This Personal View addresses SDGs 2, 3, 10, and 12 by exploring the potential consequences of food system innovations in relation to the SDGs. The authors highlight the negative consequences that standalone innovations can have for some sustainability goals, particularly for reducing inequalities and improving social justice. They identify ways in which technical innovations could be embedded in systemic changes to address trade-offs between positive and negative outcomes of their implementation.

By mapping the state of research within each SDG area, this report acknowledges the pivotal role research plays in tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges. It aims to better understand the research community’s global sustainable development efforts and assesses the progress made, as well as unmet research needs.

Human health is better now than at any time in history, but these gains have come at a high price: the degradation of nature’s ecological systems on a scale never seen in human history. A growing body of evidence shows that the health of humanity is intrinsically linked to the health of the environment, but by its actions humanity now threatens to destabilise the Earth’s key life-support systems. As a Commission, we conclude that the continuing degradation of natural systems threatens to reverse the health gains seen over the last century. The SDGs provide a great opportunity to integrate health and sustainability through the judicious selection of relevant indicators relevant to human wellbeing, the enabling infrastructure for development, and the supporting natural systems, together with the need for strong governance.