Nature foodPub Date : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01196-x
Dori Patay, Erica Reeve, Anne Marie Thow, Phil Baker, Penny Farrell
{"title":"Whole-of-food system governance for transformative change","authors":"Dori Patay, Erica Reeve, Anne Marie Thow, Phil Baker, Penny Farrell","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01196-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01196-x","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"636-640"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603731","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 : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01201-3
Sergiy Medinets, Mark A. Sutton
{"title":"Nitrogen benchmarking for cropping systems","authors":"Sergiy Medinets, Mark A. Sutton","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01201-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01201-3","url":null,"abstract":"A data-driven conceptual framework that benchmarks sustainable nitrogen management for wheat production in China and shows strong potential for fostering locally adapted strategies that balance agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"645-646"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603683","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 : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01189-w
Hannah H. E. van Zanten, Jessica Duncan, Hans van Meijl, Sjoukje Heimovaara
{"title":"Scientific reflection on the European Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food","authors":"Hannah H. E. van Zanten, Jessica Duncan, Hans van Meijl, Sjoukje Heimovaara","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01189-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01189-w","url":null,"abstract":"In February 2025, the European Commission announced its Vision for Agriculture and Food for the next five years and beyond. The Vision builds on the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, a process that brought together key stakeholders from across Europe. The Strategic Dialogue report is substantially more ambitious than the Commission’s Vision. The latter lacks a food systems approach, which can hamper an integrated, sustainable transition. As scientists, we stand ready to work with the Commission, and other stakeholders, to provide evidence and analysis to ensure Europe’s food system works for the health of people and the planet. This Perspective presents a reflection on the Vision’s level of ambition, how it deviates from the Strategic Dialogue that preceded it and how scientists can contribute to a more sustainable agri-food system in Europe.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"653-656"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603684","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 : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01184-1
Tazman Davies, Akshar Saxena, Jason H. Y. Wu, Matti Marklund
{"title":"Food price elasticity estimates in Australia","authors":"Tazman Davies, Akshar Saxena, Jason H. Y. Wu, Matti Marklund","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01184-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01184-1","url":null,"abstract":"Fiscal food policies can be used, among others, to minimize the burden of diet-related diseases. To inform the design of such policies in Australia, we used the large grocery-purchasing dataset NielsenIQ Homescan to estimate own-price elasticities and cross-price elasticities for 18 food categories. We found that households were most responsive to changes in price for non-sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages: a 10% increase in price was associated with reductions in demand of 15% and 12%, respectively. Additionally, an increase in the price of one category was associated with relatively small changes in the quantity demanded for other categories (that is, 92% of cross-price elasticities had an absolute value <0.2). There were small differences in own-price and cross-price elasticities across socioeconomic quintiles. These price elasticity estimates can be used to model the health and equity impacts of fiscal food policies in Australia. Food price elasticities are key to the design of policy interventions aimed at shifting food consumption. Using a comprehensive longitudinal dataset of grocery purchases, this study calculates own-price and cross-price elasticities of demand for commonly consumed food categories in Australia, both at the population level and for different socioeconomic groups.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"725-732"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01184-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603732","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 : 2025-07-10DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01198-9
Daniel A. Jacobo-Velázquez
{"title":"Tariffs and food security in the US–Mexico agricultural corridor","authors":"Daniel A. Jacobo-Velázquez","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01198-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01198-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"634-635"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144593855","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 : 2025-07-08DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01197-w
Xiaotian Mi, Gang He, Weihong Qiu, Qingsong Zhang, Yulong Yin, Jinshan Liu, Mei Shi, Zhaohui Wang, Zhenling Cui
