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Some food is lost at the production stage or is wasted by consumers. Policies aimed at avoiding this may have rebound effects through food availability and food prices, thus requiring alternative measures.
Variations in land and water footprint accounts should not shift attention away from the potential to reduce the environmental impact embedded in food choices.
Increased yields, reduced food waste and loss, and a shift to healthier diets are key to achieve carbon neutrality, food security and global sustainability simultaneously.
Nutrition resources are limited and recent cuts in governmental development funds have added urgency to the matter. Building on the broader costs of malnutrition for human health and the sustainability of food systems, this Perspective offers an overview of the nutrition-financing landscape and public spending, as well as new opportunities with private funding and other non-traditional sources of financing.
Rural dietary diversity largely depends on farmers’ access to wild food and forests. The policy environment on achieving global food security must consider managing multi-functional landscapes for a diverse array of goods and services, including food.
Consumption of wild food from forests and common lands contributes to women’s dietary diversity in India, particularly during the lean season in June and July. Women who consume wild foods are more likely to consume dark green leafy vegetables during these months, adding a nutrient-rich food group to their diets.
Future rice supply for African rice consumers is affected by domestic trends of population growth, per capita consumption, socioeconomic developments, trade and climate change. Strong import dependency makes African consumers dependent on trends and shocks in Asia; a new study models the impacts of trends and shocks.
The local loss of a crop can affect food availability in other countries, directly through trade but also indirectly if production inputs become unavailable. Quantifying the direct and often overlooked indirect effects of local shocks could inform the design of resilient food supply chains and effective crisis responses.
Food consumption has triggered considerable quantities of greenhouse gas emissions at various stages of the food supply chain. Tracking food-related emissions along supply chains is key to systematically identify their sources, drivers and mitigation opportunities.
The links between food systems and gender-based violence (GBV) remain largely neglected in research and policy. Building on the analysis of GBV and systematic inequalities within food systems, as well as how specific food system contexts shape GBV risk, this Perspective proposes a five-point collaborative agenda to address GBV in food systems.
Adopting healthier diets is key to ensure food security and can bring other benefits, but might also be associated with trade-offs. A new study reveals how the partial transition towards the EAT-Lancet diet by 2030 would affect food affordability, food loss and waste and other environmental indicators.
A new high-resolution map of cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana allows for large-scale accurate studies of the impact of cocoa cultivation on the landscape and better understanding of priority areas where improvements of cultivation practices are needed.
A wireless miniaturized sensor can report a ‘spoiler alert’ via a mobile phone by detecting volatile biogenic amines that are produced by spoiled protein-rich foods, providing a feasible solution to identify and prevent food spoilage and promote food safety.
The condition of food is checked using standard laboratory tests — which are not regularly available to supply-chain personnel or end customers. A miniaturized sensor of spoilage in protein-rich foods, which leverages advances in polymer engineering and low-cost sensing, will enable more frequent and accessible testing, improving food safety and quality control.
The time has come to include the wellbeing of animals in cost–benefit evaluations that inform agricultural policy. By doing so, we would account for those with the most to gain — or lose — from our choices.
Empirical analyses of historical yields paired with manipulative experiments reveal that extreme rainfall reduces rice yields in China by physically disturbing the panicle and by reducing available soil nitrogen. Such mechanistic understanding aids prediction and mitigation of damages from climate change.
The double burden of malnutrition affects one-third of children globally. Knowledge on children’s current food consumption and related sociodemographic factors can guide actions towards improving children’s lifelong nutrition and health, and promote environmentally sustainable diets.
Edible insects contain dietary fibre in the form of chitin and its derivatives, as well as omega-3 fatty acids, but questions remain about how consumption impacts the gut microbiome and intestinal health. Although insect production may be useful to address food security, more human intervention studies are needed to explore their potential for broader health benefits.
A scenario analysis reveals how changes in food production and consumption towards circularity could save natural resources in Europe — without compromising the provision of sufficient micronutrients and macronutrients for the continent’s population.
