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European farmers are unhappy with low food prices, high production costs and market competition. Underlying these shared grievances are stark profile differences and interests that go well beyond the agricultural sector.
A Declaration signed by more than 150 countries in Dubai represents a milestone for integrating food systems into climate policies. Whether it will lead to concrete change remains to be seen.
During COP28, Brazil has announced it will join the world’s biggest oil cartel, casting doubt over the country’s future contribution to the advance of a more sustainable food–climate agenda.
Today’s nutrition crisis is a manifestation of the broader malfunctioning of our global food system. The specific factors linking the two warrant further investigation.
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.
Africa is still battling with hunger and malnutrition. While there are reasons for hope, accelerated transformation depends on curbing predatory behaviour and ensuring that change comes from the continent itself.
Current knowledge on what’s needed to achieve food security and sustainable food systems could have brought us further than where we are now. Without structural changes, however, progress is bound to remain stalled.
Shifting finance towards food security and sustainability goals will require a systemic approach and the involvement of both public and private actors.
This year’s World Metrology Day is themed around the global food system. Beyond the need for metrics that can capture complexity, this is an opportunity to reflect more broadly on the quantitative paradigm that largely underlies food systems research.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds us that unless mitigation and adaptation measures are implemented at the required pace, their costs will rise while their effectiveness will fall. Food systems are at the centre of this debate, offering opportunities for both.
Simplistic oppositions help elicit conceptual differences and may set an analytical framework, but can hardly capture the complexity of food systems or aid the design of systemic solutions.
Food systems do not serve everyone. Beyond a moral imperative, inclusiveness is a condition for systemic resilience — and requires a broadened research approach.
Food was finally on the menu at COP27, but divergences on the meaning of sustainable agriculture and what food systems should look like in the future may have limited progress on negotiations.
Foods created by tissue engineering have captured imaginations within the food systems community. In this issue, we explore how cellular agriculture aligns with food systems priorities of sustainability, health, equity and economy.
Global fruit and vegetable systems are challenged by food loss and waste, food miles and climate change. Technological and political innovations are needed to improve supply and to ensure that the world’s population has access to 5-a-day.
There is widespread engagement of the scientific community with industry. Statements of competing interest are, therefore, an important mechanism for readers to assess real and perceived biases in published research and commentary.
The ‘toxic cocktail’ of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and conflict has slowed progress on nutrition. Where long-standing budgets for nutrition have been constrained in these times, broad stakeholder engagement and non-traditional approaches to nutrition financing are needed.
Basic and applied research too often remain divided in agriculture. With stagnating and, in some cases, declining research funding, the innovation we need in agriculture for food systems transformation calls for greater connection and communication between the two.
