The effect of climate change across food systems: Implications for nutrition outcomes

Downscaled climate change threats to United States freshwater finfish aquaculture

Climate change threatens food production, yet gaps remain in our understanding of these threats to aquaculture, the fastest growing food production subsector. To build climate-resilient practices and policies we need to quantify and map current and future climate threats to aquaculture. Here, we explore how downscaled climate change [SSP 2 (eq. RCP 4.5) and SSP 5 (eq. RCP8.5), CMIP6] threats - including water scarcity, flooding, and increasing temperature - may directly affect United States (US) freshwater farmed fish (N = 7) based on their biological thermal tolerances and indirectly challenge the operations required for production, including to the human workforce. Aquaculture in the US is dominated by catfish, trout, and tilapia production and is widespread, with some form of finfish aquaculture present in every state and nearly half of all counties across the country. Given the current location of catfish, tilapia, bass, and carp in the US and their tolerance to warmer conditions, we find increasing temperatures are less likely to biologically impact these species negatively. In contrast, current trout, sturgeon, and perch production will be biologically threatened by rising temperatures. With respect to operational needs for facilities, increases in 'wet bulb' temperatures in the Southeast will regularly challenge human physiological limits and constrain worker capacity. Drought in the Southwest will also limit an intrinsically water dependent system, affecting nearly all taxa. While current areas of aquaculture will tend to become increasingly challenging for farmed fishes, new potential habitats will open up for nearly all species. Overall, in the absence of immediate greenhouse gas mitigation, there are several non-mutually exclusive climate adaptations, yet these adaptations can be extremely costly. Ultimately, freshwater aquaculture in the US is going to be under intense climate pressure, which may drive out small operations and cause the country to further increase dependence on international aquatic food imports.

Are healthier diets more sustainable? A cross-sectional assessment of 8 diet quality indexes and 7 sustainability metrics

BACKGROUND

A comparison of commonly used diet quality indexes (DQIs) and their association with multiple indicators of sustainability has not been performed, which limits policy action.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the associations between 8 DQIs and 7 sustainability indicators in a nationally representative sample in the United States.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional analysis, dietary data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2018, n = 18,522 ≥20 y) were merged with data on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), cumulative energy demand (CED), water scarcity footprint (WSF), land, fertilizer nutrients, pesticides, and food prices from multiple publicly available databases. Diet quality was measured using the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020), Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 (aHEI-2010), Mediterranean Diet Score (Med), Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (aMed), Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (hPDI), Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI) for the United States, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Index (DASH), and Nutrient-Rich Foods Index 9.3 (NRF9.3). The relationship between each DQI and sustainability indicator was assessed using linear regression.

RESULTS

Greater scores on most or all DQIs were associated with lower daily per capita GHGE (β = -0.908 to -0.250 carbon dioxide equivalents per 1 unit increment in diet quality z-score), CED (β = -2.699 to 0.202 MJ), land (β = -0.002 to <-0.001 ha), and fertilizer nutrients (β= -0.026 to 0.007 kg). By contrast, greater scores on most or all DQIs were associated with greater WSF (β = 343-649 L equivalents) and diet cost (β = 0.037-1.125 US$), and had mixed associations with pesticide use (β = -0.001 to <-0.001 kg). Greater scores on aHEI-2010 and hPDI were associated with the greatest ratio of favorable-to-unfavorable sustainability outcomes (5:2 each), followed by PHDI (4:1), Med and aMed (4:2 each), HEI-2020 and DASH (3:2 each), and NRF9.3 (3:4).

CONCLUSIONS

All DQIs had sustainability trade-offs, but those that emphasized plant-based foods, rather than nutrients or animal-based foods, were associated with more favorable sustainability outcomes.

Meat and the future of sustainable diets-Challenges and opportunities

The British Nutrition Foundation convened a roundtable event in January 2024 entitled 'Meat and the Future of Sustainable Diets: Turning Challenges into Opportunities', bringing together multi-sector stakeholders to discuss the social, nutritional, public health and environmental aspects of meat consumption within a sustainable food system. Participants explored the challenge of the complexity of balancing nutrition and planetary goals, emphasising the need to navigate trade-offs between various dimensions of sustainability. Whilst recognising the global nature of the issue, the roundtable primarily focussed on a UK perspective. The discussion highlighted the urgency of transforming the food system to achieve net zero, whilst ensuring broader environmental benefits, nutritional adequacy and dietary and health equity across all life stages. Concerns about poor dietary patterns, particularly among vulnerable groups were raised, with participants stressing the need for policies that promote healthy, sustainable and equitable diets without worsening inequalities. These policies should also enhance livelihoods and community wellbeing, foster resilience and support local economies. On the supply side, participants called for better data within the agri-food system, particularly at the farm level. They advocated for a multidimensional, holistic approach that goes beyond greenhouse gas emissions to encompass wider environmental impacts and whole-farm benefits, such as enhancing soil health, promoting biodiversity, improving water management, supporting nutrient cycling and boosting farm-level resilience through diversified cropping systems. Roundtable participants acknowledged existing recommendations to reduce meat consumption for both environmental reasons, such as land use and greenhouse gas emissions, and health concerns, as evidence links red, particularly processed, meat consumption with increased colorectal cancer risk. Given the variation in meat consumption globally and even locally between individuals, the discussion explored the potential of targeted campaigns to reduce high meat intake, along with the role of public food procurement and the food industry in decreasing processed meat consumption. The consensus was that dietary changes must be framed within the context of a balanced diet and broader sustainability concerns. Despite some differing viewpoints on implementation, participants agreed that transitioning to healthier, more sustainable diets is a priority. Collaboration across the entire food chain, from farm to fork, with investment in innovation, robust data collection and research, alongside policy support, was emphasised as essential to achieving this goal.

Biofortification: Future Challenges for a Newly Emerging Technology to Improve Nutrition Security Sustainably

Biofortification was coined as a term to define a plant breeding strategy to increase the micronutrient content of staple food crops to reduce the burden of micronutrient deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries. In 2003, the HarvestPlus program, based in the centers comprising the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, was initiated to implement the biofortification strategy. This article discusses what has been achieved, what has been learned, and the key challenges to embed biofortification in food systems and to expand its impact. Cost-effectiveness is key to the biofortification strategy. Biofortification piggybacks on the agronomically superior varieties being developed at agricultural research centers. Central plant breeding research discoveries can be spread globally. Farmers have every motivation to adopt the latest high-yielding, high profit crops. High productivity leads to lower food prices. As a consequence, consumers can increase their mineral and vitamin intakes at no additional cost by substituting biofortified staple foods 1-for-1 for nonbiofortified staple foods. After 20 years of investment, biofortified staple food crops are being produced by farmers in over 40 countries and are eaten by hundreds of millions of people. Published nutrition trials have shown nutrient-rich crops to be efficacious. The biofortification strategy is now recognized by the international nutrition community as one effective approach among several interventions needed to reduce micronutrient deficiencies. This is a promising beginning. However, biofortification is still a newly emerging technology. A limitation of biofortification as implemented to date is that densities of single nutrients have been increased in given staple food crops. To reach a higher trajectory, the impacts of biofortification can be multiplied several-fold using genetic engineering and other advanced crop development techniques to combine multiple-nutrient densities with climate-smart traits.

