October 16th is World Food Day. Food systems are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but they also have the potential to reduce these emissions through the way food is produced, grown, harvested, and distributed. The JIRCAS International Symposium on October 27th will bring together internationally renowned scientists in food systems research to discuss collaboration to accelerate food system transformation.

This week, the Agrifood System Technologies & Innovations Outlook (ATIO) will be launched at the World Food Forum in Rome. JIRCAS participated in the online consultation to confirm prototype specifications and contributed to the discussions based on its experience in creating the Green Asia Project Technology Catalog. We will share our experience with the Green Asia Technology Catalog at the JIRCAS International Symposium on October 27th.

Ammonia plays a vital role in the global fertilizer sector, supporting both agricultural production and food security. This article from the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) introduces the potential of low-carbon ammonia fertilizer.

The first EAT-Lancet Commission report was published in 2019, advocating a planetary health diet (PHD) that emphasizes the consumption of primarily plant-based foods. The EAT-Lancet Commission's latest analysis, recently published, adds analysis of the social foundations of just food systems and incorporates new data and perspectives to provide a global concept of equity in food systems.

As global warming progresses, extreme weather events are occurring more frequently in succession. A study published in Environmental Research Letters shows that such consecutive heatwaves pose a serious threat to global food production. This study also highlights the need to strengthen food system resilience and consider complex climate change issues to avoid the societal impacts of increasingly complex climate risks.

South Asia is experiencing the full range of climate change impacts, from glacial outburst floods to heat waves, droughts, and fires. An editorial in Nature Climate Change offers insights into systems shifts for climate-resilient agriculture.

September 29th is the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). With five years left to achieve Target 12.3 of Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), action to reduce food loss and waste must be accelerated immediately.

Global interest in the circular bioeconomy is growing, with governments and industry adopting the concept as a framework for minimizing resource depletion, encouraging regenerative agriculture, and promoting the reuse and recycling of bioindustrial by-products. An editorial in Nature Food emphasized the importance of traditional knowledge, which is equally important to scientific knowledge, in the bioeconomy.

Water underpins our societies, fuels our economies, and sustains our ecosystems. However, the world's water resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and at the same time, more serious water disasters are having a greater impact on people's lives and livelihoods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)'s new report, the State of Global Water Resources 2024, highlights the increasingly irregular and extreme nature of the water cycle, with floods and droughts alternating, and the cascading impacts of water surpluses or shortages on economies and societies.