Volume 2 Issue 3, March 2021

Global food systems are not fit for human and planetary health. Pessimism is easy, but does not ignite positive change. This critical moment calls for visions that are optimistic, principled and actionable, argues Roy Steiner.

Different framings of food may shape food policies and their impact. Despite acknowledging food systems’ complexities, the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy still addresses food as a commodity instead of a human right or common good.

Food contains thousands of different trace natural compounds, many of which remain largely unmeasured and undocumented. The network medicine approach sheds new light on how polyphenols, among the most important of these trace compounds, impact human health.

An assessment of global inequality in agriculture, food and health indicators between 1970–2010 reveals that significant progress has been made in some countries, but more is needed to achieve a truly equitable food system that delivers for the diets, nutrition and health of all people.

Molecular interactions between polyphenol targets and proteins associated with disease are explored through a network medicine framework. The network proximity of polyphenol protein targets to disease proteins can predict therapeutic effects, highlighting more broadly the potential of network medicine as a tool for nutritional sciences.

This study draws on publicly available data to examine food-system inequality across countries. Changes in natural resource inputs, food/nutrient outputs and nutrition/health indicators reveal that inequality generally declined, but did so very differently across variables.

Crop exposure to sunlight may be affected by air pollution, climate change and geoengineering. Empirical estimates of the effects of atmospheric opacity on sunlight reveal important changes in maize and soy yields in the United States, Europe, Brazil and China.

Conservative to disruptive changes in dietary patterns of French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort are considered for reducing environmental impacts, increasing organic food consumption, providing adequate nutrition and being economically acceptable. A progressive substitution of animal products by plant products across dietary scenarios more closely aligned dimensions of sustainability.

Using spatial statistics and scenario analysis, Wang et al. identify the rural land most suitable for crop production in more than 2,800 Chinese counties. They estimate that a targeted increase in China’s urbanization level could release almost 6 million hectares of rural land for agriculture.

Substitution of food produce from declining wild fisheries with farmed species may exacerbate prevalent micronutrient deficiencies in regions such as the urban Peruvian Amazon, as well as negatively impact agricultural land use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Data on GHG emissions from the food system are mostly scattered across sectors and remain unavailable in many countries. EDGAR-FOOD, a globally consistent food emission database, brings together emissions from food-related land use and land-use change, production, processing, distribution, consumption and residues over 1990–2015 at country level.