In June 2022, a high-level expert group from the European Commission called for independent and up-to-date reports on the scientific evidence about food systems transformation. We certainly agree this work is essential – that’s why we’ve been producing such reports since 2020 as part of 3ie’s living Food Systems and Nutrition Evidence Gap Map (EGM). In our latest update, we add groundbreaking studies to the map, including one on sugar-sweetened beverage taxes.
As we've noted before on this blog, the world faces a critical need to revamp its food systems to provide healthy diets for a growing global population within the planetary boundaries. Making these changes means policymakers need to know what interventions work, for whom, and at what cost – and the state of knowledge about that question is changing rapidly.
Most new food systems research focuses on topics that previous research has already addressed, while only a handful of new studies break ground on under-studied priority subjects. This finding comes from newly-updated figures based on our first-ever living Evidence Gap Map on Food Systems and Nutrition,
Every time you sit down for a meal, you are part of a food system—the chain from production through distribution to your plate and disposal of leftovers. Most of the time, people only focus on the near end of that chain: what to eat today.
