‘Loss and damage’ is seen as a new paradigm for international climate action, but has long affected the operational realities of institutions that keep responding to climate-induced food system breakdowns. Without stronger systems for climate prediction and protection, escalating humanitarian needs risk crowding out the financial space for loss and damage prevention.

The Russia–Ukraine war has impacted food access globally, but the exact drivers behind it and the broader consequences for human and environmental health are unclear. Through scenario analysis, this study assesses the relative importance of higher agricultural input prices and export disruption to food access, and estimates undernourishment and cropland expansion.

Using a resilience heuristic to diagnose food systems will allow us to identify and relieve the underlying drivers of food system challenges. This perspective identifies four ‘aching points’ that are central points of tension in the local–global debate, and proposes transformative pathways towards more sustainable and resilient food systems.

Greenhouse gas emissions due to food loss and waste in supply chain and waste management systems accounted for about half of the global annual greenhouse gas emissions from food systems in 2017. The outcomes of emission intervention strategies depend on temporal, regional and socio-economic conditions.

Self-reported data can introduce recall bias into population-level nutritional assessments. Wastewater analyses combining metabolomic and genomic techniques can inform nutritional assessments at the population scale and support public health nutrition.

The impact of different strategies aimed at reducing meat consumption is context dependent. A randomized control trial using data from 100,000 meals reveals the cost effectiveness of exposing students to a 50 min talk on the consequences of meat consumption for health and climate.

Urban development in China has led to cropland loss and displacement over the past decades. This study uses a model-based approach to estimate spatial flows of grain, disaggregated by transport modal choices and routes, to explore the increase in carbon emission associated with the transport of cereals, tubers and soybean in China over 1990–2015.

Meat taxes could help to induce dietary changes beneficial for the environment, animal welfare and public health. Through a referendum choice experiment, this study examines how level and differentiation of the tax, its justification and behavioural salience impact support for meat taxation in Germany.

Nematode infections of cash crops impact economic well-being and food security in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This study reports a nature-based technology developed to protect yam seeds from soil-borne pathogens, increase yield and decrease post-harvest losses among smallholder farmers in Benin.

Food systems do not serve everyone. Beyond a moral imperative, inclusiveness is a condition for systemic resilience — and requires a broadened research approach.

World Trade Organization rules must be reformed to allow governments to build and manage public food reserves, providing a critical tool in preventing or mitigating food crises.