How can we make agricultural production systems more sustainable as the worldwide demand for healthy, safe food continues to grow?

With a growing world population and greatly changed consumption patterns, one of the biggest challenges in the coming decades is to sustainably supply the world with sufficient and, above all, healthy food. At the same time, more intensive use of natural resources is putting increasing pressure on plant and animal production systems. As a result, the quality of our ecosystem, such as soil quality, water quality, salinisation, biodiversity and fish stocks, are under increasing pressure. Threats to public health are even emerging. Think of zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals to humans, and the high use of antibiotics. New knowledge is needed to lay a foundation for a transformation to sustainable, resilient production systems with high yields and quality of products. At the same time, we should aim to minimise external inputs, maximise the use of residual flows from the production process for other high-value purposes (biobased economy), minimise losses, and use new technologies such as from breeding and ICT. Precision technology can make important contributions to management and control of these production systems. In addition, new knowledge is needed on changing food patterns, especially related to protein consumption and malnutrition. To provide the growing world population with sufficient protein, other, also plant-based sources of protein are necessary. For a balanced diet, availability of vitamins, fibre and minerals are an important addition to energy and protein intake.