{"title":"Data-driven nitrogen management benchmarks support China’s wheat self-sufficiency by 2030","authors":"Xiaotian Mi, Gang He, Weihong Qiu, Qingsong Zhang, Yulong Yin, Jinshan Liu, Mei Shi, Zhaohui Wang, Zhenling Cui","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01197-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01197-w","url":null,"abstract":"Targeted improvement pathways for crop production are needed to meet growing food demand, but quantitative benchmarks are still lacking in China. Here we establish nitrogen (N) management benchmarks for wheat production at regional-to-country scales using a modified approach outlined by the EU Nitrogen Expert Panel, defined as meeting both the requirements for targeted crop N output and the threshold for N surplus. A large-scale survey of farmers shows that only 20% of China’s wheat harvested area met N management benchmarks. Optimized N management, soil fertility and climatic factors account for 70% of the effect on N management benchmarks; the combination of these contributors is projected to increase China’s wheat harvested area that meets N management benchmarks to 75% by 2030. With this, wheat production would increase by 12%, sufficient to achieve wheat self-sufficiency without imports. We demonstrate how N management benchmarks can be achieved under future climate change scenarios. Nitrogen application rates for wheat production in China are ~2.5 times greater than those in the USA. Nitrogen benchmarks can guide smallholder farmers and policymakers towards improved nitrogen use efficiency.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 7","pages":"692-702"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578024","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 : 2025-07-04DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01193-0
Lianming Zheng, Wulahati Adalibieke, Feng Zhou, Pan He, Yilin Chen, Peng Guo, Jinling He, Yuanzheng Zhang, Jin Li, Weiran Li, Yining Gan, Peng Xu, Chen Wang, Jianhuai Ye, Lei Zhu, Guofeng Shen, Tzung-May Fu, Xin Yang, Shunliu Zhao, Amir Hakami, Jing Meng, Huizhong Shen
{"title":"Indirect emissions contribute a quarter of air pollution-related health burden of food systems in China","authors":"Lianming Zheng, Wulahati Adalibieke, Feng Zhou, Pan He, Yilin Chen, Peng Guo, Jinling He, Yuanzheng Zhang, Jin Li, Weiran Li, Yining Gan, Peng Xu, Chen Wang, Jianhuai Ye, Lei Zhu, Guofeng Shen, Tzung-May Fu, Xin Yang, Shunliu Zhao, Amir Hakami, Jing Meng, Huizhong Shen","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01193-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01193-0","url":null,"abstract":"Agricultural intensification produces indirect emissions beyond ammonia volatilization from activities such as machinery usage, food processing, transportation, storage and energy inputs. Here we integrate an input–output analysis with air quality modelling approaches, showing that attributable mortality from indirect emissions has risen sixfold in China over the past 37 years. Indirect emissions now account for one-quarter of air pollution-related attributable mortality associated with food consumption. We find a marked redistribution of the indirect health burden, with low-income groups experiencing an additional 58% attributable deaths compared with their expected food consumption burdens, which were initially associated with the food consumption of high-income groups. Targeted strategies using abatement approaches could halve the indirect health burden, thereby mitigating the environmental impact of food consumption amid agricultural intensification. Agricultural machinery and supporting sectors such as energy, food processing, transportation and storage are quantified, demonstrating a sixfold increase in related health risks over the past 37 years in China, with disproportionately higher impacts on low-income populations.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 8","pages":"766-776"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144565590","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 : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01185-0
Patrick Baur, Margiana Petersen-Rockney, Timothy Bowles, Selena Ahmed
{"title":"A mangrove metaphor for sustainable food systems centres diversification as the root of human and planetary health","authors":"Patrick Baur, Margiana Petersen-Rockney, Timothy Bowles, Selena Ahmed","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01185-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01185-0","url":null,"abstract":"Mangroves comprise diverse species that exhibit unique adaptations allowing them to thrive in harsh coastal environments in continual flux. Inspired by mangroves, we present a knowledge-to-action framework for conceptualizing sustainable food systems. We posit that human and planetary health are best sought through processes of diversification across multiple root systems to sustain a plurality of desired outcomes. The mangrove metaphor highlights that processes of diversification, which are empirically observable, measurable and reflexive to contemporary needs and contexts, can address food system polycrises and support transitions that benefit people and the planet. Mangroves have evolved to survive harsh growing conditions in continual flux. This Perspective explores how their resilience can inspire a new metaphor to guide food system transformations by drawing on the strengths of root systems, diversity and community.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 6","pages":"539-546"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144340971","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 : 2025-06-18DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01200-4
{"title":"Science at the heart of food safety","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01200-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01200-4","url":null,"abstract":"Unsafe food impairs human and economic development. Nature Food welcomes research on the causes of food safety issues and potential solutions aligned with the One Health approach.","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 6","pages":"525-525"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01200-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144311992","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 : 2025-06-13DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01182-3
Pasquale De Vita, Bruno Basso
{"title":"The risk of the ‘producing more with less’ narrative","authors":"Pasquale De Vita, Bruno Basso","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01182-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43016-025-01182-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94151,"journal":{"name":"Nature food","volume":"6 6","pages":"526-527"},"PeriodicalIF":21.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144278728","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}