Comment in 2025

Extreme heat is intensifying occupational risks across global agriculture, yet adaptation efforts remain disproportionately crop-centric. Existing frameworks largely ignore the physiological limits, economic constraints and structural exposures faced by frontline labourers. A shift towards climate-resilient mechanization, quantified health-loss integration and redistributive adaptation policy is essential to safeguard the human foundation of food systems.

Addressing nutrition and climate resilience together requires transdisciplinary participatory action research with clear impact pathways for systems change that starts from the ground up. The concept of ‘crops that nourish’ is proposed here to offer a new mode of pursuing agricultural development. It involves iterative co-creation between farmers and researchers that prioritizes local needs and agency, human health, resilience and sustainability through a focus on opportunity crops.

Food is increasingly framed as a security issue — not just as an allusion to external shocks that may put it at risk, but also as a reflection of a political agenda that prioritizes increased agricultural output rather than the systemic changes needed to create more just and sustainable food futures. European food policy must align with scientific evidence, sustainability commitments and democratic principles to create true food security.

Agriculture faces pressures from both growing demands for food production under a changing climate and the need to mitigate climate change. Deep soil management is key to achieving a solution.

Discriminatory practices are well documented and deeply rooted in food systems. Systems science methods such as social network analysis, system dynamics modelling and agent-based modelling can help to determine how discriminatory processes arise, interact and accumulate to contribute to diet-related health disparities. Such methodological approaches can reveal leverage points for advancing equity-driven solutions.

Animal welfare lacks sufficient methods for quantitative inclusion in food system impact assessments. The Welfare Footprint Framework addresses this gap, revealing that adopting slower-growing breeds can prevent at least 15–100 hours of intense pain in chickens at an estimated cost of US$1 per kilogram of meat, or US$0.00003–0.00005 for each hour using carbon externality pricing.

A safe food supply is critical to the health and future of nations. The new US administration has issued robustly worded intentions to address unsafe food ingredients, yet with voluntary proposals and conflicting priorities. Additionally, states are rapidly innovating around ingredient bans, warnings and public disclosures. A review of these federal and state actions reveals specific ways they might materially advance food ingredient safety.

Governance is key to the much-needed reorientation of food systems towards better social, environmental and economic outcomes. Yet, food system governance is fraught with competing interests, policy incoherence and power asymmetries. Here, we provide insights into whole-of-food system governance to resolve these issues and propose a governance approach informed by systems thinking that considers paradigms about who should govern food systems.

Foods and diets form the basis for preventative approaches that reduce dependence on health systems and improve human wellbeing. Current food labelling is out of step with healthy diet recommendations but could be improved by including predicted nutrient release rates alongside nutrient contents. These rates can help quantify the effects of food processing on nutritional value and identify the fraction of food-derived nutrients available for nourishing the gut microbiota.

Nutrition education and food assistance programmes have the potential to reduce the societal burdens that disproportionately impact those living in low-resource contexts. Here, we call for a standardized evaluation framework, measures and procedures for assessing nutrition education programmes in the USA as critical for achieving nutrition security and population health while lowering the national burden of escalating healthcare costs.

Despite growing recognition of how food environments shape our eating behaviour, existing policy interventions to change them remain insufficient. Approaches focused on the food supply itself, driven by grassroots social change rather than solely top-down policy, are particularly important to improve diet quality.

‘Food is Medicine’ has been increasingly accepted in the US healthcare system. Developing and implementing such programmes globally could advance mental health, improve providers’ experiences and stimulate positive change in the food and agricultural sectors.

Situating digital agriculture within recent histories of uneven agrarian development reveals its potential to perpetuate injustice. To avoid this outcome, we argue for innovation processes that centre the needs, knowledge and priorities of communities who work the land.

The food industry has created ultra-processed food-like products that disrupt nature’s biological matrix and exploit our innate preferences for sugar, salt and fat — with the goal of encouraging overconsumption and maximizing profit. Increases in obesity, other nutrition-related non-communicable diseases and environmental harms have occurred as a result. Only major political commitments and the adoption of healthy food policies will curb ultra-processed food’s negative impact on global planetary and human health.

Global food systems are dominated by large corporations that are primarily driven by the goal of maximizing profits and shareholder value. Strengthening corporate accountability to promote health, equity and environmental sustainability is a critical part of recalibrating current corporatized food systems.

Public institutions, as essential providers of meals to diverse communities, have a responsibility to support sustainable and equitable food systems through strategic procurement policies. By adopting robust sustainability criteria and supporting rural economies, they can strengthen food system resilience. By also ensuring nutritious food is accessible, public-sector catering plays a key role in the transition to a resilient, equitable food future.

The classic genetics × environment × management framework, used for assessing crop yield, can be extended to include four enabling factors for yield intensification (knowledge, availability of critical goods and services, experience, and capability). The resulting framework, ‘GEM4’, enables managers and advisors to identify farm-level constraints to yield intensification. The framework may be a useful tool for research and development initiatives at local or global levels supporting crop yield intensification.

Despite increasing interest in cellular agriculture, coffee, cocoa and palm oil produced using these techniques have received limited scientific attention. Emerging alternatives could mitigate negative environmental and socio-economic impacts associated with these crops and meet growing demand despite declining production, but it is important to ensure that they do not reinforce inequities.