Fixing the food system for global nutrition security

Since World War Two, the global food system has been optimised to prevent shortages – a goal it has overwhelmingly achieved. Today’s famines are rarely the result of crop failures or inadequate food production; instead, they stem primarily from political instability and conflict. However, this relentless drive for efficiency and higher yields has created new challenges. The world now heavily depends on a limited selection of crops, cultivated ever more industrially through sustained research, development and subsidies. 

This narrow focus has made the food system one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions – especially from fossil fuel–based inputs and livestock, which contributes methane and requires vast areas for grazing and feed. At the same time, diet-related risk factors such as low consumption of fruit and vegetables or high consumption of sugar, driven by the globalised food supply, have become dominant contributors to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, which now top the charts in the global burden of disease.

The vital importance of nutrition security

Our global food system is now characterised by a few major global food companies generating vast profits and becoming increasingly financialised, shifting from a focus on producing food that nourishes us to maximising short-term stock prices and dividends, extracting value from the food system rather than investing in improving its outcomes.

This means the global policy discourse should be as much about nutrition security as it is about food security. Access to affordable nutritious food has become a major problem in all countries of the world, including high-income countries, as food environments are increasingly flooded with cheap, health-harming ultra-processed food. This is creating a catastrophic burden of diet-related ill health that health systems cannot deal with. Moreover, this burden is now becoming a significant drag on major economies, as people drop out of work due to sickness.

Reshaping the food system so that it supports greater consumption of nutritious, plant-rich foods to support public health and economic prosperity is a major challenge for policymakers. Food price inflation and food price volatility resulting from climate shocks add to the urgency, as when prices go up, the nutritional quality of diets often goes down. Research published in July 2025 shows 16 food inflation events recorded in the last three years were linked to “heat, drought and heavy precipitation conditions that were so extreme as to completely exceed all historical precedent prior to 2020”. Food price volatility alone should be a reason to reduce the impact of the food system on climate change, build a more resilient system and mitigate its health effects for the poorest people.

Building resilience through meaningful change

This requires deliberate action from policymakers to reset the rules of the food industry so as to incentivise business models where value is not derived through cheap ingredients and excessive processing, but through quality ingredients, produced to high environmental standards whose value is preserved through the supply chain.

Public procurement for food served in schools, hospitals, military bases and prisons can play a significant role in market shaping, creating positive ripple effects across the commercial system. Fiscal measures can also play a vital role – using farming subsidies to incentivise the production of nutritious foods and taxes to disincentivise the manufacturing of foods with excessive amounts of sugar, salt and fat. However, pursuing this agenda alone is challenging for governments, as many of these companies operate across the globe, wielding significant power and political influence; it requires collective action and priority.

As the G20 charts a course towards global food security, leaders must recognise that true security is measured not only by the system’s resilience to shocks, but also by the health it delivers to people. A food system that can withstand disruption but fails to nourish populations is a hollow victory. Food security without public health is no security at all.