Food-Water Nexus

This year’s World Food Day is themed around water, in recognition of the essential connection between water and food. More research on the food–water nexus is key to guide effective solutions for our food and water crises.

Data from integrated aquaculture–agriculture farms in Bangladesh indicate that the production of specific combinations of aquatic foods and vegetables can simultaneously improve nutrient and economic productivity and promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

By 2050, the majority of aquatic dietary protein will be produced by the aquaculture sector. A set of 15 metrics are presented here to guide the industry sustainably through the rapid growth and development it is experiencing.

Data from 78 countries and 14 case studies, disaggregated by employment, subsistence and gender along the aquatic food supply chain, are used to estimate the number of livelihoods supported by small-scale fisheries.

Aquaculture is set to undergo robust growth in the years ahead. We must look beyond the economic gains and strategize aquatic food systems to improve food and nutrition security and livelihoods for all, says the 2021 World Food Prize Laureate, Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted.

Policies that centre principles of justice and human rights, specify inclusive decision-making processes and identify and challenge underlying drivers of injustice are linked to more just food system outcomes.

Access to water and food and their effects on environmental and human health should be assessed and addressed together.

Octopuses, crabs and lobsters are probably sentient, yet their welfare needs are poorly protected in the food system. Upholding animal welfare in the seafood industry presents challenges, and more research is needed to address humane capture, housing and slaughter.

Higher number of markets, nutrient content, and overall supply coupled with lower retail prices and volumes make usipa more accessible than chambo to Malawians across all regions, particularly for rural consumers.

Recognizing the importance of experiences with water insecurity in the context of food and nutrition is a powerful way to act on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s call to “take water action for food and be the change” on World Food Day.

An empirical model captures and separates influences of water-supply and temperature stresses on global crop yields. Soil moisture is shown to play an important role in determining variations in global agricultural productivity.

Reducing the environmental pressure and impact of food production is central to the European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy. This study applies a multi-model approach to track food through the global trade network, estimating the land and water footprints of food consumption in the 27 member states of the European Union.

Droughts pose a threat to water availability for food production, enhancing urban conflicts. This study explores the drought–conflict nexus by accounting for the effects of droughts on the food-security pillars of availability, economic access and stability.

Increasing pressure on the world’s water resources raises serious concerns about future food security. This global, spatially explicit assessment of water consumption reveals where and by how much sustainable blue water flows are infringed. The study covers 146 food items for 174 countries over 1996–2005.

The environmental impacts of more sustainable diets vary across regions. Using linear optimization, this study compares the reductions of global warming potential, water use and land use associated with the replacement of animal-sourced foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Three diet types were considered to meet nutritional adequacy and consumption constraints.

Modelled estimates of the environmental impact of dietary choices often fail to reflect true dietary practice. This study links a dietary dataset from 55,000 UK consumers with food-level data on GHG emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication and biodiversity to compare the environmental burden of different levels of meat consumption.

Solar-driven water evaporation shows great potentials for obtaining clean water. An integrated system based on clean water–energy–food with solar-desalination, power generation and crop irrigation functions is a valuable strategy consistent with sustainable development.

The pace of dietary shifts towards the EAT–Lancet dietary guidelines varies widely across countries. By analysing the supply of 15 essential foods in 172 countries over almost six decades, this Article estimates the level of convergence of national diets with the EAT–Lancet reference diet and the impact that closing such a diet gap would have on national and global water footprints.

The online food delivery and takeaway market is growing in China, serving 406 million customers with 10.0 billion orders in 2018. Here, data from an online food delivery platform, life-cycle environmental impacts of packaging and tableware waste generated across 353 cities in China, and scenarios for paper alternatives and tableware sharing are presented.

Global groundwater resources are under strain, with cascading effects on producers, food and fibre production systems, communities and ecosystems. In this Perspective, the authors call for a major shift in research, extension and policy priorities to build polycentric governance capacity and strategic planning tools to sustain aquifer-dependent communities.

Aquaculture must develop within planetary boundaries. Experience from agriculture, such as in managing monocultures and using genetically modified crops, can inform sustainable solutions for aquaculture.

Although often ignored or belittled by irrigation engineers and development planners, vernacular and counter designs in irrigation should be considered as valuable and complementary to the mainstream approaches of engineers and planners.