Supporting Evidence-Based Food Decisions in Programmes: GAIN’s New Screening Tool for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Sustainability

Food choices play a dual role in shaping both human health and environmental sustainability. At the individual level, diets that lack diversity, fall short of essential nutrients, contain excessive amounts of foods high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt, or fail to meet food safety standards, and can have serious negative consequences for health (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2025; World Health Organization, n.d.). At the same time, the ways food is produced and consumed affect the environment, —contributing to land degradation, freshwater depletion, climate change, and biodiversity loss (Crippa et al., 2021; Tilman et al., 2017). These environmental impacts, in turn, influence which foods are available, accessible, and affordable, and can alter the nutrient density of crops (Beach et al., 2019; Smith & Myers, 2018), reinforcing this close connection between our food choices and the environment.

Victoria Winyana, A Young Vendor Who Showed Resilience That Kept Her Business Moving

Vegetables For All Project – Uganda Impact Stories highlights how access to sustainable vegetable farming is transforming lives and communities in Uganda.

Rose Nabasirye Shapes Meals, Shapes Lives

Vegetables For All Project – Uganda Impact Stories highlights how access to sustainable vegetable farming is transforming lives and communities in Uganda.

Jamada Nduga, The Supplier Behind Every Fresh Plate

Vegetables For All Project – Uganda Impact Stories highlights how access to sustainable vegetable farming is transforming lives and communities in Uganda.

How A Market Stall Became A Wellness Classroom

Vegetables For All Project – Uganda Impact Stories highlights how access to sustainable vegetable farming is transforming lives and communities in Uganda.

Quantifying the Socio-Economic Impacts of Food: A Review of True Cost Accounting Methods

- 15/12/2025

Global food systems generate significant socio-economic impacts (or externalities) – both positive and negative – which greatly vary across geographic regions, supply chains, and production systems.

Have We Orphaned The Foods That Once Sustained Us

- 04/12/2025

Orphaned crops refer to a diverse group of foods, including cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, that have been largely overlooked by mainstream agricultural research, breeding programs, and markets. Many orphan crops contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals, and protein than major cereals. In soci eties facing a double burden of undernutrition and rising diet-related diseases, orphaned crops provide a crucial bridge. They nourish without harming. Nutrition education in schools and public health programs can normalize the consumption of traditional foods, while media and culinary initiatives can make them fashionable. Changing perception is just as critical as changing production.

Quantifying The Environmental Impacts of Food A Review of True Cost Accounting Methods

- 28/11/2025

Global food systems face complex, multi-faceted challenges that greatly vary by context, and their environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts are equally diverse. A comprehensive understanding that integrates these disparate factors into unified, clear guidance is essential for decision-making, including policy measures and industry practices.

Nutrition Investing: Moving from Awareness to Action

Investing in nutrition isn’t just possible, it’s smart. That’s the key message that sticks with us a few weeks after the GIIN Impact Forum 2025, where we organised a session, “Nutrition Lens Investing: A Framework for Action”. Moderated by Roberta Bove (GAIN), the discussion brought together a diverse mix of development financiers, fund managers, and impact practitioners to explore how investors can move beyond broad food security goals to intentionally target nutrition impact, focusing on the quality, not just the quantity, of food reaching consumers.