Correction to: Nature Food https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00366-x, published online 13 September 2021.

In the version of this article originally published, there was an error in the values shown for global N surplus in 2010 as presented in main text, Fig. 4f, Supplementary Fig. 6 and in the Fig. 4 source data. In the fourth sentence of the Results paragraph “The effects of N mitigation strategies,” in the sentence now reading “The global N surplus would be reduced to 65 Tg N yr−1 by 2050, which is 45% of the value in 2010 (144 Tg N yr−1),” “45%” replaces “58%” and “144” replaces “155.” The same edit (155 to 144 Tg N yr−1 for 2010) has been made for the “2010” gray bars in Fig. 4f, Supplementary Fig. 6 and source data for Fig. 4. The changes do not affect the major findings and conclusions of the study. Revised text, figures and source data are available in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.