Navigating the sustainability challenges of food systems: A review of life cycle-based environmental footprints and future directions.

Ensuring food security while mitigating environmental degradation remains a critical challenge for global sustainability. Food systems, encompassing production, transportation, consumption, and waste, exert significant environmental pressures, such as greenhouse gas emissions, excessive water and land use, and nutrient losses. This study systematically reviews the environmental footprints of food systems from a life cycle perspective, analyzing research trends, and hot issues. The results reveal a sharp increase in publications on carbon and water footprints, while nitrogen, phosphorus, biodiversity, and chemical footprints remain comparatively underexplored. Keyword co-occurrence analysis further illustrates this imbalance by identifying six key research hotspots, with "carbon footprint" and "water footprint" most frequently studied. The findings underscore the strong interconnection between agriculture, dietary choices, and environmental impacts, emphasizing the pivotal role of sustainable diets and green agricultural practices in advancing food system sustainability. Future research should prioritize expanding the footprint diversity and increasing the representation of studies in less developed regions to support a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability challenges. The safe operating space of the food system also needs to be redefined to better align with achieving food security within planetary boundaries. In addition, future research should establish a food-environment-society-economic nexus framework to integrate food systems with the SDGs and capture the complex interlinkages and trade-offs between different systems. This review provides new insights into future research and policy directions for sustainable food system transformation.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Journal of Environmental Management

• Publication date

  2025-07-31

• Fields of study

  Agricultural and Food Sciences, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126794PMID 40749544
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Addressing Regional Agro-ecological Boundaries: An Integrated Environmental Footprint Framework for Revealing Sustainability Gaps in Agroecosystems.

  2025cited by this paper
• Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment of the Arid Central Asia by Downscaling Planetary Boundaries

  2025cited by this paper
• Optimization of graph wavenet model for dissolved oxygen prediction using self-distillation and whale optimization algorithm

  2025cited by this paper
• Global supply chain drivers of scarce water caused by grain production in China

  2025cited by this paper
• A systematic review of life cycle assessment and environmental footprint for the global coffee value chain

  2025cited by this paper
• Transboundary impacts of pesticide use in food production

  2025cited by this paper
• Managing nitrogen to achieve sustainable food-energy-water nexus in China

  2025cited by this paper
• The multiple benefits of Chinese dietary transformation

  2025cited by this paper
• A GIS-based food-energy-water-health-pollution nexus for sustainable food-biofuel-bioenergy supply chain network design: A case study

  2025cited by this paper
• Transitioning to healthy and sustainable diets has higher environmental and affordability trade-offs for emerging and developing economies

  2025cited by this paper
• How water resource management policies shape the coupled coordination development of the water-energy-food nexus: Evidence from the dual pathways of taxation and property rights.

  2025cited by this paper
• Food trade of China saved global land but increased water appropriation and carbon emissions from 2010 to 2020

  2025cited by this paper
• Coordinating food security and environmental performance in Belt and Road agri-food systems

  2025cited by this paper
• Impacts of climate change on global agriculture accounting for adaptation

  2025cited by this paper
• The multi-dimensional environmental impact of global crop commodities

  2025cited by this paper
• A comprehensive review on environmental and human health impacts of chemical pesticide usage

  2025cited by this paper
• The short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on takeaway dietary pattern, its environmental footprints, and nutritional quality.

  2025cited by this paper
• Food security changes in Central Asia during 1992–2019 and potential assessment in different scenarios based on self-sufficiency

  2025cited by this paper
• Relationships between mean species abundance (MSA) and potentially disappeared fraction of species (PDF) are consistent but also uncertain

  2025cited by this paper
• Absolute environmental sustainability assessment of emerging industrial chains within planetary boundaries: A systematic literature review

  2025cited by this paper
• Impacts of international food trade on methylmercury-related health risks

  2025cited by this paper
• Nitrogen Footprint accounting and food sustainability: Insights from the Italian wine industry

  2025cited by this paper
• Monitoring phycocyanin in global inland waters by remote sensing: Progress and future developments.

