Sustainable production of nutrient dense foods - Editorial

Authors: Mattoo, Autar; FELLER, URS - University Of Bern; Roberts, Daniel

Submitted to: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/20/2020
Publication Date: 11/30/2020
Citation: Mattoo, A.K., Feller, U., Roberts, D.P. 2020. Sustainable production of nutrient dense foods - Editorial. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 4:626413. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.626413.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.626413

Interpretive Summary: This Editorial provides an overview of challenges confronting the agricultural community regarding feeding the future human population. Crop production will need to be nearly doubled and nutritional quality of edible portions of crops improved while at the same time the environmental impacts of the cropping systems are decreased. The Editorial also introduces four articles in the Research Topic- Sustainable Production of Nutrient Dense Foods concerning approaches and impediments to meeting these challenges. This Editorial will be of interest to the lay public and agricultural scientists.

Technical Abstract: Feeding nutrition-dense food to future world populations presents agriculture with enormous challenges as projections indicate that crop production will need to nearly double to meet future human needs, all else being unchanged (i.e., food waste levels, current trends in population and consumption). However, crop production cannot be increased to meet this challenge simply by increasing land acreage or using past agricultural intensification methods. Previously, food production increased through substantial use of synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation, all at significant environmental cost. Future production of nutrition-dense food will require sustainable, next-generation crop production systems, with decreased use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Next generation crop production systems could rely both on precision agriculture, and on biologically based technologies for increased soil fertility, pathogen and pest control, and control of soil erosion (e.g., cover cropping, intercropping, etc.). New crop germplasm with enhanced nutritional content, enhanced tolerance to abiotic and/or biotic stresses, will also need to be developed, whether through traditional breeding or enhanced with use of biotechnology, including genetic engineering tools. Finally, crop production strategies will need to be different in different regions of the world.