Food system actor perspectives on future-proofing European food systems through plant breeding.

Crop improvement is a key innovation area in the pursuit of sustainable food systems. However, realising its potential requires integration of the needs and priorities of all agri-food chain stakeholders. In this study, we provide a multi-stakeholder perspective on the role of crop improvement in future-proofing the European food system. We engaged agri-business, farm- and consumer-level stakeholders, and plant scientists through an online survey and focus groups. Four of each group's top five priorities were shared and related to environmental sustainability goals (water, nitrogen and phosphorus efficiency, and heat stress). Consensus was identified on issues including considering existing alternatives to plant breeding (e.g. management strategies), minimising trade-offs, and addressing geographical variation in needs. We conducted a rapid evidence synthesis on the impacts of priority crop improvement options, highlighting the urgent need for further research examining downstream sustainability impacts to identify concrete targets for plant breeding innovation as a food systems solution.

School absence: a problem for the pediatrician.

Children who are frequently or persistently absent from school tend to perform poorly in school and are likely to drop out before graduation from high school. Excessive school absence was significant implications in terms of maladaptive behavior, wasted opportunities, and future unemployment and welfare costs. Epidemiologic information about this problem suggests that physical and mental health problems of students or their families are the sole or contributing cause of this behavior in more than 50% of cases. Excessive school absence may signal such health problems as poor coping with or management of chronic illness, masked depression, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, inappropriate responses to minor illnesses, or severe family dysfunction. School absence patterns appear to be a readily available, easy-to-use marker of childhood dysfunction which lends itself to screening large numbers of children for unmet health needs. Attention to this area of child behavior as part of routine health care will frequently uncover previously unrecognized health problems in children and their families.