  2025cited by this paper
• Bundled measures for China’s food system transformation reveal social and environmental co-benefits

  2025cited by this paper
• Sustainability on the plate: Unveiling the environmental footprint of pasta supply chain through Life Cycle Assessment

  2025cited by this paper
• Structural characteristics of global virtual water network driven by food consumption in the Belt and Road Initiative region

  2025cited by this paper
• Long-term global water pollution stress from crops production considering different driving forces

  2024cited by this paper
• Integrating environmental footprints and planetary boundaries for assessing environmental sustainability in food production

  2024cited by this paper
• Crop grey water footprints in China: The impact of pesticides on water pollution.

  2024cited by this paper
• Optimised diets for achieving One Health: A pilot study in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolis in Germany

  2024cited by this paper
• Assessment of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium flows in China's food system during 2010–2019: Implications for integrated management

  2024cited by this paper
• From plate to waste: Composition of school meal waste and associated carbon footprint and nutrient loss

  2024cited by this paper
• Wasted Food, Wasted Resources? A Critical Review of Environmental Impact Analysis of Food Loss and Waste Generation and Treatment.

  2024cited by this paper
• Consumer resistance diminishes environmental gains of dietary change

  2024cited by this paper
• Carbon mitigation in agriculture: Pioneering technologies for a sustainable food system

  2024cited by this paper
• Agricultural management practices in China enhance nitrogen sustainability and benefit human health

  2024cited by this paper
• Driving forces of the agricultural land footprint of China's food supply

  2024cited by this paper
• Toward Low-Carbon Rice Production in China: Historical Changes, Driving Factors, and Mitigation Potential.

  2024cited by this paper
• Assessing the environmental impact of agricultural production structure transformation — Evidence from the non-grain production of cropland in China

  2024cited by this paper
• Health burden from food systems is highly unequal across income groups

  2024cited by this paper
• Intra-rural inequality of diet-related carbon footprint in China

  2024cited by this paper
• Using the nexus approach to realise sustainable food systems

  2024cited by this paper
• Water security assessment for effective water resource management based on multi-temporal blue and green water footprints

  2024cited by this paper
• Research progress in assessment and strategies for sustainable food system within planetary boundaries

  2024cited by this paper
• Enabling food system innovation: accelerators for change

  2024cited by this paper
• Options for reducing a city's global biodiversity footprint – The case of food consumption in Vienna

  2024cited by this paper
• Interprovincial food trade aggravates China’s land scarcity

  2024cited by this paper
• Agri-food evolution and carbon emissions in Chinese residential consumption: A life cycle analysis of urban-rural disparities and socioeconomic influences

  2024cited by this paper
• Bioprocessing to upcycle agro-industrial and food wastes into high-nutritional value animal feed for sustainable food and agriculture systems

  2024cited by this paper
• Optimized planting structures maintain system yield and economic benefits with less nitrogen footprint

  2024cited by this paper
• Assessing global agri-food system exceedance of national cropland limits for linking responsible consumption and production under SDG 12

  2024cited by this paper
• How does climate change affect food security? Evidence from China

  2024cited by this paper
• The asymmetric impacts of international agricultural trade on water use scarcity, inequality and inequity

  2024cited by this paper
• ADVANCED SUSTAINABLE MEMBRANE DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BAJAU TRIBE: A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS

  2024cited by this paper
• Interactions Among Food Systems, Climate Change, and Air Pollution: A Review

  2024cited by this paper
• Socio-economic, environmental and health impacts of dietary transformation in Bangladesh

  2024cited by this paper
• Economic development lowering inequality in China’s household food greenhouse gas footprints

  2024cited by this paper
• Surrogate modelling-based multi-objective optimization for best management practices of nonpoint source pollution.

  2024cited by this paper
• Optimized agricultural management reduces global cropland nitrogen losses to air and water

  2024cited by this paper
• Carbon and Energy Footprinting across Archetypes for U.S. Maple Syrup Production.

  2024cited by this paper
• Targeted opportunities to mitigate water scarcity, inequality, and inequity embedded in international food trade for vulnerable countries.

  2024cited by this paper
• Human-altered soil loss dominates nearly half of water erosion in China but surges in agriculture-intensive areas

  2024cited by this paper
• Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports

  2024cited by this paper
• Integrated spatial priority assessment in Central Asia: Bridging biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human activities

  2024cited by this paper
• The urban-rural dietary water footprint and its inequality in China's urban agglomerations.

