Food Security and Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Today, we face huge challenges worldwide due to climatic changes and more frequent extreme weather events, which directly affect food security and agricultural production. This compromises livelihoods that are under pressure. Indeed, the increasing global population is putting more pressure on the food production sector worldwide.

Global agrifood systems are defined by economic, social, environmental, and institutional patterns that form the process of food production, distribution, and consumption. Today, the increasing global population and the corresponding food needs, climate change, natural resource and land degradation, rural decline associated with limited resources of land, water and fossil energy, and environmental degradation are the major challenges we face worldwide. To address these challenges, shared action must be taken by researchers from different and complementary fields, namely the fields of food, food security, food and nutrition, sustainable agriculture, agricultural economics and environmental efficiency agricultural systems, agricultural sustainability, food science, and management and marketing related to the food sector. This will enable researchers to more effectively address the adjustment of circuits of food production, processing, distribution, consumption, marketing and governance according to the Sustainable Development Goals in order to promote food quality, health and nutrition, and the promotion of sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture directly contributes to the achievement of food security and nutrition through the production of food but also contributes indirectly to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which are mainly composed of carbon dioxide, methane, etc. Indeed, eco-efficient and increased environmental efficiency in agricultural production is needed to achieve the respective SDGs and targets. 

Greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced in agriculture through the use of agricultural systems that are more adapted and resilient to the climatic changes that promote the efficient use of scarce resources in developing or developed countries to achieve food security and social and economic welfare. While the production of food is fundamentally important, according to the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, it is also important to ensure that the coming generations will also be able to access natural resources.

This Special Issue, entitled “Food Security and Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture”, aims to gather expertise in the different complementary and non-complementary fields related directly to food security, food security and nutrition, the sustainable production of foods, and the eco-efficiency of agricultural systems. Indeed, papers that analyze the supply chains of foods and the ethical concerns of production and consumption are also welcome. The main aim is to solve the above challenges and provide new insight into research, presenting directions to tackle the present concerns based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Herein, the Sustainable Development Goals are used as a framework of the topics contextualizing the scope of this Special Issue. Papers should be based on primary research and should have international relevance.

Dr. Maria José Palma Lampreia Dos-Santos
Dr. Fernando Mata
Guest Editors

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