Volume 2 Issue 2, February 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food and nutrition security through economic and social systems shocks, food system disruptions and gaps in coverage of essential health and nutrition services. Food systems in low- and middle-income countries must adapt and strengthen food and nutrition security in the wake of COVID-19.

Food security and healthy freshwater ecosystems are placed at jeopardy by poor phosphorus management. Scientists are calling for transformation across food, agriculture, waste and other sectors — mobilized through intergovernmental action, which has been missing thus far.

Transgenic maize for human consumption and livestock feed has the capacity to increase yields for a variety of farming operations in Africa and the potential to ensure food security in the face of climate change.

Food systems rely on plastics, but a top-level understanding of their effects on environmental, food security and human health remains poorly explored. The systematic scoping review presented here describes the research landscape from 2000 onwards, finding many publications on agricultural production, but gaps in our knowledge on low-income regions and outcomes for human health.

Demand for animal products in East Africa is projected to rise, but climate change-induced temperature increases will negatively impact livestock production. This modelling study quantifies the potential frequency and length of dangerous heat-stress events for the six main livestock types, identifies the regions that will be most affected and highlights the types of livestock that will be most at risk.

Assessing the effects of cover crops on soil health under real-world conditions requires a comprehensive dataset. A farmer-led trial on 1,522 strip-years from 78 farms across 9 US states over 5 years reveals improvements in key soil indicators, with active carbon concentration responding the most rapidly.

In South Africa, GM white maize has been grown for direct human consumption, whereas GM yellow and conventional hybrid maize have been cultivated primarily for livestock feed. Across 106 locations, 28 years, 491 cultivars, and 49,335 dryland and 9,617 irrigated observations in South Africa, GM maize showed increased mean yields over conventional hybrid maize, and GM white maize showed higher increased yields than GM yellow maize.

Fast and simultaneous identification of multiple viable pathogens on food is critical to public health. By integrating paper chromogenic arrays (PCAs) and machine learning, a system was developed to automatically recognize PCA patterns on multiplexed viable pathogens with strain-level specificity.

Starch bioaccessibility is limited by an intact cell wall. Type 1 and type 2 cell walls, exemplified by chickpea and durum wheat, confer variable dimensions of cell integrity, digestion kinetics and starch bioaccessibility to unprocessed and processed foods. Tissue fracture properties and cell wall permeability emerge here as mechanisms by which dietary fibre affects starch bioaccessibility.