Nitrogen is a crucial input to food production and yet its oversupply in many parts of the world contributes to a number of environmental problems. Most policies dedicated to reducing agricultural nitrogen pollution focus on changing farmer behaviour. However, farm-level policies are challenging to implement and farmers are just one of several actors in the agri-food chain. The activities of other actors -from fertilizer manufacturers to wastewater treatment companies -can also impact nitrogen losses at the farm level and beyond. Consequently, policymakers have a broader range of policy options than traditionally thought to address nitrogen pollution from field to fork. Inspired by the concept of full-chain nitrogen use efficiency, this Perspective introduces the major actors common in agri-food chains from a nitrogen standpoint, identifies nitrogen policies that could be targeted towards them and proposes several new criteria to guide ex-ante analysis of the feasibility and design of different policy interventions. Sustainably feeding ten billion people by 2050 will require fundamental changes in the global food system -a broad portfolio of policy options and a framework for how to select them is essential.

Objective: To assess and develop a consensus among a European panel of public health nutrition workforce stakeholders (academics and employers) regarding core functions required for effective public health nutrition practice. Design: A modified Delphi study involving data from two rounds of questionnaires administered among a panel of public health nutrition workforce stakeholders. Setting: Europe. Subjects: A panel of fifty-three public health nutrition development stakeholders, including thirty-three academics and twenty employers, sampled from eighteen European countries. Results: Panellists rated 50 % (19/38) of the initially listed functions as core (i.e. without which public health capacity is limited), using a majority cut-off (.50 %).

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© 2015 British Nutrition Foundation.Europe recognises the need for technological innovation along with the importance of bridging the gap between science and society. The European Commission has developed a strategy to foster public engagement and a sustained two-way dialogue between science and civil society, and has set up a framework for Responsible Research and Innovation. The EU-funded project INPROFOOD aimed to find new ways to establish dialogue and mutual learning among stakeholders meant to inform subsequent work and future initiatives towards Responsible Research and Innovation. More specifically, INPROFOOD aimed to: (1) increase understanding of the landscapes of food and health innovation research programming; (2) adapt, test and evaluate the application of different stakeholder engagement methods to the area of food and health innovation research programming, which included European Awareness Scenario Workshops, PlayDecide games and an Open Space conference; and (3) to develop an action plan to progress towards Responsible Research and Innovation in this domain. The latter entailed a so-called Mobilisation and Mutual Learning Action Plan, which lays down a concrete framework for inclusive stakeholder involvement at different stages of the research and innovation process, with tangible key actions in five priority areas

Background: The current food system has major consequences for the environment and for human health. Alignment of the food policy areas of mitigating climate change and public health will ensure coherent and effective policy interventions for sustaining human health and the environment. This paper explores literature on demand-side policies that aim to reduce consumption of animal-based foods, increase plant-based foods, and reduce overconsumption. Methods: We searched for publications, published between January 2000 and December 2019, considering the above policy domains. Articles were distinguished for type of policy instrument, for topic via keywords and examples were given. Results: The majority of demand-side policies focus on preventing overweight and obesity, using all types of policy instruments including more forceful market-based policies. Hardly any examples of public policies explicitly aiming to lower animal-based foods consumption were found. Policies combining health and sustainability objectives are few and mainly of the information type. Discussion: Moving towards environmentally sustainable and healthy diets is challenging as the implemented demand-side policies focus largely on human health, and not yet on environmental outcomes, or on win-wins. Policies targeting foods from the health perspective can contribute to lower environmental impacts, by indicating suitable animal-based food replacers, and aiming at avoiding overconsumption of energy dense-nutrient poor foods. Preferred policies include a variety of instruments, including strong measures. Conclusions: Working solutions are available to ensure coherent and effective demand side food policies aligning public health and environmental aims. Implementation of aligned and effective policy packages is urgent and needed.

Objectives: Little is known about current public health nutrition workforce development in Europe. The present study aimed to understand constraining and enabling factors to workforce development in seven European countries. Design: A qualitative study comprised of semi-structured face-to-face interviews was conducted and content analysis was used to analyse the transcribed interview data. Setting: The study was carried out in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Subjects: Sixty key informants participated in the study. Results: There are constraining and enabling factors for public health nutrition workforce development. The main constraining factors relate to the lack of a supportive policy environment, fragmented organizational structures and a workforce that is not cohesive enough to implement public health nutrition strategic initiatives. Enabling factors were identified as the presence of skilled and dedicated individuals who assume roles as leaders and change agents. Conclusions: There is a need to strengthen coordination between policy and implementation of programmes which may operate across the national to local spectrum. Public health organizations are advised to further define aims and objectives relevant to public health nutrition. Leaders and agents of change will play important roles in fostering intersectorial partnerships, advocating for policy change, establishing professional competencies and developing education and training programmes.

A call to governments to enact a strategy for a sustainable food system is high on the global agenda. A sustainable food system presupposes a need to go beyond a view of the food system as linear and narrow, to comprehend the food system as dynamic and interlinked, which involves understanding social, economic and ecological outcomes and feedbacks of the system. As such, it should be accompanied by strategic, collaborative, transparent, inclusive, and reflexive agenda-setting process. The concepts of, directionality relating to an agreed vision for a future sustainable food system, and, reflexivity which describes the capacity for critical deliberation and responsiveness, are particularly important. Based on those concepts, this paper proposes an evaluative framework to assess tools and instruments applied during the agenda-setting stage. We apply the evaluative framework to recent food policy processes in Finland and Sweden, revealing that their agenda-setting design cannot be assessed as fully addressing both directionality and reflexivity, thus possibly falling short of the policy design needed for enable more transformative policy approaches.

data were gathered on policies and activities aiming to improve healthy eating and PA of young children (age group 4-6 years) in Belgium-Flanders, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain. A limited number of influencing policies, regulations and/or legislation exists; agenda setting of health promotion and policy evaluations in all relevant policy areas was lacking. Also, health promotion activities in preschool the setting did not exist in all six European countries and high-quality preschool-based health interventions existed in three of the six ToyBox countries.