Urban Nutrition in the Global South: A Narrative Review of Current Research

According to the Global Food Policy Report 2017, nearly 90% of the projected urban population increase by 2050 is going to be concentrated in Africa and Asia. Parallel evidence suggests that poverty and related challenges of food insecurity and undernutrition are also urbanizing. The dynamics underlying urban nutrition is different from rural ones but also arguably represents a more complex scenario. In this review, we synthesize available evidence on urban nutrition (in)security in the Global South. Although focused on nutrition-centric literature, our review also identifies and discusses studies in the contexts of the broader notion of urban food systems. Articles that analyzed any form of mal/nutrition were eligible for inclusion. One hundred sixty-nine articles were shortlisted based on a systematic search strategy, then expanded through a backward and forward literature survey. Our review identifies key emergent themes from a large body of research on urban food systems, noting that surprisingly few address nutrition directly. Rather, current literature on urban nutrition is scattered and skewed with an overt focus on urban agriculture. Our review reveals that the existing literature with direct nutrition relevance in an urban context can be systematically organized across three themes, i.e., urban agriculture, nutrition transition, and social protection. Noticeably, this literature also draws upon successful interventions having implications for urban nutrition. Finally, the review identifies a few research gaps that hinder a holistic view of urban nutrition. These gaps pertain to gender, equity, water (along with sanitation and hygiene), and local governance.

Benefits and challenges of the public food procurement program: Perspectives of technicians and managers of family farmer organizations in Brazil

Public food purchase programs are a useful tool for promoting food security through rural development, supporting family farmers, and encouraging sustainable and healthy food production. The study aimed to analyse the characteristics of family farmer organizations associated with the Brazilian Public Food Procurement (PFP) program and the opinion of technicians and managers of the organizations regarding the benefits and challenges of the program. A cross-sectional study was conducted through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions regarding the characteristics of the organization and the food sales process, as well as the opinion about the benefits and challenges of PFP. The results were stratified according to the organization's participation in the PFP. The chi-squared or Fisher's exact test was applied. A total of 293 managers and technicians from family farmer organizations participated in the study. The majority of participants (71.7 %) reported their involvement in the PFP program. The study revealed that farmer organizations and public technical assistance agencies with larger memberships and employing conventional or mixed production methods were found to be more actively engaged in the PFP program across Brazil. Participants highlighted that direct sales under the program offer benefits to consumers, producers, and the environment. However, challenges identified include seasonal production constraints, bureaucratic hurdles in sales procedures, inadequate infrastructure for food storage and processing within farmer organizations, insufficient information from restaurants about purchasing opportunities, and a lack of support and technical assistance. These factors pose implementation challenges for the PFP program. While the PFP program shows promise in promoting direct sales and supporting local farmers, addressing the identified challenges will be crucial for its sustained success and broader adoption across different regions.

SARS-CoV-2 and Environmental Changes: The Perfect Storm

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global economy. It also provided insights into how the looming global climate crisis might be addressed, as there are several similarities between the challenges proposed by COVID-19 and those expected from the coming climate emergency. COVID-19 is an immediate health threat, but climate change represents a more gradual and insidious risk that will lead to long-term consequences for human health. Research shows that climate change, air pollution and the pandemics have a negative impact on health. Recent studies show that COVID-19 mortality increases with climate extremes. The goal of our review is to analyze the clinical findings of COVID-19 and how they are affected by the climate change, while also providing insight into the emergence of new variants and their ability to evade the immune system. We selected and synthesized data from primary studies, reviews, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews. Selection was based on rigorous methodological and relevance criteria. Indeed, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, named JN.1, has emerged as the dominant, first in the United States and then worldwide; the variant has specific mutations in its spike proteins that increase its transmissibility. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), JN.1 is currently the most reported variant of interest (VOI), having been identified in 132 countries. We highlight the link between climate change and pandemics, emphasizing the need for global action, targeted medical approaches and scientific innovation.

Recurrent Flooding and Household Food Access in Central Java, Indonesia

It is unknown how recurring flooding impacts household diet in Central Java. We aimed to assess how recurrent flooding influenced household food access over 22 years in Central Java by linking the Global Surface Water dataset (GSW) to the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We examined linear and nonlinear relationships and joint effects with indicators of adaptive capacity. We measured recurrent flooding as the fraction of district raster cells with episodic flooding from 1984-2015 using GSW. Food access outcomes were household food expenditure share (FES) and dietary diversity score (DDS). We fit generalized linear mixed models and random forest regression models. We detected joint effects with flooding and adaptive capacity. Wealth and access to credit were associated with improved FES and DDS. The effect of wealth on FES was stronger in households in more flood-affected districts, while access to credit was associated with reduced odds of DDS in more flood-affected districts. Flooding had more predictive importance for FES than for DDS. Access to credit, a factor that ordinarily improves food access, may not be effective in flood-prone areas. Wealthier households may be better able to adapt in terms of food access. Future research should incorporate land use data to understand how different locales are affected and further understand the complexity of these relationships.

Sustainability in Global Agri-Food Supply Chains: Insights from a Comprehensive Literature Review and the ABCDE Framework

The sustainability of global agricultural produce supply chains is crucial for ensuring global food security, fostering environmental protection, and advancing socio-economic development. This study integrates bibliometric analysis, knowledge mapping, and the ABCDE framework to conduct a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of 742 relevant articles from the Web of Science core database spanning January 2009 to July 2023. Initially, bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping reveal the annual progression of research on the sustainability of global agricultural produce supply chains, the collaborative networks among research institutions and authors, and the geographic distribution of research activities worldwide, successfully pinpointing the current research focal points. Subsequently, the ABCDE framework, constructed from the quantitative findings, helps us identify and comprehend the antecedents, barriers and challenges, impacts, and driving forces affecting the sustainability of these supply chains. The study identifies globalization and technological advancement as the primary forces shaping the sustainability of agricultural produce supply chains, despite them also posing challenges such as resource constraints and environmental pressures. Moreover, the application of innovative technologies, the optimization of organizational models, and active stakeholder engagement are key to propelling supply chains toward more sustainable development, exerting a profound impact on society, the environment, and the economy. In conclusion, this study suggests future research directions. The integrated methodology presented offers new perspectives and deep insights into the complexities of sustainable global agricultural produce supply chains, demonstrating its potential to foster knowledge innovation and practical applications, providing valuable insights for academic research and policy formulation in this domain.

What do Climate Change, Nutrition, and the Environment Have to do With Mental Health?

Climate change is becoming the most significant global challenge and must be addressed on a global scale. At the time that this article is being written, the planetary heat in 2023 was the hottest on record. Similarly, the World Health Organization reports that 99% of the world's population lives in regions of unhealthy air pollution. Similarly, depression has become one of the leading causes of global mental and physical disabilities, and the impact of depression is predicted to only worsen over the next 25 years. It is interesting to note that climate experts often overlook the adoption of nutrition via a whole plant-based diet as a solution to both mental illness and climate change. In this review, we will touch upon the role of nutrition in gut microbiota and mental health, the impact diet has on greenhouse gases, the role of ultra-processed food, and environmental factors such as air pollution and increasing planetary heat and their growing impacts on mental health. In the end, the promotion of plant-based foods has the potential to improve personal mental and physical health while improving planetary health.

