Abstract
Already in its third edition, the Goals in Nutrition Science platform covers a five-year timeframe per volume, thus spanning 15 years from 2015 to 2030 (1, 2). This period aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals, and, in practice, these 5-year updates do capture major shifts in the field. As the second quarter of the 21st century unfolds, it increasingly appears that much of the widely promoted food technology has not delivered or is not yet ready. Nutrition, food security, and sustainability are therefore best treated as inseparable challenges within complex, adaptive food systems, where progress depends on addressing biology, behavior, markets, policy, and environmental constraints together rather than through isolated, linear interventions. Nutrition science matters because it sits at the hinge between human biology and the real-world conditions that determine what people can access, afford, choose, and safely consume. As food systems become more interconnected and more exposed to climate, conflict, and market volatility, the field is shifting from mainly reductionist problem solving toward approaches that can handle feedback, tradeoffs, and equity in context. Pursuing the goals set out here is not only a scientific agenda, but a planetary health imperative: sustainable food systems must secure current and future nutrition while balancing environmental stewardship, health, and socio-economic stability across the pathway from production to consumption and waste. Overall, the agenda points toward a new chapter of nutrition science that integrates the right level of complexity by combining deep disciplinary insight with better integrated systems approaches, and by mobilizing coordinated action. Johannes le Coutre, Field Chief Editor, Frontiers in Nutrition.