could help predict ecosystem N retention capacity and subsequent N losses. This global meta-analysis provides evidence for different responses of soil N cycling rates and N losses and associated soil properties to various knowledge-based N management practices.
Livestock feed production competes directly or indirectly with food crops for natural resources. This study demonstrates that more efficient use of food system by-products in livestock diet can reduce feed–food competition, increase the global food supply and decrease the pressure on land and water resources.
A scenario analysis shows that disregarding the links between bovine milk and meat production could lead to imbalances between national dietary guidelines and production outcomes, leading to unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and potentially to food waste.
If people with unhealthy or typical dietary patterns in the UK were to follow the Eatwell Guide recommendations or longevity-associated dietary patterns, they would likely see substantial gains in life expectancy.
Resource constraints and environmental impacts associated with current phosphorus fertilizer manufacture and use highlight considerable risks within global food production systems. Research portfolios targeted at existing soil phosphorus reserves might offer a solution.
Today’s nutrition crisis is a manifestation of the broader malfunctioning of our global food system. The specific factors linking the two warrant further investigation.
The UK Government aims to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by one-third by 2030 (SDG 3). Using life table methodology and data from the UK Biobank, this study indicates that sustained dietary changes—from median or unhealthy to a longevity-associated dietary pattern or to the Eatwell Guide recommendations—could lead to substantial life expectancy gains.
A systematic review of micronutrient retention after processing of foods biofortified with provitamin A or minerals (iron and/or zinc) enabled the creation of an online, interactive dashboard that helps users to choose suitable food processing methods for maximal micronutrient retention.
The relevance of history to contemporary food security issues is often overlooked, yet context is key to understand drivers of vulnerability and to design interventions. This Review offers a historical account of eastern African food systems from 1497 to 1840, including maps, documentary sources and archaeological data on foodstuffs, farming and diets.