Intersections of Climate Change with Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health: An Overview and Evidence Map

Scientific research linking climate change to food systems, nutrition, and nutrition-related health (FSNH) has proliferated, showing bidirectional and compounding dependencies that create cascading risks for human and planetary health. Within this proliferation, it is unclear which evidence to prioritize for action and which research gaps, if filled, would catalyze the most impact. We systematically searched for synthesis literature (i.e., reviews) related to FSNH published after 1 January, 2018. We screened and extracted characteristics of these reviews and mapped them in an interactive Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) supplemented by expert consultation. Eight hundred forty-four synthesis reports met inclusion criteria (from 2739 records) and were included in the EGM. The largest clusters of reports were those describing climate impacts on crop and animal-source food production and emissions from such (86%). Comparatively few reports assessed climate change impacts on nutrition-related health or food manufacture, processing, storage, and transportation. Reports focused on strategies of climate adaptation (40%), mitigation (29%), both (19%), or none (12%). Only 1 quarter of reports critically evaluated equity (25%), and fewer reports suggested that changes to equity and equitable practices would alter climate-FSNH dynamics (6%). The expert consultation mirrored the results of the EGM and contextualized findings further. This novel map describes a wide research landscape linking climate change to FSNH. We identified 4 key research gaps: 1) research on whole food systems or postharvest elements; 2) research evaluating relationships between climate change and nutrition-related health outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations; 3) promising methods (and additional data required) that can i) identify inflection points or levers for intervention, ii) incorporate complex dynamics and characterize trade-offs, iii) be understood and applied in context-specific, localized ways for decision making; and 4) research undertaken through interdisciplinary collaborations that enables producing and translating evidence to action, especially those that inherently consider coproduction and fairness.

The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) residue could partially replace the dietary puffed soybean meal in the Three-yellow chickens

Periplaneta americana residue is a byproduct of using Periplaneta americana in pharmaceutical research and development for extracting active ingredients. Three hundred Three-yellow chickens were selected for the experiment and randomly divided into 6 groups (5 replications per group, 10 chickens per replicate): the control group (group A) was fed a basal ration, and the experimental groups (groups B, C, D, E, and F) were fed experimental diets in which P. americana residue replaced puffed soybean meal at proportions of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, respectively, for a period of 42 d. The aim was to assess the impact of different levels of P. americana residue on the growth, survival, intestinal morphology, digestive enzyme activity, intestinal flora, and intestinal transcriptional responses of Three-yellow chickens. The results indicated that the increase in P. americana residue levels had a linear and quadratic impact on the average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR), respectively. The ADG was notably greater in the 40% group than in the 100% group, while the FCR was significantly lower in the 20% and 40% groups than in the 100% group (P < 0.05). Protease, lipase, and amylase activities exhibited a quadratic increase with increasing concentrations of P. americana residue (P < 0.05). Protease and lipase activities were notably greater in the 20% and 40% groups than in the 0% group (control group), amylase activity was significantly greater in the 40% group than in the 0% group (control group) (P < 0.05). Duodenal crypt depth (CD) decreased quadratically with increasing P. americana residue (P < 0.05). The duodenal villus height/crypt depth ratio (V/C) was significantly lower in the 100% group than in the 60% group (P < 0.05). The intestinal villus height (VH) increased quadratically with increasing levels of P. americana residue. The VH in the 60% group was significantly greater than that in the 0% (control group), 20, 80, and 100% groups (P < 0.05). The Chao and Ace indices demonstrated linear and quadratic increases with increasing levels of P. americana residue, while the Pd index showed a quadratic increase with increasing levels of P. americana residue (P < 0.05). The relative abundance profile of Lactobacillus exhibited a linear and quadratic decrease with increasing levels of P. americana residue, with the 100% group showing a significantly lower abundance than the 0% (control group) and 40% groups (P < 0.05). The transcriptome results showed that P. americana residue could enhance the digestive system by promoting vitamin, fat, carbohydrate digestion and absorption, cholesterol metabolism, etc. In conclusion, P. americana residue can replace puffed soybean meal without negatively affecting the growth performance of three-yellow chickens. The low and medium groups had positive effects on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activity, intestinal morphology, intestinal flora, and substance digestion and absorption of three-yellow chickens. The recommended replacement of P. americana residue for puffed soybean meal in the diets of three-yellow chickens ranged from 20% to 60%.

From Streets to Tables: Bottom-Up Co-creation Case Studies for Healthier Food Environments in Vietnam and Nigeria

Current food systems fail to provide equity, sustainability, and positive health outcomes, thus underscoring the critical need for their transformation. Intervening in food environments holds substantial promise for contributing to this much-needed transformation. Despite scholars and practitioners often recognizing the necessity for bottom-up approaches, there is a dearth of empirical investigations evaluating the potential of these approaches to contribute to food system transformations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our study aimed to address this research gap, providing a unique perspective in this regard. Drawing on evidence from two co-creation case studies conducted with small-scale informal fruit and vegetable vendors and poor consumers in Vietnam and Nigeria from January 2020 to December 2021, we explored the relevance of bottom-up community-engaged co-creation processes in intervening within LMICs' food retail environments. Employing a mixed-methods approach that includes quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, participatory workshops, and focus group discussions, we demonstrated that bottom-up co-creation processes involving marginalized socioeconomic groups can generate retail-level innovations that are tailored to informal retail contexts, whereas remaining aligned with established top-down theories and literature pertaining to food environments and healthy diets. We provided empirical evidence highlighting how both vendors and consumers respond positively to the co-created innovations. Expanding upon our results, we offered methodological insights applicable to interventions targeted at food environments in LMICs, and considerations for future research or development initiatives in this domain. Our findings revealed the capacity of vulnerable stakeholders to actively engage in public health initiatives and contribute to developing innovative solutions that are context-specific and conducive to the adoption of healthier dietary practices. These results confirm the potential of bottom-up, co-creation, real-world interventions within informal settings to contribute toward fostering inclusive transformation of food systems.

Applying Digital Technology to Understand Human Experiences of Climate Change Impacts on Food Security and Mental Health: Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

The global impact of climate change ranges from intense heatwaves to extreme weather events that endanger entire ecosystems and people's way of life. Adverse climate change events place undue stress on food and health systems, with consequences for human food security and mental health status. Ubiquitous digital devices, such as smartphones, have the potential to manage existing and emerging climate-related crises, given their ability to enable rapid response, instant communication, and knowledge sharing.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aimed to identify digital apps being used to capture or address climate change impacts on food security and mental health to inform the development of a digital citizen science initiative.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted using 3 peer-reviewed databases (PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science) and manual gray literature searches of relevant organizational (ie, governmental and nonprofit) websites to identify articles and reports published between January 2012 and July 2023. Three separate searches were conducted in each database to identify digital apps focused on climate change and (1) food security, (2) mental health, and (3) food security and mental health. Two reviewers conducted initial screening, with a third reviewer resolving any discrepancies. Articles focused on climate change impacts on wildlife or agriculture (ie, not human food security) were excluded. Full-text screening was conducted for shortlisted articles, and a final data abstraction table was generated, summarizing key app features, contextual factors, and participant involvement.

RESULTS

From the 656 records screened, 14 digital apps met the inclusion criteria. The food security apps (n=7, 50%) aimed to capture traditional knowledge to preserve food systems, conduct food security assessments, and aid users in decreasing food insecurity risk. The mental health apps (n=7, 50%) assessed climate change-related stress and provided users with coping strategies following adverse weather events. No digital apps examined the intersection of climate change, food security, and mental health. Key app features included user-to-user communication (n=5, 36%), knowledge databases (n=5, 36%), data collection and analysis (n=3, 21%), gamification (n=1, 7%), and educational resources (n=2, 14%) to address climate change impacts on food security or mental health. In total, 3 approaches to participant involvement were used across studies, including contributory (n=1, 7%), collaborative (n=1, 7%), and cocreative (n=1, 7%) approaches, to ensure the relevance and use of digital apps.

CONCLUSIONS

Most digital apps identified provided a service to citizens to either prevent adverse climate change-related health impacts or manage these effects following an acute event or a natural disaster. The capacity of ubiquitous digital tools to enable near real-time communication, the involvement of various stakeholder groups, and their ability to share relevant educational resources in a timely manner are important for developing tailored climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies across jurisdictions.