  2024cited by this paper
• Climate change exacerbates the environmental impacts of agriculture

  2024cited by this paper
• Trends and drivers of global dietary methylmercury exposure during 1995–2020

  2024cited by this paper
• Pursuing China's provincial sustainable development goals within a safe and just operating space: Past, present and future

  2024cited by this paper
• The socioeconomic impact of climate change in developing countries over the next decades: A literature survey

  2024cited by this paper
• Province-Specific Sustainable Diets in China Considering Nutrition, Environment, Affordability, and Acceptability

  2024cited by this paper
• Impacts of the global food system on terrestrial biodiversity from land use and climate change

  2024cited by this paper
• Dietary patterns and transitions in China: Implications for climate impacts across different life stages

  2024cited by this paper
• Environmental Footprints in Food Services: A Scoping Review

  2024cited by this paper
• Large agri-food corporations in the global staple and cash crops markets: a quantitative analysis of rice and coffee through the virtual water perspective

  2024cited by this paper
• Impact of lifestyle, human diet and nutrient use efficiency in food production on eutrophication of global aquifers and surface waters

  2024cited by this paper
• Analyzing the suitability of LCIA methods to foster the most beneficial food loss and waste prevention action in terms of environmental sustainability

  2024cited by this paper
• Multiple environmental and nutritional effects of changing food consumption in urban and rural China

  2024cited by this paper
• Crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes in China

  2023cited by this paper
• Tracing environmental impacts of grain losses along the supply chain in the North China Plain: An integrated framework

  2023cited by this paper
• Nutrition and its footprints: Using environmental indicators to assess the nexus between sustainability and food

  2023cited by this paper
• Agricultural drought over water-scarce Central Asia aggravated by internal climate variability

  2023cited by this paper
• Factors affecting crop production water footprint: A review and meta-analysis

  2023cited by this paper
• A comprehensive review on carbon footprint of regular diet and ways to improving lowered emissions

  2023cited by this paper
• Water, land and carbon footprints of Chinese dairy in the past and future

  2023cited by this paper
• Physical and virtual nutrient flows in global telecoupled agricultural trade networks

  2023cited by this paper
• Food demand displaced by global refugee migration influences water use in already water stressed countries

  2023cited by this paper
• Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation

  2023cited by this paper
• Economic, social and environmental spillovers decrease the benefits of a global dietary shift

  2023cited by this paper
• What is the water footprint of EU food consumption? A comparison of water footprint assessment methods

  2023cited by this paper
• Assessing nitrogen flow and nitrogen footprint in the food system of a subtropical island with a scenario to mitigate nitrogen load impacted by trade-dependent agriculture

  2023cited by this paper
• Multi-model assessment identifies livestock grazing as a major contributor to variation in European Union land and water footprints

  2023cited by this paper
• Climate change and health: three grand challenges

  2023cited by this paper
• Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts

  2023cited by this paper
• Dietary patterns and environmental impacts of Chongqing hotpot in China

  2023cited by this paper
• Food processing as the dominant contributor of phosphorus output in nearly half of China's regions

  2023cited by this paper
• Three main dimensions reflected by national SDG performance

  2023cited by this paper
• Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries

  2023cited by this paper
• Potential Energy and Environmental Footprint Savings from Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Europe: A Scenario-Based Multiregional Input–Output Analysis

  2023cited by this paper
• Estimating crop carbon footprint and associated uncertainty at prefecture-level city scale in China

  2023cited by this paper
• Alleviating water scarcity by optimizing crop mixes

  2023cited by this paper

• From bytes to sustainable: Assessing the environmental and socioeconomic footprints of the global digital industry

  2026cites this paper
• Innovative strategies for sustainable food processing: enhancing quality, reducing waste, and promoting circular economy

  2026cites this paper
• Contribution of green village to food security in the Yogyakarta special region

  2026cites this paper
• Sustainable phosphorus recycling from AlPO4-rich residue via a stepwise alkaline leaching and crystallization process

  2026cites this paper