Sustainable Food - Impact on Public Health, Environment and Industry

Dear Colleagues,

More often than not, in the recent past, food production for humans has been discussed in great detail, including different dimensions of environment, health, and economics. Without a doubt, one can accept and acknowledge that the human population during the 20^th century had the privilege to utilize natural resources without any limits and little attention to its sustainability. Whereas, the scenario is different now, with the massive demand for natural resources and its impacts on the environment have severely constrained every aspect of human life. Food production needs to be stepped up with the available resources for the ever-increasing global population combating the most challenging issue of global warming. New agro techniques coupled with agrochemicals have increased the farm output by many folds leading to self-sufficiency in food production in many countries. The presence of agrochemical residues, monocropping, and some of the new crop varieties has raised concerns including health and environment, hence not a sustainable solution. Industrial production of food has reduced post-harvest loss and ensured food security across most regions of the globe at affordable prices. However, there is a concern about human health due to processed food and sustainability issues. For instance, the production of palm oil, chocolate, and meat from animals has raised severe concerns about their impact on the environment. Plant-based meats, proteins derived from insects and algae are recently capturing the attention of consumers and gaining market as an alternative to animal meat based on sustainability.

Food security is still a serious concern in some regions of the world, where people still lack access to food for essential nutrition and survival. 

With this background, it is evident that food researchers and the food industry have to come up with sustainable solutions in the production and processing of food to uphold food security and human health. There is no better time to discuss about sustainability in food production, with the announcement of this special issue in MDPI. This issue focuses on the sustainability issues about food production, including its impacts on human health and the environment. It is expected that the ongoing research on food sustainability can be easily integrated with the existing methods or with little modifications for acceptability in food industry. Articles accepted in this special issue may increase awareness among the researchers, policymakers, industry, and global citizens for sustainable agriculture and food production.

We welcome research and review articles related to the above topic. Manuscripts will be subjected to peer-review for their suitability for publication in the special issue.

Dr. K. Vasanth Ragavan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food security
• sustainable meat
• insect proteins
• human health
• environment