Climate change-induced shifts in the food systems and diet-related non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review and a conceptual framework

OBJECTIVES

To determine the relationship between climate change, food systems and diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and propose a conceptual framework for food systems in SSA.

DESIGN

A scoping review.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Studies included investigated the relationship between climate change and related systemic risks, food systems, DR-NCDs and its risk factors in SSA. Studies focusing on the association between climate change and DR-NCDs unrelated to food systems, such as social inequalities, were excluded.

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE

A comprehensive search was conducted in ProQuest (nine databases), Google Scholar and PubMed in December 2022.

CHARTING METHODS

Data extracted from studies included author, study type, country of study, climate change component, DR-NCD outcomes and risk factors, and impacts of climate change on DR-NCDs. A narrative approach was used to analyse the data. Based on the evidence gathered from SSA, we modified an existing food system conceptual framework.

RESULTS

The search retrieved 19 125 studies, 10 of which were included in the review. Most studies used a cross-sectional design (n=8). Four explored the influence of temperature on liver cancer through food storage while four explored the influence of temperature and rainfall on diabetes and obesity through food production. Cross-sectional evidence suggested that temperature is associated with liver cancer and rainfall with diabetes.

CONCLUSION

The review highlights the vulnerability of SSA's food systems to climate change-induced fluctuations, which in turn affect dietary patterns and DR-NCD outcomes. The evidence is scarce and concentrates mostly on the health effects of temperature through food storage. It proposes a conceptual framework to guide future research addressing climate change and DR-NCDs in SSA.

Transcriptomic investigation of the interaction between a biocontrol yeast, Papiliotrema terrestris strain PT22AV, and the postharvest fungal pathogen Penicillium expansum on apple

Biocontrol strategies offer a promising alternative to control plant pathogens achieving food safety and security. In this study we apply a RNAseq analysis during interaction between the biocontrol agent (BCA) Papiliotrema terrestris, the pathogen Penicillium expansum, and the host Malus domestica. Analysis of the BCA finds overall 802 upregulated DEGs (differentially expressed genes) when grown in apple tissue, with the majority being involved in nutrients uptake and oxidative stress response. This suggests that these processes are crucial for the BCA to colonize the fruit wounds and outcompete the pathogen. As to P. expansum analysis, 1017 DEGs are upregulated when grown in apple tissue, with the most represented GO categories being transcription, oxidation reduction process, and transmembrane transport. Analysis of the host M. domestica finds a higher number of DEGs in response to the pathogen compared to the BCA, with overexpression of genes involved in host defense signaling pathways in the presence of both of them, and a prevalence of pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) only during interaction with P. expansum. This analysis contributes to advance the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms that underlie biocontrol activity and the tritrophic interaction of the BCA with the pathogen and the host.

Greater ecophysiological stress tolerance in the core environment than in extreme environments of wild chickpea (Cicer reticulatum)

Global climate change and land use change underlie a need to develop new crop breeding strategies, and crop wild relatives (CWR) have become an important potential source of new genetic material to improve breeding efforts. Many recent approaches assume adaptive trait variation increases towards the relative environmental extremes of a species range, potentially missing valuable trait variation in more moderate or typical climates. Here, we leveraged distinct genotypes of wild chickpea (Cicer reticulatum) that differ in their relative climates from moderate to more extreme and perform targeted assessments of drought and heat tolerance. We found significance variation in ecophysiological function and stress tolerance between genotypes but contrary to expectations and current paradigms, it was individuals from more moderate climates that exhibited greater capacity for stress tolerance than individuals from warmer and drier climates. These results indicate that wild germplasm collection efforts to identify adaptive variation should include the full range of environmental conditions and habitats instead of only environmental extremes, and that doing so may significantly enhance the success of breeding programs broadly.

Cattle manure hydrochar posed a higher efficiency in elevating tomato productivity and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions than plant straw hydrochar in a coastal soil

Rehabilitation of degraded soil health using high-performance and sustainable measures are urgently required for restoring soil primary productivity and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of coastal ecosystems. However, the effect of livestock manure derived hydrochar on GHG emission and plant productivity in the coastal salt-affected soils, one of blue carbon (C) ecosystems, was poorly understood. Therefore, a cattle manure hydrochar (CHC) produced at 220 °C was prepared to explore its effects and mechanisms on CH4 and N2O emissions and tomato growth and fruit quality in a coastal soil in comparison with corresponding hydrochars derived from plant straws, i.e., sesbania straw hydrochars (SHC) and reed straw hydrochars (RHC) using a 63-day soil column experiment. The results showed that CHC posed a greater efficiency in reducing the global warming potential (GWP, 54.6 % (36.7 g/m2) vs. 45.5-45.6 % (22.2-30.6 g/m2)) than those of RHC and SHC. For the plant growth, three hydrochars at 3 % (w/w) significantly increased dry biomass of tomato shoot and fruit by 12.4-49.5 % and 48.6-165 %, respectively. Moreover, CHC showed the highest promotion effect on shoot and fruit dry biomass of tomato, followed by SHC ≈ RHC. Application of SHC, CHC and RHC significantly elevated the tomato sweetness compared with CK, with the order of CHC (54.4 %) > RHC (35.6 %) > SHC (22.1 %). Structural equation models revealed that CHC-depressed denitrification and methanogen mainly contributed to decreased GHG emissions. Increased soil phosphorus availability due to labile phosphorus supply from CHC dominantly accounted for elevated tomato growth and fruit production. Comparably, SHC-altered soil properties (e.g., decreased pH and increased total carbon content) determined variations of GHG emission and tomato growth. The findings provide the high-performance strategies to enhance soil primary productivity and mitigate GHG emissions in the blue C ecosystems.

Corn straw biochar addition elevated phosphorus availability in a coastal salt-affected soil under the conditions of different halophyte litter input and moisture contents

Improving salt-affected soil health using different strategies is of great significance for Sustainable Development Goals. The effects of biochar as a sustainable carbon negative soil amendment on phosphorous (P) pools in the degraded salt-affected soils of the of coastal wetlands (as one of the primary blue carbon ecosystems) with halophyte litter input under different water conditions (the two intrinsic characteristics of coastal wetlands) are poorly understood. Thus, a corn straw derived biochar (CBC) was added into a coastal salt-affected soil collected from the Yellow River Delta to investigate its effect on P fractions and availability under the input of three different local halophyte litters (i.e., Suaeda salsa, Imperata cylindrica and Phragmites australis) and under the unflooded and flooded water conditions. The results showed that the individual input of Suaeda salsa increased soil P availability by 28.2-40.9 %, but Imperata cylindrica and Phragmites australis had little effect on P availability. CBC individual amendment more efficiently enhanced P availability in the unflooded soil than the flooded soil. However, the co-amendment of CBC with litters showed little synergistic effect on P availability. CBC sharply increased the proportion of Ca-bound labile P fraction, but moderately lifted the proportion of Al/Fe-bound mediumly labile P fraction. CBC-enhanced P availability and altered inorganic P fractions were mainly resulted from the provision of labile inherent P by biochar, improved soil properties (i.e., increased CEC), and altered bacterial community composition (i.e., elevated abundance of P-solubilizing and phosphate-accumulating bacteria). These findings give new insights into understanding P biogeochemical cycling in the coastal salt-affected soils amended with biochars, and will be helpful to develop biochar-based technologies for enhancing P pools and improving soil health of the blue carbon ecosystems.

