Nature Food最新文献

Seafood consumption is a major pathway for exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a globally pervasive neurotoxin. Yet, how upstream processes in the seafood value chain influence MeHg exposure remains poorly understood. Here we quantified MeHg in seafood production, trade and consumption in 2019 around the world. We found that countries with seafood-MeHg exposures beyond the recommended threshold by the World Health Organization were predominately high-income countries. These countries experienced a tenfold increase in exposure levels compared with low-income countries, due to greater consumption and long-overlooked higher MeHg concentrations in seafood inherited from production. Notably, 43% of seafood MeHg in production was redistributed through seafood trade, marked by inequality, as exports from high-income to lower-income countries contained higher seafood-MeHg concentrations. These exposures may have resulted in 61,800 global premature deaths and economic losses of around US$2.87 trillion, underscoring the need to change seafood production practices and trade patterns.

Recognizing front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPL) as an important tool for promoting healthier diets, the European Commission announced in 2020 that it would propose legislation for mandatory, harmonized FOPL as of 2022. Among existing FOPL schemes that could be used to that end, Nutri-Score (a summary, colour-coded system) stands out as the most widely adopted since 2017, with studies documenting its effectiveness in various contexts. Here we argue that stakeholders with conflicts of interest used contestable lobbying tactics and instrumentalized evidence against Nutri-Score, contributing to the European Commission’s failure to propose legislation. We call for an EU–wide FOPL scheme to be chosen on the basis of evidence-based, transparent policy processes that readdress power imbalances and create the trust required for genuine democratic debate.

Unhealthy diets contribute to one in every five deaths in the United States, yet federal policy action to improve dietary quality has been limited. We argue that researchers and advocates should engage in state and local food policymaking, which offers an important complementary avenue for creating healthier food environments and improving diet quality. We outline key questions researchers can address to inform local and state policymaking and provide practical tips on how they can engage with the policy process. Finally, we present a case study of researcher engagement with the New York City Sweet Truth Act policy process.

Paddy fields are major contributors to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Applying ~1% biochar by topsoil weight (high single, HS) effectively reduces greenhouse gas emissions from paddy fields, but long-term impacts are unclear. Here we present 8-year field experiments showing HS reduces CO₂ equivalent per hectare by 59% and yields a net benefit of US$1,810 per hectare. However, its effectiveness declines over time due to the decreased soil carbon content and methanotrophic activity triggered by higher soil ammonium concentrations. To counteract this, the annual-low method, involving yearly biochar recycling, surpasses the HS approach with a 52% CO₂ reduction and yields a net benefit of US$2,801 (35%) per hectare—highlighting the economic and environmental viability of annual-low biochar use in sustainable paddy field management practices.

Global food loss and waste continues to increase despite efforts to reduce it. Food waste causes a disproportionally large carbon footprint and resource burdens, which require urgent action to transition away from a disposal-dominated linear system to a circular bioeconomy of recovery and reuse of valuable resources. Here, using data from field-based studies conducted under diverse conditions worldwide, we found collective evidence that composting, anaerobic digestion and repurposing food waste to animal feed (re-feed) result in emission reductions of about 1 tCO₂e t⁻¹ food waste recycled compared with landfill disposal. Emission mitigation capacity resulting from no landfill disposal in the United States, the European Union and China would average 39, 20 and 115 MtCO₂e, which could offset 10%, 5% and 17% of the emissions from these large agricultural systems, respectively. In addition, re-feed could spare enormous amounts of land, water, agricultural fuel and fertilizer use. Our findings provide a benchmark for countries developing food waste management strategies for a circular agrifood system.

Agricultural and food supply chains in the United States are essential for both global and local food security, yet the transportation of agri-food commodities has received little attention despite being an essential feature for connecting production to consumption. Here we map the US agri-food distribution onto real-world highways, railways and waterways and also quantify the trade-offs between cost, path redundancy and carbon emissions of agri-food transit across transportation modes. Highways show the greatest path redundancy; relative to waterways, highways also cost 3 orders of magnitude more and emit 60 times more carbon. On the contrary, waterways show the lowest cost and emission levels, but path redundancy against transportation disturbances is 80% lower than for highways. Railways offer a middle ground on path redundancy, carbon emission and cost concerns compared to highways and waterways. Our findings can inform efforts to balance affordability, resilience and sustainability in agri-food transportation.

Farming activities contribute to soil antibiotic pollution, posing health risks for rural farm workers, especially on small farms in impoverished regions. The effectiveness of large farms in reducing poverty-induced soil antibiotic exposure risk (SABER) remains uncertain. Here we integrate global datasets on concentration of soil antibiotics, rural farm-worker employments and on-farm working hours to quantify SABER. We find that exposure-weighted relative populations are concentrated in underdeveloped regions, particularly East Africa and South and Southeast Asia. A 1,000 ha farm is optimal for SABER reduction, farm employment and working hours, outperforming both smaller and larger farms. Establishing large farms in the top 20% of priority areas can cover 47.3–75.5% of SABER hotspots, while establishing large farms in the top 44% of priority areas achieves the highest coverage of SABER hotspots without substantial declines in rural employment. This approach offers practical strategies to mitigate SABER while maintaining rural farm-worker employment.

Climate change will alter the geographical locations most suited for crop production, but adaptation to these new conditions may be constrained by edaphic and socio-economic factors. Here we investigate climate change adaptation constraints in banana, a major export crop of Latin America and the Caribbean. We derived optimal climatic, edaphic and socio-economic conditions from the distribution of intensive banana production across Latin America and the Caribbean, identified using remote sensing imagery. We found that intensive banana production is constrained to low-lying, warm aseasonal regions with slightly acidic soils, but is less constrained by precipitation, as irrigation facilitates production in drier regions. Production is limited to areas close to shipping ports and with high human population density. Rising temperatures, coupled with requirements for labour and export infrastructure, will result in a 60% reduction in the area suitable for export banana production, along with yield declines in most current banana producing areas.