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Food environments are rapidly changing globally, both in developed and developing contexts, contributing to poor dietary habits and environmental concerns. As a result, more than 80% of countries in the world face different forms of malnutrition, while the environment faces further degradation due to unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Understanding food environments in diverse settings via a global lens is critical for facilitating the global transition to sustainable and healthy food environments. A virtual workshop was held with stakeholders from five nations (Germany, Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, and Tanzania) representing varying levels of development to interrogate global food environment concerns and propose cross cutting thematic areas that may be explored and addressed through policy change and intervention. The workshop initiated a transdisciplinary project to shape food environments for sustainable and healthy diets. The Reference Manual for Convenors of Food Systems Summit Dialogues for United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) (United Nations, 2020) was used as guidance to ensure that an inclusive mix of stakeholders were invited. The stakeholders included key players from public and private sectors in disciplines of agriculture, agro-forestry, environment and ecology, education, food retail and market, trade and commerce, health care and nutrition. Following the workshop discussion, the findings were analyzed using a general inductive approach. Through triangulation of findings, we identified the common challenges and opportunities for achieving collective nutritional, social and environmental sustainability in the modern food environments, which have become more universal globally. It is evident that research and data are essential for sustainable development of food systems, while Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 - Partnership for the Goals - should be placed at the core of the transformative process. We proposed several research-driven transdisciplinary interventions to facilitate a paradigm shift from the profit logic model over everything else, and to counter the existing policy fragmentation and systemic challenges to making food environments nutrition-sensitive and socially and environmentally sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock value chains globally are increasingly dualistic, with integrated market-leaders co-existing with comparatively disadvantaged small producers who, nevertheless, support rural livelihoods and food access, and can also contribute to more resilient supply chains. The South African broiler value chain provides a highly illustrative case study. The purpose of this study is to identify potential leverage points for policy intervention to support small and emerging producers in the South African broiler value chain, and to discuss the strengths and limitations of system dynamics approaches to promote inclusive food value chains. This study develops a causal loop diagram (CLD) based on semi-structured stakeholder interviews and policy documents. The main challenges, key variables and causal relationships between them are systematically identified. Variables are coded, generalised and graphically represented, and entry points for intervention and their links to existing policies are mapped. The challenges faced by smallholders in the context of our study can be characterised, using a CLD, as a set of interlinked and reinforcing dynamics which perpetuate existing disadvantages and reinforce duality in the value chain. Key policy entry points have been identified that could be targeted by a coordinated policy package, including: Direct support for infrastructure investment and input access through grants, subsidies or other policies; credit and liquidity provision for day-to-day expenses; creation of aggregation mechanisms for both inputs and outputs; regulations or initiatives that directly target the relationship of farmers with the commercial segment to improve access to day-old-chicks and, finally, training in business and technical skills. Although most of these interventions have been addressed at some point, implementation has been fragmented, failing to fully consider their complementary nature, thus undermining effectiveness. Existing approaches to consensus building and stakeholder participation in system dynamics research can present challenges when it comes to engaging with complex policy processes and issues of conflict of interest that are relevant in the context of smallholder promotion and equitable food systems, but there are promising avenues for addressing. Despite some methodological challenges, we find that there is considerable scope for system dynamics approaches to inform policy for smallholder promotion, even in contexts characterised by complex policy processes., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer MH-J declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors BH to the handling Editor.