Approaches to Address the Anemia Challenge

Anemia is a multifactorial condition; approaches to address it must recognize that the causal factors represent an ecology consisting of internal (biology, genetics, and health) and external (social/behavioral/demographic and physical) environments. In this paper, we present an approach for selecting interventions, followed by a description of key issues related to the multiple available interventions for prevention and reduction of anemia. We address interventions for anemia using the following 2 main categories: 1) those that address nutrients alone, and, 2) those that address nonnutritional causes of anemia. The emphasis will be on interventions of public health relevance, but we also consider the clinical context. We also focus on interventions at different stages of the life course, with a particular focus on women of reproductive age and preschool-age children, and present evidence on various factors to consider when selecting an intervention-inflammation, genetic mutations, nutrient delivery, bioavailability, and safety. Each section on an intervention domain concludes with a brief discussion of key research areas.

Restoring Food Systems with Nutritious Native Plants: Experiences from the African Drylands

BACKGROUND

Twenty-seven African countries have committed to restore more than 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). In addition, for the same period of time, the African-led Great Green Wall initiative seeks to restore 100 million hectares of degraded agro-sylvo-pastoral lands in the Sahel. The current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) moreover marks an unprecedented opportunity to shape future landscapes, and forge more biodiverse and nutritious food systems. Yet most large-scale restoration actions continue to be largely isolated from socioeconomic challenges facing dryland communities, not least food security and acute malnutrition. Such isolations contribute to low restoration successes and outcomes in Africa's drylands. At the same time, international interventions aimed at improving acute malnutrition in the drylands have not adequately considered the agriculture-nutrition linkages, particularly "pre-farm gate"-including consumption pathways which optimize the use of native plant diversity.

OBJECTIVES

This article identifies priority action areas emerging from experiences over 5 years of restoration activities carried out in the Sahel through Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Action Against Desertification Programme supporting the implementation of Africa's Great Green Wall. These actions aim to inform development and humanitarian interventions on the ground to render restoration interventions nutrition-sensitive and hence more effective in practice.

RESULTS

Recognizing the symbiotic relationship between landscapes and livelihoods, FAO developed a blueprint for large-scale restoration that combines biophysical and socioeconomic aspects for the benefit of rural communities. The approach builds climate and nutritional resilience into its restoration interventions as a preventative approach to reverse land degradation and ultimately improve livelihoods, food security, and nutrition.

CONCLUSIONS

FAO's experience demonstrated that what is planted and when has the potential to not only significantly improve biodiversity and reverse land degradation, but also positively influence nutrition outcomes. Future interventions in the drylands must involve joint efforts between nutritionists and natural resource managem prove both human and planetary health.

Seasonality, food security, diet quality and nutritional status in urban poor adolescents in Malaysia

Seasonality was shown to have an effect on food availability and accessibility, increasing the risk of food insecurity and causing poor diet quality and malnutrition. Therefore, this study aimed to determine seasonal effects on household food security status, diet quality, and nutritional status of urban poor adolescents in Malaysia. A cohort study was conducted among 164 adolescents aged 10-17 from 12 People Housing Programme in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the Northeast (November 2021 till March 2022) and Southwest (June 2022 till September 2022) monsoon. Household food security status was measured using the 18-item USDA Household Food Security Survey Module. Dietary intake was determined using a two-days 24-h dietary recall and translated into Standardized Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (S-MHEI). Anthropometric and haemoglobin level measurements were performed to determine nutritional status. Seasonality was found to have a significant effect on overall diet quality (p = 0.021), food groups such as fish (p < 0.001), meat/poultry/eggs (p = 0.003), and legumes/nuts (p < 0.001), and fat nutrient (p = 0.037) as well as anaemia status (p = 0.020) after controlling the confounders. Although food security did not vary with seasons, seasonality affected the consumption of certain food groups as well as anaemia status for urban poor adolescents. Seasonally sensitive nutrition initiatives should be developed to ensure diet adherence to recommendations, ultimately enhancing the diet quality of urban poor adolescents.

Toward commercial applications of LED and laser-induced fluorescence techniques for food identity, quality, and safety monitoring: A review

The assessment of food safety and quality is a matter of paramount importance, especially considering the challenges posed by climate change. Convenient, eco-friendly, and non-destructive techniques have attracted extensive attention in the food industry because they can retain food safety and quality. Fluorescence radiation, the process by which fluorophore emits light upon the absorption of ultraviolet or visible light, offers the advantages of high sensitivity and selectivity. The use of excitation-emission matrix (EEM) has been extensively explored in the food industry, but on-site detection of EEMs remain a challenge. To address this limitation, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and light emitting diode-induced fluorescence (LED-IF) have been implemented in many cases to facilitate the transition of fluorescence measurements from the laboratory to commercial applications. This review provides an overview of the application of commercially available LIF/LED-IF devices for non-destructive food measurement and recent studies that focus on the development of LIF/LED-IF devices for commercial applications. These studies were categorized into two stages: the preliminary exploration stage, which emphasizes the selection of an appropriate excitation wavelength based on the combination of EEM and chemometrics, and the pre-application stage, where experiments were conducted on scouting with specific excitation wavelength. Although commercially available devices have emerged in many research fields, only a limited number have been reported for use in the food industry. Future studies should focus on enhancing the diversity of test samples and parameters that can be measured by a single device, exploring the application of LIF techniques for detecting low-concentration substances in food, investigating more quantitative approaches, and developing embedded computing devices.

Food Risk Analysis: Towards a Better Understanding of "Hazard" and "Risk" in EU Food Legislation

For risk communication, it is important to understand the difference between "hazard" and "risk". Definitions can be found in Codex Alimentarius and the European Union (EU) General Food Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002. The use of these terms as synonyms or their interchange is a recurrent issue in the area of food safety, despite awareness-raising messages sent by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and other interested entities. A quick screening of the EU's food regulations revealed several inconsistencies. Hence, it was considered necessary to further investigate if regulations could act as a source for this problem. A software tool was developed to support the detection and listing of inconsistent translations of "hazard" and "risk" in certain EU food regulations. Subsequently, native-speaking experts working in food safety from each EU country were asked to provide their individual scientific opinion on the prepared list. All data were statistically analysed after applying numerical scores (1-5) describing different levels of consistency. Results showed that the most common problem was the interchange of "hazard" with "risk" and vice versa. This lack of consistency can create confusion that can further translate into misjudgments at food risk assessment and communication levels.

Pathways from climate change to emotional wellbeing: A qualitative study of Kenyan smallholder farmers living with HIV

Climate change is associated with adverse mental and emotional health outcomes. Social and economic factors are well-known drivers of mental health, yet comparatively few studies examine the social and economic pathways through which climate change affects mental health. There is additionally a lack of research on climate change and mental health in sub-Saharan Africa. This qualitative study aimed to identify potential social and economic pathways through which climate change impacts mental and emotional wellbeing, focusing on a vulnerable population of Kenyan smallholder farmers living with HIV. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with forty participants to explore their experience of climate change. We used a thematic analytical approach. We find that among our study population of Kenyan smallholder farmers living with HIV, climate change is significantly affecting mental and emotional wellbeing. Respondents universally report some level of climate impact on emotional health including high degrees of stress; fear and concern about the future; and sadness, worry, and anxiety from losing one's home, farm, occupation, or ability to support their family. Climate-related economic insecurity is a main driver of emotional distress. Widespread economic insecurity disrupts systems of communal and family support, which is an additional driver of worsening mental and emotional health. Our study finds that individual adaptive strategies used by farmers in the face of economic and social volatility can deepen economic insecurity and are likely insufficient to protect mental health. Finally, we find that agricultural policies can worsen economic insecurity and other mental health risk factors. Our proposed conceptual model of economic and social pathways relevant for mental health can inform future studies of vulnerable populations and inform health system and policy responses to protect health in a changing climate.

