From BSE to GM, food is news. One strand unites these issues, and it can be summarized in one word: 'sustainability'. The world's population continues to grow, yet resources are finite. Our mission is to squeeze more crops from the same patch of ground, while preserving that patch in a state fit to pass on to further hungry generations. The quest for sustainability is the theme of this Insight.

After World War II, the 'Green Revolution' averted worldwide famine. Half a century on, the world needs yet greater ingenuity to feed itself. Science is again at the sharp end. The public wants it to deliver food to satisfy an increasing population without compromising the integrity of the landscape we live in. Agriculture in the future must be environmentally sensitive and above all, sustainable.

Much current debate on these issues concerns genetically modified crops, but this is only part of the story. Sustainability has lessons for the whole agricultural enterprise, from high-tech viticulture to the depths of the ocean.

This web focus brings together what seems to be a disparate selection of material recently published in Nature. The wide range illustrates, as well as anything can, how issues relating to food touch every sphere of human life.