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1181. Food Systems Countdown

1181. Food Systems Countdown
Food system transformation is necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, the Global Biodiversity Framework and many other international goals. Food systems affect people and ecosystems across all sectors, requiring us to understand and track the process of transformation.
The Food Systems Countdown Initiative (FSCI) provides annual monitoring updates of 50 systems-wide indicators across five thematic areas: (1) diets, nutrition, and health; (2) environment, natural resources, and production; (3) livelihoods, poverty, and equity; (4) governance; and (5) resilience.
Analysis of FSCI indicators reveals both positive developments and new concerns about the transformation of the global food system. On the positive side, 20 of the 42 indicators that could be analyzed over time showed a change in the desired direction.
The 15 indicators that are desirably (and statistically significantly) increasing over time are (in descending order of percentage change): information access, mobile phone use (infrastructure and connectivity indicators), access to safe water, conservation of animal genetic resources, social capital, fruit yield, vegetable supply, beef yield, government utility, conservation of plant genetic resources, milk and vegetable yield, grain yield, fruit supply, nitrogen utilization efficiency. Improving access to safe water, increasing the supply of vegetables, and strengthening the conservation of plant and animal genetic resources, among others, will contribute to strengthening the resilience of food systems to climate and other shocks.
The five indicators that are decreasing in the desired direction, in order of magnitude of change, are the greenhouse gas emission intensity from beef and milk, the variability of food supply, the proportion of malnourished people, and the proportion of people unable to access a healthy diet.
However, important issues have also emerged. Seven indicators showed deterioration: the cost of a healthy diet (reflecting inflation), the percentage of the population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity, rural underemployment, pesticide use, fluctuations in food prices, civic participation, and government accountability.
References
Food Systems Countdown Initiative. 2025. The food systems countdown report 2024: Tracking progress and managing interactions. New York: Columbia University; Ithaca: Cornell University; Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); Geneva: Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).
Schneider, K.R., Remans, R., Bekele, T.H. et al. Governance and resilience as entry points for transforming food systems in the countdown to 2030. Nat Food (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01109-4
Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program