Harnessing the connectivity of climate change, food systems and diets: Taking action to improve human and planetary health☆

With climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing conflicts, food systems and the diets they produce are facing increasing fragility. In a turbulent, hot world, threatened resiliency and sustainability of food systems could make it all the more complicated to nourish a population of 9.7 billion by 2050. Climate change is having adverse impacts across food systems with more frequent and intense extreme events that will challenge food production, storage, and transport, potentially imperiling the global population’s ability to access and afford healthy diets. Inadequate diets will contribute further to detrimental human and planetary health impacts. At the same time, the way food is grown, processed, packaged, and transported is having adverse impacts on the environment and finite natural resources further accelerating climate change, tropical deforestation, and biodiversity loss. This state-of-the-science iterative review covers three areas. The paper's first section presents how climate change is connected to food systems and how dietary trends and foods consumed worldwide impact human health, climate change, and environmental degradation. The second area articulates how food systems affect global dietary trends and the macro forces shaping food systems and diets. The last section highlights how specific food policies and actions related to dietary transitions can contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation responses and, at the same time, improve human and planetary health. While there is significant urgency in acting, it is also critical to move beyond the political inertia and bridge the separatism of food systems and climate change agendas that currently exists among governments and private sector actors. The window is closing and closing fast.

Household Flood Severity and Migration Extent in Central Java: Analysis of the Indonesian Family Life Survey

Central Java, Indonesia, is prone to river and coastal flooding due to climate changes and geological factors. Migration is one possible adaptation to flooding, but research is limited due to lack of longitudinal spatially granular datasets on migration and metrics to identify flood-affected households. The available literature indicates social and economic barriers may limit mobility from flood prone areas. The Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) provides self-reported data on household experiences with natural disasters among 1501 Central Java households followed over two waves (2007 and 2014). We examined how the severity of flooding, defined by household-level impacts captured by the IFLS (death, injury, financial loss, or relocation of a household member), influenced the extent of household movement in Central Java using a generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds model. Households severely impacted by floods had 75% lower odds of moving farther away compared to those that did not experience floods. The most severely impacted households may be staying within flood-affected areas in Central Java. Public health, nutrition, and economic surveys should include modules focused on household experiences, impacts, and adaptations to facilitate the study of how climate changes are impacting these outcomes.

Why understanding food choice is crucial to transform food systems for human and planetary health

What, how and why people eat has long been understood to be important for human health, but until recently, has not been recognised as an essential facet of climate change and its effects on planetary health. The global climate change and diet-related health crises occurring are connected to food systems, food environments and consumer food choices. Calls to transform food systems for human and planetary health highlight the importance of understanding individual food choice. Understanding what, how and why people eat the way they do is crucial to successful food systems transformations that achieve both human and planetary health goals. Little is known about how food choice relates to climate. To clarify potential paths for action, we propose that individual food choice relates to climate change through three key mechanisms. First, the sum of individual food choices influences the supply and demand of foods produced and sold in the marketplace. Second, individual food decisions affect type and quantity of food waste at the retail and household level. Third, individual food choices serve as a symbolic expression of concern for human and planetary health, which can individually and collectively stimulate social movements and behaviour change. To meet the dietary needs of the 2050 global population projection of 10 billion, food systems must transform. Understanding what, how and why people eat the way they do, as well as the mechanisms by which these choices affect climate change, is essential for designing actions conducive to the protection of both human and planetary health.

Seasonal variation in food security, lifestyle, nutritional status and its associated factors of the urban poor adolescents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: research protocol of a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Climate change, obesity and undernutrition have now become a worldwide syndemic that threatens most people's health and natural systems in the twenty-first century. Adolescent malnutrition appears to be a matter of concern in Malaysia, and this is particularly relevant among the urban poor population. Mounting evidence points to the fact that underlying factors of malnutrition are subject to climate variability and profoundly affect nutritional outcomes. Hence, it is interesting to examine seasonal variation in nutritional status and its associated factors of urban poor adolescents in Malaysia.

METHODS

This is a prospective cohort study following urban poor adolescents aged 10-17 years living in low-cost high-rise flats in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, across two monsoon seasons. The baseline assessment will be conducted during the onset of the Northeast Monsoon and followed up during Southwest Monsoon. Climate data will be collected by obtaining the climatological data (rainfall, temperature, and relative humidity) from Malaysia Meteorological Department. Geospatial data for food accessibility and availability, and also built (recreational facilities) environments, will be analyzed using the QGIS 3.4 Madeira software. Information on socio-demographic data, food security, lifestyle (diet and physical activity), and neighbourhood environment (food and built environment) will be collected using a self-administrative questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements, including weight, height, and waist circumference, will be conducted following WHO standardized protocol. WHO Anthro Plus was used to determine the height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age (BAZ). Anaemic status through biochemical analyses will be taken using HemoCue 201+® haemoglobinometer.

DISCUSSION

The study will provide insights into the seasonal effects in nutritional status and its associated factors of urban poor adolescents. These findings can be useful for relevant stakeholders, including policymakers and the government sector, in seizing context-specific strategies and policy opportunities that are seasonally sensitive, effective, and sustainable in addressing multiple challenges to combat all forms of malnutrition, especially among urban poor communities.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The protocol for this review has not been registered.

The relationship between climate change induced natural disasters and selected nutrition outcomes: a case of cyclone Idai, Zimbabwe

BACKGROUND

The increased frequency of climate induced natural disasters has exacerbated the risks of malnutrition in the already vulnerable regions. This study was aimed at exploring the effects of Cyclone Idai on nutrition outcomes of women of child-bearing age and children under 5 years.

METHOD

The household-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Eastern Zimbabwe. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews to determine food consumption score (FCS) and household dietary diversity (HDDS), minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) and minimum dietary diversity for children (MDD-C). Severity of Cyclone Idai was grouped into five categories based on the extent of damage to infrastructure and loss of human lives. Association between continuous and categorical variables was tested using Pearson correlation test and Chi square test, respectively. Linear and binary logistic regression was performed to investigate determinants of food security.

RESULTS

A total of 535 households were interviewed. There was a significant correlation between severity of Cyclone Idai and MDD-W (p = 0.011), HDDS (p = 0.018) and FCS (p = 0.001). However, severity of Cyclone Idai was not a determinant of any nutrition outcome, but gender of household head was a negative predictor of HDDS (β = - 0.734, p = 0.040), and marital status of household head was a positive predictor (β = 0.093, p = 0.016) of FCS.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide a good baseline to inform future programming of food aid activities during disasters. More so, our findings call for evidence-based policies regarding composition of a food aid basket and targeting of beneficiaries. The main strength of this study is that it is the first to investigate the effects of cyclones on food and nutrition security indicators and is based on a large sample size thus making our results generalisable.

Nanotechnology - A new frontier of nano-farming in agricultural and food production and its development

The potential of nanotechnology for the development of sustainable agriculture has been promising. The initiatives to meet the rising food needs of the rapidly growing world population are mainly powered by sustainable agriculture. Nanoparticles are used in agriculture due to their distinct physicochemical characteristics. The interaction of nanomaterials with soil components is strongly determined in terms of soil quality and plant growth. Numerous research has been carried out to investigate how nanoparticles affect the growth and development of plants. Nanotechnology has been applied to improve the quality and reduce post-harvest loss of agricultural products by extending their shelf life, particularly for fruits and vegetables. This review assesses the latest literature on nanotechnology, which is used as a nano-biofertilizer as seen in the agricultural field for high productivity and better growth of plants, an important source of balanced nutrition for the crop, seed germination, and quality enrichment. Additionally, post-harvest food processing and packaging can benefit greatly from the use of nanotechnology to cut down on food waste and contamination. It also critically discusses the mechanisms involved in nanoparticle absorption and translocation within the plants and the synthesis of green nanoparticles.

