Food systems are complex, dynamic, and comprise many different interacting subsystems, that food system policies often fail to recognise. With global food systems already under significant pressure and the current COVID 19 pandemic worsening the situation, it is vital to explore the current system sensitives and failings in order to identify how food systems can be improved so that they are better prepared for a range of future shocks.

The ANU research cluster on agriculture, food and nutritional security cluster explores a range of research, including:

1. Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses that address economic, social and environmental issues.
2. Exploring how access to safe and nutritious food can be improved.
3. Examine how current food consumption patterns can be shifted to ensure more sustainable outcomes for water, energy and land use.
4. Examine how to improve protections for natural ecosystems against new conversions for food and feed production, and explore how to restore and rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and soil function for sustainable food production
5. Advancing equitable livelihoods outcomes, that improve gender parity and explore the dimensions of welfare and access.

These research areas are aligned with the United Nations 2020 Food System foresighting report on future food systems (https://foresight.glopan.org/).