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Genetic improvement of disease resistance in crops often incurs a yield penalty. We identified the ERAD-related ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme OsUBC45 as a positive regulator of rice resistance against multiple pathogens while also improving yield. The underlying mechanism involves OsUBC45 facilitating ubiquitination-mediated degradation of negative regulators of rice yield and immunity.
Irrigation expansion is expected to meet increasing food demand and help agriculture adapt to climate change. This Review article synthesizes the various linkages between irrigation and climate, evaluating their impacts on each other and presenting innovative solutions for sustainable irrigation under climate change.
We used a data mining approach powered by machine learning to analyse microbiomes from chickens, carcasses and environments, collected from farms and abattoirs in three Chinese provinces. The resulting network of correlations between livestock, environments, microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance suggests multiple routes for improving antimicrobial resistance surveillance in livestock production.
Dual-sensory fusion, self-powered technology has the capability to analyse triboelectric signals between liquids and solids and to gather characteristics of unknown liquids, providing a powerful solution to effective and low-cost smart taste sensing for monitoring food quality and safety.
There is further evidence that food production can respond to food price rises in the short term, potentially offsetting the effects of higher prices in households of agricultural workers. Additional research is needed, however, to identify enabling policies and conditions.
Terrestrial controlled environment agriculture (CEA) will have an increasingly important role in food production. By comparing the technical similarities between space controlled environment agriculture (SpaCEA) and CEA systems, the authors argue that the development of SpaCEA provides a proportionate approach to addressing the technical, environmental and economic challenges of conventional CEA design.
Diverse coping experiences among wheat importing nations during the Russia–Ukraine conflict highlight the value of open trade, food reserves and international assistance, while reinforcing the need for long-term, coherent investments in agricultural productivity and food systems resilience.
Wildfires can be a highly disruptive force in agricultural systems, yet their impacts are poorly understood. Looking at the western United States as a case study, this scoping review identifies and analyses the pathways—direct, downwind and downstream—through which wildfires impact agricultural resources, labour, and crop and livestock products.
A framework for analysing connectivity in US food flow networks reveals locations that are vital leverage points for well-functioning domestic agri-food supply chains. Planning around these logistics hubs could help build resilience to various threats and disruptions facing food systems.
Some food is lost at the production stage or is wasted by consumers. Policies aimed at avoiding this may have rebound effects through food availability and food prices, thus requiring alternative measures.
Variations in land and water footprint accounts should not shift attention away from the potential to reduce the environmental impact embedded in food choices.
Increased yields, reduced food waste and loss, and a shift to healthier diets are key to achieve carbon neutrality, food security and global sustainability simultaneously.
Nutrition resources are limited and recent cuts in governmental development funds have added urgency to the matter. Building on the broader costs of malnutrition for human health and the sustainability of food systems, this Perspective offers an overview of the nutrition-financing landscape and public spending, as well as new opportunities with private funding and other non-traditional sources of financing.
Rural dietary diversity largely depends on farmers’ access to wild food and forests. The policy environment on achieving global food security must consider managing multi-functional landscapes for a diverse array of goods and services, including food.
Consumption of wild food from forests and common lands contributes to women’s dietary diversity in India, particularly during the lean season in June and July. Women who consume wild foods are more likely to consume dark green leafy vegetables during these months, adding a nutrient-rich food group to their diets.
Future rice supply for African rice consumers is affected by domestic trends of population growth, per capita consumption, socioeconomic developments, trade and climate change. Strong import dependency makes African consumers dependent on trends and shocks in Asia; a new study models the impacts of trends and shocks.
The local loss of a crop can affect food availability in other countries, directly through trade but also indirectly if production inputs become unavailable. Quantifying the direct and often overlooked indirect effects of local shocks could inform the design of resilient food supply chains and effective crisis responses.
Food consumption has triggered considerable quantities of greenhouse gas emissions at various stages of the food supply chain. Tracking food-related emissions along supply chains is key to systematically identify their sources, drivers and mitigation opportunities.
The links between food systems and gender-based violence (GBV) remain largely neglected in research and policy. Building on the analysis of GBV and systematic inequalities within food systems, as well as how specific food system contexts shape GBV risk, this Perspective proposes a five-point collaborative agenda to address GBV in food systems.