Five U.S. Dietary Patterns and Their Relationship to Land Use, Water Use, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Implications for Future Food Security

The U.S. agri-food system is a driver of climate change and other impacts. In order to achieve environmental targets that limit global mean temperature rise ≤2 °C, a shift in American dietary patterns is critical. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the environmental impact (i.e., land use, water use, and GHG emissions) related to consumption of five U.S. dietary patterns (i.e., Current U.S., the Healthy U.S., Mediterranean, Healthy Vegetarian, and Vegan), and (2) to determine the specific impact of each food group in each dietary pattern on the three environmental indicators. This study utilized existing datasets to synthesize information related to the study's environmental indicators and food production and connected these data to the current U.S. diet and the USDA-defined diets. Results indicate that the three omnivore diets contributed the greatest to GHG emissions, land use and water use. The Vegan diet scored the lowest across all indicators, although the water required for plant-based protein nearly offset other water gains. For the omnivore diets, red meat and dairy milk contributed the most to each environmental indicator. By considering sustainability as well as health outcomes in their recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines, the USDA can have a critical role in shifting diets necessary to alter climate change trends.

Climate Change and Nutrition: Implications for the Eastern Mediterranean Region

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is considered among the world's most vulnerable to the dire impacts of climate change. This review paper aims at (1) characterizing climate change in countries of the EMR; (2) examining the potential effects of climate change on the nutritional and health status of the population; and (3) identifying the most vulnerable population groups. The paper explored several climate change indicators including daily temperatures, extreme temperature, daily precipitation, extreme precipitation (flooding, drought, storms, etc.), humidity, CO2 concentrations and sea surface temperature in EMR countries. Findings suggest that climate change will exert a significant adverse effect on water and food security and showed that the nutritional status of the population, which is already characterized by the triple burden of malnutrition, is likely to worsen via three main pathways mediated by climate change, namely, its impact on food security, care and health. Women, infants, children, those living in poor households and those experiencing displacement will be among the most vulnerable to the nutritional impacts of climate change. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations from the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition, which can support the region in tackling the critical nexus of climate change and nutrition.

Enviroscore: normalization, weighting, and categorization algorithm to evaluate the relative environmental impact of food and drink products

A 5-scale label that relativizes the environmental impact of a given product referred to the impact of the European food basket is proposed. It was developed based on the Product Environmental Footprint methodology with the following stepwise approach. First, a set of normalization and weighting factors were defined to aggregate all the environmental impact categories into a single dimensionless index referred to as the European food basket, coined the European Food Environmental Footprint Single Index (EFSI). Next, the effectiveness of the EFSI index was evaluated by assessing the distribution of the EFSI results on 149 hypothetical food items and comparing it with the results obtained with EC Single Score. Finally, the thresholds to translate the EFSI index into the 5-scale Enviroscore (A, B, C, D, and E) were established and validated using the Delphi method. Results indicated that both, Enviroscore and EFSI, were able to account for impact variability between and within food products. Differences on the final score were observed due to the type of products (vegetables vs. animal products), the country of origin and the mean of transportation. Regarding country of origin, results indicated that differences in water stress impact category were better captured by the EFSI index (r = 0.624) than by the EC Single Score (r = 0.228). Finally, good agreement achieved with the Delphi method (weighted Kappa 0.642; p = 0.0025), ensures the acceptability of the Enviroscore. In conclusion, this study developed a method to communicate environmental impact assessment in a front-of-packaging label.

Growing health: global linkages between patterns of food supply, sustainability, and vulnerability to climate change

Global food systems are developing rapidly, and have resulted in a large burden of disease and a high proportion of environmental resource use. We combined global data sources on food supply and trade, environmental footprints, burdens of disease, and vulnerability to climate change to explore patterns from 1990 to 2017. Four distinct patterns of food supply (animal sources and sugar, vegetables and nuts, starchy roots and fruits, and seafood and oils) were matched to health and environmental risks. The animal sources and sugar pattern was found to have the greatest environmental footprint and to be associated with a greater burden of chronic disease than any other pattern, although it was also associated with lower undernutrition. This pattern is globally predominant, but has begun to decrease in higher income countries. Countries where this pattern is predominant are generally among the least susceptible to climate change, whereas more susceptible countries tend to have more sustainable patterns of food supply. More countries that are susceptible to climate change are increasingly exporting a larger proportion than before of their cereals, fruit, and vegetables globally, which will lead to increased risks in global food security. To increase resilience to future shocks, dietary change towards more sustainable patterns should accelerate in high-income countries, and the food systems of the most susceptible countries should be protected.

Climatic conditions and household food security: Evidence from Tanzania

Food security and adequate nutrition are critical for achieving progress toward sustainable development. Two billion people worldwide experience moderate to severe food insecurity, and rates of hunger have increased over the past several years after declining steadily for decades. The FAO attributes this increase in large part to climate change, though empirical evidence on the relationship between climatic conditions and food security remains limited. We examine this question by linking nationally representative longitudinal data from four rounds of the Tanzania National Panel Survey to high-resolution gridded climate data. We then estimate a set of fixed effects regression models to understand the linkages between recent rainy season precipitation and temperature and two indicators of household food security: Food Consumption Score (FCS) and reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI). We find that low rainfall-particularly dry and cool conditions-is negatively associated with food security. Moving from a typical rainfall year to a particularly dry one increases the risk of being food insecure on both measures simultaneously by 13-percentage points. This suggests that a lack of rainfall impedes households' ability to access food, likely through reduced agricultural production and increased food prices, leading to lower dietary diversity and food shortages. Vulnerability is higher among households with fewer working age members, suggesting that households with a greater supply of labor can better withstand droughts. As climate change alters precipitation and temperature patterns over the coming decades, policies to increase resilience will be critical for improving food security, particularly among populations heavily reliant on agriculture.

Online Engagement with Memes and Comments about Climate Change

Social media posts, and memes in particular, offer important opportunities for social media users and organizations to disseminate information about climate change. However, as this topic remains controversial, memes often elicit comments that may oppose (rather than support) the existence of climate change. In three studies, we find that the position of the comments influences users’ engagement with the main post: when the user’s and the meme’s positions on climate change align, comments opposing the claim of the meme decrease users’ readiness to “like” the meme. We also examine social media users’ attitudes toward different comment moderating options, including disabling, deleting, hiding, or responding to comments.

Interplays between changing biophysical and social dynamics under climate change: Implications for limits to sustainable adaptation in food systems

Climate change scenarios have significant implications for the livelihoods and food security of particular groups in society and will necessitate a range of adaptation actions. While there is a significant literature on the social as well as biophysical factors and limits to adaptation, less is known about the interactions between these, and what such interactions mean for the prospects of achieving sustainable and resilient food systems. This paper is an attempt at addressing this gap by examining changing biophysical and social factors, with specific consideration of vulnerable groups, across four case studies (Ghana, Malawi, Norway and Spain). In each case, future climate change scenarios and associated biophysical limits are mapped onto four key social factors that drive vulnerability and mediate adaptation, namely, scale, history, power and politics, and social differentiation. We then consider what the interaction between biophysical limits and socio-political dynamics means for the options for and limits to future adaptation, and how climate may interact with, and reshape, socio-political elements. We find that biophysical limits and socio-political factors do not operate in isolation, but interact, with dynamic relationships determining the 'space' or set of options for sustainable adaptation. By connecting the perspectives of biophysical and social factors, the study illuminates the risks of unanticipated outcomes that result from the disregard of local contexts in the implementation of adaptation measures. We conclude that a framework focusing on the space for sustainable adaptation conditioned by biophysical and social factors, and their interactions, can help provide evidence on what does and does not constitute sustainable adaptation, and help to counter unhelpful narratives of climate change as a sole or dominant cause of challenges in food systems.

