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  • Food systems are complex and actions in one area are likely to have ripple effects in others. A newly proposed efficiency metric shows how well environmental resources used (and degraded) by food systems contribute to diet-related health outcomes.

    • Kate R. Schneider
    News & Views
  • An assessment of the supply chain reveals a rising trend in global food loss and waste, with uneven distribution across regions. Integrated interventions are necessary to reduce food waste and improve nutritional and environmental security.

    • Yuanchao Hu
    News & Views
  • Reliably predicting where crop yields may stagnate in the future can offer a suite of benefits for food system sustainability.

    • Kyle Frankel Davis
    • Hanan Abou Ali
    • Afia Sarwar
    News & Views
  • The protein transition seeks to mitigate the adverse impacts of production and consumption of animal-sourced foods. Three diverse but partially overlapping narratives emerge from the scientific literature, addressing drivers of change, actionable pathways and visions for the future.

    • Francesca Galli
    • Michele Moretti
    News & Views
  • In vivo mercury demethylation by rice plants, involving neither light nor microorganisms, has major implications for human health and possibly even global mercury cycling.

    • Kevin Bishop
    • Chuxian Li
    • Stefan Osterwalder
    News & Views
  • Redesigning crop management practices for climate, crop and soil co-optimization has great potential to maintain high yields, mitigate social and environmental impacts, and support sustainable agricultural intensification.

    • Yulong Yin
    • Zhenling Cui
    News & Views
  • The application of an integrated assessment framework in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates how anticipatory governance and decision support tools can help inform policy-making at the national level in the face of looming climate and nutrition crises.

    • Daniel Mason-D’Croz
    News & Views
  • In the runup to the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, global progress on nutritional security and environmental sustainability has slowed. A new framework aims to help countries accelerate their ambitions, allowing them to set and monitor targets across food systems.

    • Matthew Hayek
    News & Views
  • Increasing nitrogen (N) fertilization does not proportionally increase crop production. The integrative application of knowledge-based N management by synchronizing crop N demand with N supply is effective for enhancing crop N uptake while reducing its losses to the environment.

    • Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim
    • Enqing Hou
    News & Views
  • If people with unhealthy or typical dietary patterns in the UK were to follow the Eatwell Guide recommendations or longevity-associated dietary patterns, they would likely see substantial gains in life expectancy.

    • Amanda Adler
    • Rhea Saksena
    News & Views
  • A database reveals global patterns of the abundance and diversity of bacteria beneficial to plants and predicts that these vital bacteria may be threatened by future climate change. Such information is critical to sustainably address and safeguard the globe’s growing agricultural demands.

    • Joshua Ladau
    • Kelly S. Ramirez
    News & Views
  • Public health policies can have implications beyond their intended outcomes. A causal-loop diagram for sugar-sweetened beverage taxes was developed using a systems-thinking approach, emphasizing the trajectory of different outcomes over time.

    • Jennifer L. Pomeranz
    News & Views
  • With a better understanding of the soil microbiome and its interactions with plants, designing a synthetic bacterial community may complement current agricultural practices to enhance plant performance on marginal soils.

    • Miguel A. Piñeros
    • Nathan J. Scinto-Madonich
    News & Views
  • A global assessment of agricultural production reveals a surplus or deficit of food compared to requirements for a healthy diet in many regions, flagging opportunities to reduce the coexistence of undernutrition and obesity.

    • Adam M. Komarek
    News & Views
  • Nutrient recycling is key for the circularity and sustainability of food systems. Understanding the movement of phosphorus through trade enables better geospatial planning and highlights opportunities for more effective global phosphorus governance.

    • Philip M. Haygarth
    • Malika M. Mezeli
    News & Views