One of the biggest challenges facing humanity is achieving sustainable food security in the face of population growth, resource scarcity, ecosystem degradation and climate change. Transitioning towards sustainable food systems (SFS) is a must for achieving sustainable development. This review paper highlights the need to adopt a holistic, multidimensional, interdisciplinary and systemic approach for better understanding food systems, which is a prerequisite for fostering transition towards sustainability. A better understanding of food systems means comprehending issues at play from "farm to fork" i.e. production (crop, animal, seafood), processing, trade and distribution, and consumption. For gaining a full awareness also cross-cutting issues such as gender, innovation and technology should be considered. Such a deep knowledge and consequent corrective actions are crucial to address the multiple challenges and dysfunctions of the current global food system such as food insecurity, obesity, food waste, climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, water depletion, deforestation, market...
