Ferike Thom

Introduction Socioecological transformation, including that of the global food system, is a defining challenge of our time. Early-career researchers (ECRs) working in this interdisciplinary field have a dual responsibility to not only conduct research that addresses this urgent challenge but also help to shape the future of research communities we are a part of.

1 Introduction Current agricultural production and nutrition habits cause substantial negative externalities on climate, environment, and human health. For instance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the agrifood system contribute one-third of global GHG emissions (Crippa et al. 2021). Expansion of croplands leads to biodiversity loss and habitat destruction (IPBES 2019). Nitrogen (Kanter et al. 2020; Sutton et al. 2013) and phosphorus surpluses in soil (Beusen et al.

1 INTRODUCTION Trade disruptions occur frequently and for various reasons (Gephart et al., 2016; Maetz et al., 2011), such as international conflicts [e.g. the 2019 US–Chinese ‘trade war’ (BBC, 2020) or the war in Ukraine], infrastructural issues [e.g. the obstruction of the Suez Canal in 2021 (Russon, 2021)], pandemics [e.g. COVID-19 (FAO, 2020)] and regulatory differences [e.g. potentially for new breeding techniques (Gocht et al., 2021)].