Exactly a year ago, the genome of SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced in China, wildfires peaked in Australia, and East Africa was exposed to the desert locust onslaught. As the world welcomes 2021, the coronavirus pandemic has not subsided at all, and the recovery of the world economy will depend on effectiveness of the vaccine. In contrast, there is no silver bullet like a vaccine for climate change, and every country is required to take concrete technical and institutional measures.

The United Nations has set the International Year on important themes that need to be addressed on a global scale and calls for action on issues to be considered. The year 2021 is designated as the International Year of Peace and Trust, the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, the International Year of Eradication of Child Labor, and the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables.

Researchers at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) published a paper in the Environmental Research Letters and cautioned that recommendations for reducing consumption of animal foods, including meat, as a measure against climate change may not be the applicable in low- and middle-income countries. While meat consumption is still low in developing countries, there is plenty of room for livestock production to contribute to improving farmers' income and nutrition, as well as soil fertility.

A paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health in December 2020 discussed the trade-off between food system innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Emerging trade-offs must be addressed, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality and social justice, in order to achieve true sustainability.

Last month, the sale of cultured meat has been approved for the first time in the world. Cultured meat is meat artificially produced by tissue culture of cells and can therefore reduce the environmental load as compared to livestock. In addition, it can be produced under strict hygienic management and does not require the slaughter of animals. The approval by the Singapore Food Agency on the sale of chicken cultivated in a bioreactor by a US company Eat Just is a milestone for the food industry.

Although the ocean occupies 71% of the Earth's surface, it has long been neglected in the global environmental policy processes. In response to this situation, the prime ministers of Norway and Palau convened the leaders of 14 countries, including Japan, to set up a high-level panel to protect the benefits that humankind has enjoyed from the marine environment.

An editorial published in Nature Food in November 2020 emphasized the importance of systems thinking in tackling the multidimensional problems in the food system. Research methods and frameworks provide the perspectives when analyzing a problem, and the way they are constructed or applied determine the scope of the solutions that can be explored. Therefore, the risks of disengagement from systems thinking should not be underestimated.

In December 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published "The Least Developed Countries Report 2020". According to the report, the GDP per capita of least developed countries (LDCs) is projected to contract by 2.6% in 2020 and to experience their worst economic performance in the last 30 years. It is also predicted that the poverty rate will rise from 32.5% to 35.7% due to the economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

The JIRCAS 50th Anniversary International Symposium “The role of international collaboration in agricultural research to address challenges in the post-COVID-19 global food system” video has been released online.