Nutrition-Sensitive Food Ecosystems: Transforming Value Chains for Health

Modern food value chains are undergoing a profound transformation as they adapt to the intertwined global challenges of malnutrition, public health challenges, limited accessibility and affordability, and environmental change. Nutrition-sensitive value chains refer to the strategic networks and operations that shape food production, storage, distribution, and consumption into nutritional outcomes. These value chains also shape the environmental footprint of diets through their effects on greenhouse-gas emissions, land and water use, biodiversity, food loss and waste, and the climate resilience of food systems. However, existing food environments often fail to integrate nutritional quality with accessible, equitable, and sustainable practices, contributing to undernourishment, overweight, obesity, and diet-related disorders. Recent studies reveal that rethinking food value chains may yield profound important benefits for health, as well as improve education, productivity, and other socioeconomic factors. Despite this potential, major gaps remain in understanding how nutrition-driven innovation in food systems can translate into population-level improvements, effective interventions, and mechanisms to improve food value chains and reduce food-related issues.This Research Topic aims to explore how supply and value chains can serve as a foundation for building healthier and more resilient food ecosystems that promote public health. It seeks to unify perspectives from nutrition science, food policy, eating behavior, and freight transportation, logistics and supply-chain research to reveal how food security and food ecosystem design intersect with human well-being. The goal is to generate actionable insights that support sustainable dietary patterns through more inclusive and nutrition-conscious food systems. By doing so, this Research Topic contributes to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).This Research Topic covers research at the interface of nutrition and food logistics systems and welcomes interdisciplinary contributions. To gather further insights into this emerging area, we invite Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Methods, Perspectives, and Policy Briefs addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Integration of nutrition-sensitive approaches within global food value chains and ecosystems;• Influence of food environments and supply systems on eating behavior;• Mechanisms linking food availability and food quality;• Socioeconomic, cultural, and behavioral factors shaping nutrition-sensitive food choices;• Environmental impacts and trade-offs of nutrition-sensitive food value chains, including greenhouse-gas emissions, resource use, biodiversity, food loss and waste, and climate resilience;• Role of food innovation and sustainability initiatives;• Multisectoral strategies aligning agriculture and nutrition for healthier diets;• Policy frameworks and interventions promoting sustainable, nutrition-sensitive food ecosystems.Submissions focused primarily on diabetes research or sleep disorders fall outside the scope of this Research Topic. Topic editors: Tatiana Sadalla Collese, Christopher Mejia-Argueta Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86630/nutrition-sensitive-food-ecosystems-transforming-value-chains-for-health