Reviews & Analysis

US–China trade relations have implications for global nitrogen and phosphorus surpluses, and increasing blue water demand. The case shows that trade policy analysis needs to integrate environmental considerations.

China’s potato policy, introduced to improve food security, shows that substituting staples with alternative crops, though rarely the focus of dietary advice for planetary health, can also reduce the environmental impacts of food.

Natural biomass cycling and avoidance of biomass overharvest are the basis of a sustainable food system. This study proposes five guiding principles for biomass use based on the concepts of ecology and circularity, as well as leverage points for their implementation.

Continuous and chronic exposure to mixtures of multiple chemicals, particularly from food, medicine and cleaning products, are of concern. A proactive combinatorial approach to identify, assess and regulate the likelihood of exposure and potential health effects is presented.

Bioinspired, biodegradable seed coatings delivering plant growth promoting bacteria, osmolytes, and carbon sources provide a new tool to grow crops under the abiotic stressors accompanying climate change and marginalized soils.

Large-scale modelling underscores the need to reduce phosphorus fertilizer application in rich countries and increase it in poor regions. Yet, the realization of associated economic and environmental benefits will require complementary analyses locally.

Brexit may compromise diet-related health in the United Kingdom — but the risks could be mitigated with trade agreements, subsidy reform and nutrition policy.

Marginal areas of rice production have the potential to meet increasing oil palm demand in India, without sacrificing forests and associated biodiversity.

Efficient use of light can improve crop yields and qualitative performance for controlled-environment agriculture. A spectral-shifting, unidirectional light-extracting photonic thin film has the potential to boost photosynthesis to improve greenhouse lettuce yield.

Metrics and methodologies to characterize food environments of school-age children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries are explored here, with a view to inform priorities and actions for policy towards healthy, nutritious diets.

A global analysis of consumer expenditure along the food supply chain indicates the importance of post-farmgate activities and how socioeconomic indicators may affect it.

Corporate concentration and power can shape markets, technology and innovation agendas, and policy and governance frameworks. Issues, implications and mitigating measures to take in food systems are discussed here using the agricultural inputs industry as an example.

Land use change, livestock production and human encroachment into wildlife habitats drive zoonotic emergence. Quantitative analyses of horseshoe bat populations provide evidence for how food systems may contribute to hotspots of potential zoonotic spillover.

Landscape diversity is critical to enhance agricultural sustainability and resilience. A realistic and achievable route towards adding complexity and biodiversity into agricultural landscapes may be through precision conservation.

Current global nutrient availability poses a barrier to the complete shift from conventional to organic food production. Policies must be developed to overcome nutrient limitation and increase grower experience with organic production methods.

Climate engineering can alter the radiation budget in different ways than greenhouse gases and possibly benefit crop yields.

Conventional farming systems are susceptible to various sources of stress, but microalgae, mycoprotein and mealworm can offer healthy and more sustainable diets. This study highlights what makes future foods farming systems resilient and how to unlock their potential.

A framework based on circular economy and business model canvas principles is used to explore pathways towards future seafood sector resilience, elucidating how seafood business models currently operate and highlighting business practices that could increase sustainability.

Crop microbiomes provide plants with beneficial functions including increased nutrient acquisition and stress tolerance, but the current capability of utilizing indigenous crop microbiomes is limited due to low efficiency of separating the targeted functional microbes. A newly proposed framework using single-cell-sorting Raman spectroscopy combined with a synthetic community approach has the potential to design and optimize a ‘beneficial biome’.

Publicly funded technological innovations, strategic policy implementation and private sector upscaling have facilitated greater demand and lower costs for certain foods in the past. Can lessons be learned for transitioning towards healthy, sustainable diets?