Comment in 2025

Effective agriculture monitoring is vital for food security and achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger. Earth-observations (EO) offer unparalleled potential for scalable data, yet many developing nations, particularly in Africa, face challenges due to limited investments in human capacity and technology. We present a phased framework for EO-based agriculture monitoring systems, emphasizing national commitment and leveraging existing structures for long-term sustainability and adopting and adapting future advancements.

One of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), SDG 7, is to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” This goal addresses the need for environmental sustainability while highlighting energy’s vital role in promoting social and economic justice. It calls for sustainable, affordable, modern, and reliable energy usage for the health and well-being of society while mitigating climate change. Here, we briefly review available literature and data to examine how renewable energy, food security, and sustainability are interconnected in Arctic countries and regions, and how these regions can “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” and progress towards achieving food self-sufficiency by integrating renewable energy sources into food production systems. We analyze several case studies to draw conclusions on how Arctic communities can become resilient, sustainable, and economically prosperous by promoting local food production while preserving cultural practices.

The discipline of agricultural science must integrate with moral philosophy to understand and overcome barriers to sustainability. It is exceptionally rare that these fields are adjoined, but doing so reveals implicit assumptions that have shaped our agricultural system and offer opportunities for solutions. Here, I explore our agricultural system through the lens of moral philosophy and propose regenerative agriculture as an integrative framework for progress towards sustainability.

Cultured meat is increasingly promoted as a silver bullet for the environmental challenges of traditional animal agriculture. However, these technologies threaten the pursuit of food sovereignty, a troubling implication for future food systems.

The Green Revolution approaches in Asia (mainly through intensification) and sub-Saharan Africa (through both intensification and extensification) greatly increased food supply in both regions with environmental costs in both settings. To curb further loss of natural ecosystems and associated land degradation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, sustainable intensification (SI) is redefined as a process in aggregate, comprising a portfolio of interventions at global, regional, and national levels that increase food availability and reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint. To achieve universal food security, SI must be accompanied by complementary investments in market infrastructure, postharvest stewardship, healthy diets, and social protection. The complexity of the food system requires a whole-of-government, multi-sector approach to implementation, enabled by informed, responsive, and courageous leadership.

Developing new varieties of deep-rooted crops may enhance silicon uptake and agroecosystem services. This enhancement is involved in three vital ecosystem processes: (i) increasing crop silicon uptake in deep horizons where it is more readily available as Si(OH₄), (ii) contributing to storing more stable organic carbon at depth via root decomposition and deep pedogenic pathways, and (iii) accelerating CO₂ transformation into stored or leached alkalinity via deep silicate weathering.