Special Issue “Innovations in the Food System: Exploring the Future of Food”

Abstract

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2018 provided a definition of “food systems” highlighting that they “encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and food industries, and the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded” [...]

An exploration of alternative proteins as a potential sustainable solution to meeting the nutritional needs of the ever‐increasing global population

“…Food systems are reported to be responsible for major environmental and climatic damage (Vermeulen et al ., 2012). Currently, (i) food systems account for nearly one‐third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Crippa et al ., 2021), (ii) are reported to consume a large amount of natural resources (Wunderlich & Martinez, 2018), (iii) contribute to the loss of biodiversity (Read et al ., 2022), (iv) could have negative health impacts which could be due to both over‐ and under‐nutrition (Neff et al ., 2009), and (v) do not always allow for fair livelihoods and economic returns for all actors, specifically for primary producers (Clodoveo, 2022). All these challenges continue to pose a challenge in meeting the nutritional needs of the growing world population.…”