This paper, taken from an inaugural edition on planetary health in the Lancet, analyses global food and nutrient production and diversity by farm size, providing evidence on how smallholder farmers contribute to the quantity and quality of our global food supply and discussing the structural impacts of agriculture on nutrient availability.

Planetary health is a new approach that broadens health research to include the health of human civilisations and the natural (external) systems on which they depend. In a new journal, alongside The Lancet Public Health and The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Planetary Health will explore the links between planetary and human health and how we can protect the environment on which we depend and develop sustainable systems that support human health. 

This paper summarises the evidence on the role that agriculture plays in improving nutrition, how food systems are changing rapidly due to globalization, trade liberalization, and urbanization, and the implications for nutrition globally.

In this Perspective article in the journal Science, the FCRN’s Tara Garnett articulates the need for a strong policy focus on sustainable healthy diets, and assesses the current state of research and understanding on the relationship between health and sustainability. 

The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration presents results in the Lancet from the largest pooled dataset on the relationship between weight and mortality rates. The analysis shows that both overweight and obesity in otherwise healthy participants were associated with increased mortality from all causes.

The OneHealth project, launched in 2015, explores the relationship between infectious diseases, biodiversity and ecosystems, the economics of disease and disease drivers, and the impacts of climate change and demography on health.

On June 12th, prior to the annual EAT Forum in Stockholm, the establishment of the new EAT-Lancet Commission was announced jointly by the Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre Johan Rockström, Chair of the EAT Foundation Gunhild Stordalen, and editor of The Lancet Richard Horton.

The Global Nutrition Report is a multipartner initiative that holds a mirror up to our successes and failures at meeting intergovernmental nutrition targets. It is an independent and comprehensive annual review of the state of the world’s nutrition that documents progress on commitments made on the global stage, and it recommends actions to accelerate that progress.

A new report by McKinsey & Company argues that China seems to be abandoning Western fast food for healthier options. Only 51% of consumers in China said they ate Western fast food in 2015, signalling a drop from the 67% who said they consumed fast food in 2012.