Prospects of Low Trophic Marine Aquaculture Contributing to Food Security in a Net Zero-Carbon World

To limit compromising the integrity of the planet, a shift is needed towards food production with low environmental impacts and low carbon footprint. How to put such transformative change towards sustainable food production whilst ensuring food security into practice remains a challenge and will require transdisciplinary approaches. Combining expertise from natural- and social sciences as well as industry perspectives, an alternative vision for the future in the marine realm is proposed. This vision includes moving towards aquaculture mainly of low trophic marine (LTM) species. Such shift may enable a blue transformation that can support a sustainable blue economy. It includes a whole new perspective and proactive development of policy-making which considers, among others, the context-specific nature of allocation of marine space and societal acceptance of new developments, over and above the decarbonization of food production, vis á vis reducing regulatory barriers for the industry for LTM whilst acknowledging the complexities of upscaling and outscaling. This needs to be supported by transdisciplinary research co-produced with consumers and wider public, as a blue transformation towards accelerating LTM aquaculture opportunities in a net zero-carbon world can only occur by considering the demands of society.

Climate change, behavior change and health: a multidisciplinary, translational and multilevel perspective

The climate crisis provides a critical new lens through which health and health behaviors need to be viewed. This paper has three goals. First, it provides background on the climate crisis, the role of human behavior in creating this crisis, and the health impacts of climate change. Second, it proposes a multilevel, translational approach to investigating health behavior change in the context of the climate crisis. Third, it identifies specific challenges and opportunities for increasing the rigor of behavioral medicine research in the context of the climate crisis. The paper closes with a call for behavioral medicine to be responsive to the climate crisis.

Nexus between Climate-Smart Livestock Production Practices and Farmers' Nutritional Security in Pakistan: Exploring Level, Linkages, and Determinants

Livestock plays a vital role in humans’ food and nutrition security under rapidly changing climatic scenarios. This study investigates the nature and factors affecting livestock farmers’ choices of climate-smart livestock practices by using a multivariate probit model and then estimates the average effect of these adopted strategies on per capita daily dietary (calorie, protein, and calcium) intake among livestock herders. For this purpose, data were collected from 196 livestock farmers residing in the Punjab province of Pakistan, selected through multistage purposive and random sampling. The Simpson diversity index results revealed that farmers used diversified food in their daily diet. The results also showed that farmers consumed more protein-rich food items as compared to calorie and calcium-rich food items in their daily diet. Moreover, the average per capita calorie intake of livestock farmers was 2413.19 kcal/day. Livestock farmers adopting a higher number of climate-smart livestock practices consumed more daily per capita calories, protein, and calcium compared to those who adopted a lower number of climate-smart livestock practices on livestock farms. Moreover, climate-smart livestock practices produced more and better nutritional outcomes in combination with each other than in isolation. Livestock training was found to be positively associated with the adoption of more climate-smart practices. Therefore, livestock training is necessary to expedite the adoption of climate-smart practices and to improve the nutritional security of the farmers.

Changes in Quinoa Seed Fatty Acid Profile Under Heat Stress Field Conditions

The nutritional quality of quinoa is often related to the high protein content of their seeds. However, and despite not being an oilseed crop, the oil composition of quinoa seeds is remarkable due to its profile, which shows a high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly in essential fatty acids such as linoleic (ω-6) and α-linolenic (ω-3). In line with this, this study aimed at evaluating the effect of elevated temperatures on the oil composition of different quinoa cultivars grown in the field in two consecutive years (i.e., 2017 and 2018). In 2017, heat stress episodes resulted in a reduced oil content and lower quality linked to decreased ratios of oleic acid:linoleic acid, larger omega-6 (ω-6) to omega-3 (ω-3) ratios, and lower monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and higher PUFA contents. Furthermore, the correlations found between mineral nutrients such as phosphorous (P) and the contents of oleic and linoleic acids emphasize the possibility of optimizing oil quality by controlling fertilization. Overall, the results presented in this study show how the environmental and genetic factors and their interaction may impact oil quality in quinoa seeds.

Complex drought patterns robustly explain global yield loss for major crops

Multi-purpose crops as maize, rice, soybean, and wheat are key in the debate concerning food, land, water and energy security and sustainability. While strong evidence exists on the effects of climate variability on the production of these crops, so far multifaceted attributes of droughts-magnitude, frequency, duration, and timing-have been tackled mainly separately, for a limited part of the cropping season, or over small regions. Here, a more comprehensive assessment is provided on how droughts with their complex patterns-given by their compound attributes-are consistently related to negative impacts on crop yield on a global scale. Magnitude and frequency of both climate and yield variability are jointly analysed from 1981 to 2016 considering multiscale droughts, i.e., dry conditions occurring with different durations and timings along the whole farming season, through two analogous and standardized indicators enabling comparison among crops, countries, and years. Mainly winter wheat and then spring wheat, soybean and the main maize's season reveal high susceptibility of yield under more complex drought patterns than previously assessed. The second maize's season and rice present less marked and more uncertain results, respectively. Overall, southern and eastern Europe, the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa presents multi-crop susceptibility, with eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia appearing critical regions for the most vulnerable crop, which is wheat. Finally, yield losses for wheat and soybean clearly worsen when moving from moderate to extreme multiscale droughts.

Rising Carbon Dioxide and Global Nutrition: Evidence and Action Needed

While the role of CO₂ as a greenhouse gas in the context of global warming is widely acknowledged, additional data from multiple sources is demonstrating that rising CO₂ of and by itself will have a tremendous effect on plant biology. This effect is widely recognized for its role in stimulating photosynthesis and growth for multiple plant species, including crops. However, CO₂ is also likely to alter plant chemistry in ways that will denigrate plant nutrition. That role is also of tremendous importance, not only from a human health viewpoint, but also from a global food–web perspective. Here, the goal is to review the current evidence, propose potential mechanistic explanations, provide an overview of critical unknowns and to elucidate a series of next steps that can address what is, overall, a critical but unappreciated aspect of anthropogenic climate change.

Effects of combined abiotic stresses on nutrient content of European wheat and implications for nutritional security under climate change

Climate change is causing problems for agriculture, but the effect of combined abiotic stresses on crop nutritional quality is not clear. Here we studied the effect of 10 combinations of climatic conditions (temperature, CO₂, O₃ and drought) under controlled growth chamber conditions on the grain yield, protein, and mineral content of 3 wheat varieties. Results show that wheat plants under O₃ exposure alone concentrated + 15 to + 31% more grain N, Fe, Mg, Mn P and Zn, reduced K by − 5%, and C did not change. Ozone in the presence of elevated CO₂ and higher temperature enhanced the content of Fe, Mn, P and Zn by 2–18%. Water-limited chronic O₃ exposure resulted in + 9 to + 46% higher concentrations of all the minerals, except K. The effect of climate abiotic factors could increase the ability of wheat to meet adult daily dietary requirements by + 6% to + 12% for protein, Zn and Fe, but decrease those of Mg, Mn and P by − 3% to − 6%, and K by − 62%. The role of wheat in future nutrition security is discussed.