Dear colleagues

Today, the growth of the global population accompanied by drastic changes in dietary styles are leading to an increased demand for food. To meet this demand, food production has to be increased by 70% by 2050. However, limited global resources and climate change make the goal of ensuring global food and nutritional security one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. About 815 million people are chronically undernourished, and malnutrition affects around one in three people on the planet.

Hence, food security has become one of the biggest challenges to be faced in the near future and many researchers are advancing in this regard, using interdisciplinary approaches. Plant science, as part of a highly complex, integrative food system, plays a key role in optimizing crops to raise their productivity in a resource-efficient way.

This Special Issue aims to contribute further knowledge and advancements on diverse aspects of food production to ensure food security. It collects contributions to the “1st Cologne Conference on Food for Future”, held in Cologne on 5–7 September 2018, and it is open to external submissions. In particular, we encourage contributions focused on three research areas:

• Functional food: Quality and nutritional enhancement of crops.
  Diets have become less diverse and 90% of the world´s calorie intake is provided by only 15 crops. Furthermore, the nutritional content of modern high-yield staples is declining, leading to deficiency diseases, particularly in developing countries, dependent on a few calorie-rich but nutritionally poor staple crops. To prevent these diseases, the improvement of the nutritional quality of staple crops is a promising approach. The population of developed countries could profit by improving the concentration of phytonutrients in their diet to reduce chronic diseases based on phytonutrient-poor diets.
• Orphan crops: Potential of alternative crops for modern plant breeding.
  Orphan, or underutilized, crops have not been the focus of plant breeders and farmers over the last century due to their limited importance in the global market. The fact that they are highly nutritious, resilient in natural and agricultural conditions and provide economic and environmental benefits for local farmers is drawing more and more attention to their high potential contribution to diversifying agricultural systems and food sources.
• Innovative food sources and production systems.
  The increasing demand for grains and meat in the next 30 years will require the search for alternative protein sources and more environmentally-sustainable, cost-effective production systems. Possible approaches are the more intensive use of insects or microalgae either for direct or indirect human consumption or as a protein source into feedstock mixtures, helping to make feedstock production more sustainable.

“1st Cologne Conference on Food for Future” from 05–07 September 2018 in Cologne.

www.food-for-future.eu

Prof. Dr. Stanislav Kopriva
Dr. Rumen Ivanov
Dr. Richard Jacoby
Dr. Mara Schuler Bermann
Dr. Antonella Succurro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Functional food,
• health benefits of plant products,
• enhancing crop nutritional quality,
• orphan crops,
• millets,
• plant breeding,
• insect protein production,
• macroalgae as food/feed source