Agrifood systems are both a contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and an important sector for achieving China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal and mitigating climate change. Rising global temperatures and frequent extreme weather have greatly weakened agricultural production capacity (IPCC, 2021). The need to mitigate climate change by reducing GHG emissions has global consensus. In 2020, the Chinese government made an important commitment toward peaking its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Under China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal, the contribution of agrifood systems to GHG emissions reduction cannot be ignored. According to estimates by the Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP) at China Agricultural University (AGFEP, 2021), GHG emissions from agrifood systems reached 1.09 billion metric tons (t) of CO2eq in 2018, accounting for 8.2 percent of total national GHG emissions. While ensuring food security as the top national priority, the combined measures can reduce GHG emissions by 47 percent by 2060, compared to 2020 levels; these measures include improving agricultural technologies, reducing food loss and waste, and shifting dietary patterns. When coupled with the carbon sequestration of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), agrifood systems can contribute significantly to achieving carbon neutrality (AGFEP, 2021).

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has caused a global public health crisis. It has also severely damaged the world’s agrifood systems. Before the pandemic, agrifood systems were already vulnerable to many threats, including climate change, frequent extreme weather events, degradation of natural resources, economic slowdown, and regional conflicts (Fan, Wei, and Zhang 2020; Chen et al. 2020). The number of undernourished people worldwide had been increasing for five consecutive years to 690 million in 2019. More than 135 million people in 55 countries and territories were facing acute hunger, 144 million children younger than five were stunted, and 47 million children were wasted (FSIN 2020; FAO et al. 2020). The pandemic has increased poverty for the first time in 22 years—about 100 million more people have fallen into extreme poverty (FAO 2021b). Moreover, an additional 130 million people are threatened by acute severe food insecurity during the pandemic (WFP 2020a). A recent study has shown that the total number of children affected by stunting could increase by 2.8 million because of the pandemic (World Bank 2021). At the same time, the number of children experiencing wasting could increase by 6.7 million (UNICEF 2020; WFP 2020b). The livelihoods of vulnerable groups such as smallholder farmers, women, and migrant workers are threatened as they face losing jobs and incomes (FAO 2021b). Without effective measures, 840 million people in the world could face undernourishment and suffer from hunger by 2030, far from the “zero hunger” of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (IFPRI 2021b). As vaccines are gradually deployed globally, the pandemic is expected to be under control to some extent by the end of 2021. But we should not simply recover from the crisis; it is time to rethink how to build back better to achieve green, low-carbon, healthier, inclusive, and more resilient food systems.

The current situation of global food and nutrition security is increasingly worrisome, and it is unfortunate that progress in eliminating hunger, food insecurity, and multiple forms of malnutrition has been hindered or even reversed by recent global events. It is estimated that globally, 702 million to 828 million people (8.9 to 10.5 percent) suffered from hunger in 2021, with 150 million added during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 2.3 billion people are in a state of moderate or severe food insecurity, with 11.7 percent facing severe food insecurity. Nearly 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, which is an increase of 112 million from the last year. The causes of food insecurity are multifaceted, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis in Ukraine,and climate change. Simultaneously, income levels have been adversely affected, and prices have risen, reducing people’s ability to purchase food and making it unaffordable. Therefore, it is imperative for governments and other stakeholders to act collectively to improve the state of global food and nutritional health. Many countries, including China, have begun to pay more attention to the issue of agrifood systems and are proposing a transition to the multidimensional goals of nutrition and health, green and low-carbon, efficiency, resilience, and inclusiveness. At the international level, a series of high-level international conferences and action plans, such as the UN Food Systems Summit, the Nutrition for Growth Summit, and UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021 and COP27 in 2022, have demonstrated the importance and urgency of promoting the transformation of agrifood systems. These conferences advocated for countries to work together to transform the way food is produced and consumed to build healthier, sustainable, and equitable food systems. At the domestic level, China has always regarded food security as a top priority for national development. In 2022, the total annual national grain output reached 686.53 million tons and has remained stable for eight consecutive years at more than 650 million tons. In 2022, the Chinese government emphasized the need to “establish a big food concept” and “strengthen the foundation of food security in all aspects” from the perspective of putting people first and better meeting their increasingly diversified food consumption needs. In light of the various risks and challenges posed by the contemporary era, safeguarding food security necessitates a shift from a narrow focus on food production to a more comprehensive consideration of the entire food supply chain. This entails promoting the development of a diversified food supply system and expanding the focus from mere quantity to encompassing multiple objectives related to the “quantity, structure, and quality” of food. Such an approach will serve to bolster the foundations of food security on all fronts.

