Food Systems: Seven Priorities to End Hunger and Protect the Planet

Food Systems at the global level and in many countries and regions are failing to end hunger, assure the safety of foods, provide adequate nutritious foods and contribute to obesity. How we produce and consume food has implications for the health of people, animals, plants and the planet itself. In this chapter, we focus on priority actions and the key role of science and research to accelerate the transformation to healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food systems. We stress that policy innovations, institutional innovations, and technology innovations are closely connected and need to be pursued in an integrated approach. We note the need for systems innovations and call on the science communities to commit to enhanced collaboration among all relevant disciplines of sciences for this purpose. Drawing on a comprehensive food systems framework, actions for seven science-driven innovations are elaborated in this chapter, each with concrete examples.