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Our planet has the capacity to provide a growing world population with enough nutritious and varied food, now and in the future. However, around 826 million people went hungry in 2021 – an increase of 46 million within a 5-year upward trend. Meanwhile, of the global adult population, circa 30% is overweight or obese, while around 30% of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.

There is a growing global consensus that this situation is unacceptable and that our food systems need to undergo a profound transformation in order to address the root causes for their current underperformance in terms of sustainability and equity.

Around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions are generated by how we produce, consume and dispose of food. High demand for animal products in many societies and unsustainable livestock production practices are also among the main drivers of habitat destruction and biodiversity loss, particularly tropical deforestation. In addition, animal husbandry and deforestation are two of the three key drivers of the emergence of zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential.

A shift towards healthy and sustainable diets is clearly needed. However, recent figures show that around 3.1 billion people – or 40% of the entire human population - could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, and the number is expected to further increase due to the continuing trend of soaring global food prices and growing inequality. These issues have been further exacerbated by the growing power imbalances among food system actors, as well as by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and armed conflicts across the globe.

Food systems are both contributing to and affected by these interrelated challenges of inequality, hunger and malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, zoonotic diseases, and conflicts. While relying on an increasingly fragile and scarce resource base, the food that is currently produced fails to keep large portions of people worldwide well-nourished and in good health. Scientists have sounded the alarm bell: the warming planet is close to climate tipping points with catastrophic consequences. Unless food consumption and production patterns are brought to operate within planetary boundaries, the risk of our food supply being disrupted is real.