The current situation of global food and nutrition security is increasingly worrisome, and it is unfortunate that progress in eliminating hunger, food insecurity, and multiple forms of malnutrition has been hindered or even reversed by recent global events. It is estimated that globally, 702 million to 828 million people (8.9 to 10.5 percent) suffered from hunger in 2021, with 150 million added during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 2.3 billion people are in a state of moderate or severe food insecurity, with 11.7 percent facing severe food insecurity. Nearly 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, which is an increase of 112 million from the last year. The causes of food insecurity are multifaceted, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis in Ukraine,and climate change. Simultaneously, income levels have been adversely affected, and prices have risen, reducing people’s ability to purchase food and making it unaffordable. Therefore, it is imperative for governments and other stakeholders to act collectively to improve the state of global food and nutritional health. Many countries, including China, have begun to pay more attention to the issue of agrifood systems and are proposing a transition to the multidimensional goals of nutrition and health, green and low-carbon, efficiency, resilience, and inclusiveness. At the international level, a series of high-level international conferences and action plans, such as the UN Food Systems Summit, the Nutrition for Growth Summit, and UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021 and COP27 in 2022, have demonstrated the importance and urgency of promoting the transformation of agrifood systems. These conferences advocated for countries to work together to transform the way food is produced and consumed to build healthier, sustainable, and equitable food systems. At the domestic level, China has always regarded food security as a top priority for national development. In 2022, the total annual national grain output reached 686.53 million tons and has remained stable for eight consecutive years at more than 650 million tons. In 2022, the Chinese government emphasized the need to “establish a big food concept” and “strengthen the foundation of food security in all aspects” from the perspective of putting people first and better meeting their increasingly diversified food consumption needs. In light of the various risks and challenges posed by the contemporary era, safeguarding food security necessitates a shift from a narrow focus on food production to a more comprehensive consideration of the entire food supply chain. This entails promoting the development of a diversified food supply system and expanding the focus from mere quantity to encompassing multiple objectives related to the “quantity, structure, and quality” of food. Such an approach will serve to bolster the foundations of food security on all fronts.

Recurrent food crises and climate change, along with habitat loss and pollution, have put food security and environmental sustainability at the top of the political agenda. Analyses of the dynamic linkages between food consumption patterns and environmental concerns have recently received considerable attention from the international and scientific community. Using the lens of a wide sustainability concept, this paper aims at developing a multidimensional framework for evaluating sustainability in food systems and diets applicable to the Mediterranean countries. The Mediterranean region - a geographically interlocked and heterogeneous area including South European, North African and South-East Mediterranean Countries – presents several conditions of vulnerability to food insecurity and unsustainability. Furthermore the demographic growth, in urban and coastal areas of the Basin, leads to an increasing pressure on natural resources and widening disequilibria with rural areas. Derived from natural disaster and sustainability sciences, a coupled domain/vulnerability approach has been applied to the analysis of the concepts of sustainable food security and diets. Within consensus-based preselected domains, the vulnerability methodology offers a coherent framework that disentangles exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacities. A DELPHI method is applied to select the final set of indicators from the literature. The main result is the elaboration of an innovative conceptual evaluation framework for measuring sustainability in the agrofood system. The framework draws upon two existing approaches: a vulnerability-based assessment method combined with an analysis of detailed empirical domains relevant for Mediterranean countries. The DELPHI selection process, involving several international experts, has reduced the number of indicators to a reduced pool of indicators. Use of the participatory approach of the DELPHI method helps move beyond subjective evaluation and reach consensus. Recognizing the systemic dimension of sustainability, the vulnerability approach enables to investigate the causal factors dynamics, instead of targeting exclusively the final outcomes. The domain-based framework reflects the region- specific attributes that necessarily need to be identified to link scientific concepts with metrics. Urbanisation is a main domain of vulnerability as it is a key driver of change affecting both market dynamics and consumers’ behaviours, raising questions for food security.