Nature foodPub Date : 2025-08-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01218-8
Annika N. Flynn, Taro Takahashi, Alex Sim, Jeffrey M. Brunstrom
{"title":"Dish swap across a weekly menu can deliver health and sustainability gains","authors":"Annika N. Flynn, Taro Takahashi, Alex Sim, Jeffrey M. Brunstrom","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01218-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01218-8","url":null,"abstract":"A weekly canteen menu comprising 15 dishes (3 dishes × 5 days) has 1.4 million unique configurations. Here food choice was monitored over four weeks ( ~ 5,000 meals) in a UK university residence. Without students noticing, mathematically optimized menus achieved 30.7% and 6.3% reductions in carbon footprint and saturated fatty acid intake, respectively. This demonstrates the potential of strategic menu manipulation to benefit health and the environment, without the need for recipe changes. Menu manipulation is a promising strategy to increase environmental and health benefits of food choices. Drawing on data from a UK university residence, this study illustrates such potential.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 9","pages":"843-847"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01218-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144813042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature foodPub Date : 2025-08-08DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01216-w
Fiona Coleman
{"title":"Humanitarian food aid in crisis","authors":"Fiona Coleman","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01216-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01216-w","url":null,"abstract":"As global hunger remains elevated, and foreign assistance budgets shrink, the humanitarian food assistance system is under immense strain. Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis at the World Food Programme, reflects on the implications of the recent funding cuts and what is needed to save lives now and in the future.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"740-741"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144797573","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 : 2025-08-08DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01215-x
João Vasco Silva, Jill E. Cairns, Dumisani Kutywayo
{"title":"Why crop yields fail to increase in southern Africa","authors":"João Vasco Silva, Jill E. Cairns, Dumisani Kutywayo","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01215-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01215-x","url":null,"abstract":"Satellite data reveal widespread stagnation in cropland productivity and moderate climate trends across much of southern Africa. Ground-truthing these results using a mix of approaches and local knowledge is critical to avoid inadvertently misguiding investments in the future.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"743-744"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144797379","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 : 2025-08-05DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01212-0
Nicole Bamber, Ian Turner, Nathan Pelletier
{"title":"Rapeseed, wheat and peas grown in Canada have considerably lower carbon footprints than those from major international competitors","authors":"Nicole Bamber, Ian Turner, Nathan Pelletier","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01212-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01212-0","url":null,"abstract":"A carbon footprint analysis following the ISO 14067 standard reveals that Canadian field crops have generally much lower footprints than those of international competitors due to differences in soil carbon flux and nitrous oxide emissions. Transportation-to-market of Canadian crops is proportionately important, but related emissions are often more than offset by low production-related emissions. In extreme cases, Canadian crops could be shipped to western European markets an additional 17 times before their carbon footprint would break even with crops grown in Europe. Greenhouse gas emissions of major commodity field crops are of increasing interest to diverse stakeholders. A carbon footprint analysis following the ISO 14067 standard reveals key drivers of, and differences in, emissions for selected field crop production and transport to market between Canada and other countries.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"757-761"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01212-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144778485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature foodPub Date : 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01194-z
João Vasco Silva, Fernando Aramburu-Merlos, Frédéric Baudron, Samuel Gameda, Tesfaye Shiferaw Sida, Vicky Ruganzu, Joel Meliyo, Moti Jaleta, Jordan Chamberlin, Robert J. Hijmans
{"title":"Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments","authors":"João Vasco Silva, Fernando Aramburu-Merlos, Frédéric Baudron, Samuel Gameda, Tesfaye Shiferaw Sida, Vicky Ruganzu, Joel Meliyo, Moti Jaleta, Jordan Chamberlin, Robert J. Hijmans","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01194-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01194-z","url":null,"abstract":"Acid soils are widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural lime can be used to alleviate production constraints associated with soil acidity, but lime is not widely available in the region, and it is unclear if applying it would be profitable. Using lime requirement models and crop yield responses to soil acidity modelled as plateau–linear decay functions, we estimated the profitability of acid soil remediation through liming. Crop yield loss to soil acidity occurs on 32.7 Mha, or 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s cropland. The burden of acid soils is US$6.0 billion (6% of the current production value), and 75% of that could be profitably alleviated. Under prevailing conditions, liming would be profitable in the year of application on 6.2 Mha (with an average profitability of US$278 ha−1) and on 8.8 Mha when lime’s long-term effect is considered. Intensification of crop production and lower relative lime/output prices could make liming profitable on more cropland. Soil acidity constrains agricultural productivity in a large proportion of sub-Saharan Africa’s croplands. This study estimates the location- and crop-specific amounts of lime required to remediate acid soils, taking into account the profitability and returns on investment of liming in the year of application and beyond.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"799-808"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144701531","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":"Why food systems governance must be grounded in human rights","authors":"Matthew Canfield, Jessica Duncan, Anisah Madden, Molly Anderson, Dolunay Çörek Akyıldız, Giulia Simula","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01217-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01217-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 9","pages":"817-818"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144701530","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 : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01204-0
Shahriar Kibriya, Naureen Fatema
{"title":"Data collection in fragile states","authors":"Shahriar Kibriya, Naureen Fatema","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01204-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01204-0","url":null,"abstract":"Monitoring food security in regions experiencing multiple crises remains challenging. Satellite imagery combined with artificial intelligence can now estimate food availability in the fragile state of Yangon, Myanmar.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"649-650"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144684850","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 : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01192-1
Ben Belton, Peixun Fang, Shuo Liu, Kaifeng Zhang, Xiaobo Zhang
{"title":"Geospatial analysis enables combined poultry–fish farm monitoring in the fragile state of Myanmar","authors":"Ben Belton, Peixun Fang, Shuo Liu, Kaifeng Zhang, Xiaobo Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01192-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01192-1","url":null,"abstract":"Food security is challenging to measure in fragile contexts. Here we combine data from previous field surveys with remotely sensed images and apply deep-learning techniques to estimate changes in the number and area of chicken houses on integrated chicken–fish farms and the supply of chicken meat and eggs from 2010 to 2023 in Yangon region, Myanmar. Yangon’s poultry sector grew ~10% annually from 2010 to 2020 but contracted ~8% annually from 2020 to 2023. Accurate data collection remains challenging in fragile contexts, which are prone to food insecurity. Remote sensing, survey data and deep learning can generate poultry–fish sector production estimates and contribute towards long-term food security monitoring.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"664-667"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01192-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144684931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature foodPub Date : 2025-07-23DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01205-z
Madhura Rao
{"title":"Traditional knowledge at the centre of a circular bioeconomy","authors":"Madhura Rao","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01205-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01205-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"733-734"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144684845","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}