Research articles

Almost half of land use and nearly three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by adopting circularity principles and reducing the ratio of animal-sourced protein to plant-sourced protein from 60:40 to 40:60 in European diets.

One strategy to reduce the ecological footprint of food systems is to replace higher-emissions food products with lower-emissions alternatives. This study estimates the potential impact of product switches in Australia within ‘very similar’ and ‘less similar’ food categories in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the nutritional quality and energy density of consumer purchases.

Crop production data from 131 nations covering six decades reveal that the stabilizing effects of crop diversity are stronger as national land area increases, with only limited stabilizing effects in the smallest nations.

Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions related to food consumption typically consider ingredients, rather than final dishes. This study combines over 500 real-life restaurant menu dishes with data on 170 million consumed meals in China, highlighting the potential of consumers to mitigate climate change through modifications in their eating patterns.

The conventional cocoa value chain has important environmental, nutritional and socio-economic implications. This study presents a chocolate formulation that combines the cocoa pod endocarp and pulp juice to create a sweetening gel that replaces refined sugar, offering improved nutritional value and reduced environmental impact while also contributing to income diversification for smallholder farmers.

The production of ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers, key to food production, is highly concentrated and therefore susceptible to price volatility and supply chain disruptions. This study examines the cost-competitiveness of a decentralized ammonia industry with low-carbon ammonia production using small modular technologies, such as electric Haber–Bosch or electrocatalytic reduction.

The food system of urban agglomeration undergoes continuous transitions and poses changing pressure to the environment, especially in terms of nitrogen (N) pollution. This study highlights the decreased N use efficiency and intensified local N pollution in the context of uneven agricultural contraction in urban agglomeration and reveals how cities can leverage synergies for coordinated N pollution mitigation.

Greenhouses are quickly proliferating in response to the world’s increasing demand for food, but information on their precise location, distribution and extent remains limited in many countries. This Analysis combines global very-high-resolution satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to address this knowledge gap, showing a dramatic increase in greenhouse coverage in the Global South.

Harvest from inland recreational fisheries are estimated, demonstrating the importance of this food source for nutrition and economic value in food systems that are vulnerable to climate change.

By analysing the genome of over 9,000 pig-associated isolates, this study shows that modernized agricultural systems have favoured the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance genes, population expansion and global transmission of pig-enriched Salmonella over the past century.

Greenhouse gas emissions, antimicrobial use, land use and animal welfare data representing most global commercial pig production systems show that no single system performs well across all measures, but trade-offs may be avoidable if mitigation measures are implemented within farming systems.

Neurotoxic methylmercury (MeHg) in rice poses health risks. This study explores the roles of various cropland microbial communities in MeHg formation on a large scale and identifies that Geobacteraceae are the key predictors of MeHg bioaccumulation in paddy soil systems, which holds the potential for mitigating global mercury exposure.

Food packaging is an important environmental concern and susceptible to counterfeit-prone labelling. This study presents a newly developed water-soluble food label using nanocomposite ink that addresses these issues.

The exact quantification of environmental and human health gains achieved through sustainable nitrogen management is often impaired by real-world data availability. Drawing on an extensive database in China, this study estimates the costs and benefits of combining organic and chemical fertilizers, straw recycling and deep placement of fertilizer.

The transition towards plant-based diets requires supportive market and policy instruments. This study investigates how and the extent to which public funds support animal agriculture by tracking subsidy flows related to the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy across global food supply chains.

Ongoing depletion rates of phosphorus reserves might pose a challenge to future food security. This Analysis estimates the effects of matching plant-available soil Olsen P concentrations with thresholds for optimal yields of grassland and 28 crops on the longevity of global P reserves.

A lack of systematized information on existing agri-environmental policies poses challenges for research and practice. A new database with more than 6,000 agri-environmental policies implemented over the past six decades around the world helps fill the gap. This information enables the extraction of valuable insights for policymakers, academics and businesses.

Using spatial statistics on a detailed land use map, the study highlights the impact of cropland fragmentation in China. Optimizing cropping structures to meet animal food demand or relocating fragmented croplands for large-scale farming can release the potential of the fragmented croplands for increased agricultural productivity and environmental protection.

A mass-balance and fish-in/fish-out ratio approach demonstrates that redistributing wild-caught fish used in salmon aquaculture to human consumption could improve nutrient retention and support sustainable marine resource use.

Organic nitrogen (N) sources management is critical to achieve high rice yield and carbon (C) neutrality. This study scaled up the field findings using machine learning and showed that the co-benefits of improved rice yield and reduced net C emission can be realized with integrated management of organic N and water on a global scale.