The aim of the present research is to provide a comprehensive review about the current challenges related to food security and hidden hunger. Issues are presented according to major factors, such as growing population, changing dietary habits, water efficiency, climate change and volatile food prices. These factors were compiled from reports of major international organizations and from relevant scientific articles on the subject. Collecting the results and presenting them in an accessible manner may provide new insight for interested parties. Accessibility of data is extremely important, since food security and its drivers form a closely interconnected but extremely complex network, which requires coordinated problem solving to resolve issues. According to the results, the demand for growing agricultural products has been partly met by increasing cultivated land in recent decades. At the same time, there is serious competition for existing agricultural areas, which further limits the extension of agricultural land in addition to the natural constraints of land availability. Agricultural production needs to expand faster than population growth without further damage to the environment. The driving force behind development is sustainable intensive farming, which means the more effective utilization of agricultural land and water resources. Current global trends in food consumption are unsustainable, analyzed in terms of either public health, environmental impacts or socio-economic costs. The growing population should strive for sustainable food consumption, as social, environmental and health impacts are very important in this respect as well. To this end, the benefits of consuming foods that are less harmful to the environment during production are also to be emphasized in the scope of consumption policy and education related to nutrition as opposed to other food types, the production of which causes a major demand for raw materials.

The great environmental impact of increasing animal product consumption requires the willingness to reduce or to substitute meat consumption. A possible substitute product, plant-based meat substitute, is made from plants and offers a sensory experience similar to conventional meat. In this narrative review, we focus on the consumer acceptance of plant-based meat alternatives. We searched for peer-reviewed studies in SCOPUS and Web of Science (WoS) up to December 2021. Of all 111 records identified, 28 were eligible, and, thus, included in this narrative review. The results imply that established consumer behavior has complex socio-economic implications for the adoption of plant-based meat substitutes. Plant-based meat was consistently rated more favorably than other meat substitute products, but sensory and nutritional implications still exist. Environmental and health-related factors may contribute to the market spread of plant-based meat substitutes, but these factors alone are not sufficient. Furthermore, so far there is no information available about how the hypothetical measurements used in the studies (such as willingness to pay) will translate to real life consumer behavior. Despite these barriers, there is certainly a great market potential for plant-based meat alternatives, which is expected to be more pronounced in the future, with increasing environmental and health awareness.

The Visegrad countries – or the V-4 countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – is strong regional cooperation of four EU member states in Eastern-Central-Europe aimed at strengthening the positions of the members on both a European and a global level. The aim of this research is to analyse the capital structure of the agricultural and food companies in the V4 Member States. The results show that more profitable companies were less dependent on debt finance, while the fast-growing companies had limited access to the financial market. Company size had a significant effect only in the Czech Republic. Overall, the capital structure seemed to be strongly affected by the farm structure and the relative company size.

Climate change seems to be larger, more complex and more unpredictable than any other environmental problem. This review deals with the economic effects of climate change on global agricultural production. The causes and consequences of climate change are very diverse, while populations in low-income countries are increasingly exposed to its negative effects. Supplying the population with food is possible with increased agricultural production, but this often occurs under unsustainable circumstances. Increased agricultural production is also one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. In this research we highlight some of the important connections between climate change, population growth and agricultural production.

The aim of this article is to compare the clusters formed by the correlation distances between the agricultural and the energy commodity price returns in different periods of time. The energy and agricultural markets have become more interlinked in the past ten years, which can be attributed partly to the increased usage of biofuels. According to the results of this research, after the global financial and economic crisis of 2008/09, the relationship has become tighter between the agricultural commodity prices and the price of the crude oil. Based on the hierarchical clustering, the relationship between crude oil and sugar, and especially between crude oil and vegetable oils has become stronger. These results support the hypothesis of a more interconnected agricultural and energy market after 2013. Furthermore, the emerged relationship of crude oil with the vegetable oils may indicate the connecting role of biofuels, since biofuels require agricultural input materials, partly vegetable oils. However, the role of biofuels in the present analysis requires further researches.