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Circularity principles and tipping the ratio of animal- to plant-based proteins towards plant-based diets could largely reduce greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change impacts in the EU28, while avoiding micronutrient losses associated with lower animal-based protein intake.
Dietary patterns make a substantial contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Research is needed to investigate whether these dietary pattern-level GHG emission contributions can be disaggregated into food product-specific GHG emissions estimates and used to encourage citizens to switch from high- to low-emitting foods.
A sweet gel from the endocarp of cocoa pods and the concentrated juice of the cocoa fruit pulp can replace sugar in a chocolate recipe, reducing the environmental impact associated with its production and improving the nutritional value of chocolate.
Food systems are responsible for around one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and dish-level emissions are detailed end-use representatives of demand-side emissions. Low-carbon food consumption strategies are therefore linked to the Paris Agreement targets and might determine their achievement.
With centralized production, the price of ammonia-based fertilizers is affected by the volatility of the fossil fuel market, complex supply chains and long-distance transportation costs. Now, an analysis of the cost-competitiveness of decentralized low-carbon ammonia production suggests that a substantial fraction of the global ammonia demand could be cost-competitively supplied by small-scale technologies by 2030.
We provide evidence that intensive industrialization over the past century, particularly of the livestock trade, has facilitated host jumps and accumulation of antimicrobial resistance genes in Salmonella enterica, leading to the global transmission of this pathogen from Europe and the USA during the height of pork production.
Linking spatially explicit inter-city nitrogen pollution transfer embedded in food trade to urbanization pathways and historic agricultural production trends reveals evidence of a ’pollution haven’ phenomenon in China’s Greater Bay Area, exacerbated by impeded agricultural development in less-urbanized surrounding cities.
Society must revisit the currently dominant agricultural production model based on land expansion and intensification. Greenhouse cultivation represents a promising alternative, particularly in the Global South.
Estimates of the nutritional value of recreational inland fisheries highlight their importance for aquatic food access and vulnerability to climate change. Yet, communicating the importance of data-poor natural resource sectors remains challenging, particularly when defining sustainable development priorities.
The intensification of livestock farming and related global trade are increasingly linked to the expansion of endemic bacterial pathogens, including zoonotic transfers to people. To preserve food security and public health, it is imperative to find measures that counter this trend.
Management practices including augmenting the ratio of organic to chemical fertilizers, implementing deep application techniques and reintegrating straw into fields can bolster food production while optimizing resource use efficiency and abating nitrogen pollution in China.
Matching phosphorus fertilizer applications to optimal thresholds required by crops mitigates the exhaustion of phosphorus resources and promotes agricultural sustainability.
We found trade-offs among the environmental and animal welfare impacts of pig farms — those that had low greenhouse gas emissions typically had low land use but poor animal welfare and high antimicrobial use. Some farms performed well in all four impacts, but these farms were not consistently associated with any particular farm or label type.
Mouthfeel occurs at macro, cellular and molecular scales. Biophysical approaches, including atomic force microscopy, offer tools to explore the mechanisms of oral mechanosensation for informing food product development and outlining the definition of flavour.
Cropland fragmentation poses a significant threat to agricultural sustainability in China. Rational crop layout is required for different ecological regions to manage the fragmented croplands.
Wild forage fish can provide nutrients essential for human health, yet some nutrients may be lost when forage fish are used as aquafeeds. Reallocating a third of food-grade forage fish towards direct human consumption can optimize seafood systems to deliver dietary nutrients for feed and food at different scales.
Returning agricultural organic residues to the soil is imperative for food security and carbon neutrality. We scaled up field findings using machine learning and found that the co-benefits of improved rice yield and reduced net carbon emissions can be realized with integrated management of organic residues and water worldwide.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where the affordability of a healthy diet remains a pressing concern, recent research offers fresh insights into how food prices and income influence dietary quality. These insights provide a roadmap for targeted food and nutrition policy interventions.
Ambient temperature increases occurring under climate change could induce livestock heat stress, resulting in lambing losses and an estimated economic burden of up to Australian $166 million per annum to the Australian sheep industry.