Global nutrient trade

Access to sufficient, nutritious food is a basic human right and essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. There is growing consensus that optimizing food systems for micro- and macro-nutrients could more effectively address hunger and undernutrition than strictly increasing total food production. Yet there is debate about the relative importance of different drivers of food availability, such as increasing production versus improving access and distribution. We show that nutrients available for consumption in the global food supply are adequate to meet between 1 and 3.5 times current global needs, depending on the nutrient. The distribution among countries of ability to meet national nutrient needsâ measured by the Gini coefficientâ is most unequal among low-income countries. However, equitability among all countries is two-times greater than in a trade-less world. Absence of trade would disproportionately impact poorer countries, with some countries potentially losing the ability to nourish up to hundreds of millions of people. Our analysis highlights that protectionist approaches to trade could have serious negative consequences for food security. Furthermore, targeting production and trade to foods rich in nutrients that are deficient in the global food supply could be an important strategy to meeting current and future nutrient needs.