Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-10-07DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01236-6
Richard S Cottrell,Benjamin S Halpern,Marceau Cormery,Helen A Hamilton,Gage Clawson,Beth Penrose,Louise Adams,John P Bowman,Duncan D Cameron,Chris G Carter,Tom Fox-Smith,Scott Hadley,Alexandra Johne,Catriona Macleod,Sowdamini Sesha Prasad,Xintong Qiu,Camille A White,Xin Zhan,Julia L Blanchard
{"title":"The origins of aquaculture feed ingredients matter more than composition for aquafeed environmental footprint assessments.","authors":"Richard S Cottrell,Benjamin S Halpern,Marceau Cormery,Helen A Hamilton,Gage Clawson,Beth Penrose,Louise Adams,John P Bowman,Duncan D Cameron,Chris G Carter,Tom Fox-Smith,Scott Hadley,Alexandra Johne,Catriona Macleod,Sowdamini Sesha Prasad,Xintong Qiu,Camille A White,Xin Zhan,Julia L Blanchard","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01236-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01236-6","url":null,"abstract":"The net environmental implications of shifting aquaculture feed provisioning from wild-caught fishmeal to crop-based ingredients remain understudied, with little attention paid to multiple environmental pressures or the importance of where ingredients are sourced from. Here we model the change in environmental footprint (a cumulative and spatial measure of greenhouse gas emissions, habitat disturbance, excess nutrient and water consumption pressures) of shifting dependence from largely fish-based to plant-based ingredients in feeds for Atlantic salmon farming. We show that average differences exist between feeds in their cumulative and individual environmental pressures, but more importantly, the locations where feed raw materials are produced and processed drives far more variability in footprint within a feed than the typical variation between feeds. We demonstrate that responsible sourcing will be critical for sustainable feed production across all farming systems as the next generation of ingredients is developed.","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145240945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-10-06DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01231-x
Abebe D Chukalla,Mesfin M Mekonnen,Dahami Gunathilake,Fitsume T Wolkeba,Bhawani Gunasekara,Davy Vanham
{"title":"Global spatially explicit crop water consumption shows an overall increase of 9% for 46 agricultural crops from 2010 to 2020.","authors":"Abebe D Chukalla,Mesfin M Mekonnen,Dahami Gunathilake,Fitsume T Wolkeba,Bhawani Gunasekara,Davy Vanham","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01231-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01231-x","url":null,"abstract":"Agricultural crop production is the largest water user worldwide. Here we compute the blue and green water consumption (WC) of global crop production at 5 arcminutes (~10 km at the equator) for the year 2020, differentiating between 46 crops, using the most recent Spatial Production Allocation Model 2020 crop data. Total crop WC amounts to 6,668 km3, or 6,817 km3 including the flooding phase of paddy rice, of which green WC amounts to 5,588 km3 and blue WC to 1,080 km3 (increasing to 1,228 km3 with paddy flooding). Over a period of 20 years, five major crops increased in total WC by 23-82%. For 2010-2020, global total crop WC increased by 9% from 6,270 km3 (with paddy flooding). Alongside observed increases in cropland area, higher crop WC puts additional pressure on limited water resources.","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145235843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-10-06DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01243-7
Oleksandr Mialyk
{"title":"A new era of global crop water footprint estimates.","authors":"Oleksandr Mialyk","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01243-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01243-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145235844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-10-06DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01239-3
Barbara Burlingame,Rubina Hakeem,Edith Feskens
{"title":"Who gets to speak for science in the race to transform global food systems.","authors":"Barbara Burlingame,Rubina Hakeem,Edith Feskens","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01239-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01239-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145235845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-09-26DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01234-8
Erik Mathijs
{"title":"Caution is needed when translating the carbon market logic to nature credits.","authors":"Erik Mathijs","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01234-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01234-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145153479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-09-25DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01241-9
Daniel Mason-D'Croz,Cody Kugler,Roseline Remans,Philip Thornton,Joost M Vervoort,Heather Zornetzer,Hans van Meijl,Mario Herrero
{"title":"Rigorous anticipatory governance is needed for responsible food system transformation.","authors":"Daniel Mason-D'Croz,Cody Kugler,Roseline Remans,Philip Thornton,Joost M Vervoort,Heather Zornetzer,Hans van Meijl,Mario Herrero","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01241-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01241-9","url":null,"abstract":"Food system transformation will require the expansion of new ideas and solutions while phasing out old and obsolete ones, potentially leading to unintended and undesirable consequences. This Perspective argues that anticipatory governance approaches can shape technological visions while informing and prioritizing actions to support sustainable transformation. We present a framework to engage systematically with uncertainty and complexity, and to identify potential positive and negative outcomes. We argue for the adoption of mission-oriented innovation systems to better align innovation efforts with environmental, social and health objectives while mitigating negative consequences-and create a culture of more inclusive and responsible innovation.","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145140209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Energy shortages undermine agricultural drought resistance in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea","authors":"Qiang Zhang, Jinwei Dong, Zhenci Xu, Won-Ho Nam, Jilin Yang, Yongqiang Zhang, Yue Qin, Shenghang Gao, Shengzhi Huang, Hanqin Tian, Qiang Yu, Quansheng Ge","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01226-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01226-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Agricultural systems in low-income food-deficit countries face considerable risks from climate extremes and geopolitical tensions. Here, using remote sensing and meteorological observations, we show that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea exhibits lower agricultural drought resistance than the Republic of Korea under meteorological droughts of similar severity. Energy shortages, exacerbated by trade sanctions, have limited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s irrigation capacity, further impairing its drought resistance and food security.</p>","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145059567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}