When considering drivers, conceptual frameworks of food systems draw the attention to climate change, globalization and trade, income growth and distribution, migration and population growth, and social and cultural norms. On the determinants side, scholars and policymakers have highlighted specific factors that affect eating patterns, such as food supply chains, the food environment (retailers, commercial markets, informal vendors, etc.), the household environment, and the behavior of caregivers.

To date, only UNICEF and GAIN’s Innocenti framework have linked food systems to children’s and adolescents’ well-being, putting their diets at the heart of analyses of the drivers and determinants [16].

Works carried out by the Lancet Commission represent valuable milestones in food system analysis. In 2019, EAT-Lancet set out the parameters of a“sustainable diet” in anattempt to inform decisions on policies that would influence the determinants and drivers of food systemsrelated to health and the environment [80].

The Lancet’s The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change, went further by adopting a political economy lens to rethink the systems of food and agriculture, transportation, urban design, and land. The Commission cast light on the “policy inertia” that characterizes the current governance structure skewed towards the disproportionate power of multinational food and beverage corporations at the expense of health- and environment-supportive policies [7].

The trade–food system–nutrition–climate nexus highlights the perverse effects of trade instruments related to agriculture and the food industry and their impacts on diets. Well-known examples are the spread of ultra-processed food through foreign direct investment by multinational companies into local production between the 1980s and 2000, representing a period of extensive investment and trade liberalisation around the world [81,82]. This strand of literature argues that private trade and investment tools accrue benefits for food availability and diet quality, complementing areas of domestic policies. These can include investments in domestic value chains for nutritious products and social safety nets. Investments in local production are especialy important for import-dependent LMICs because they are more prone to food insecurity and malnutritionand are vulnerable to the volatility of global commodity prices [83].

International demand for agriculture commodities represents the second leading global source of greenhouse gas emissions and drives tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss. Between 2010 and 2014, trade in agriculture commodities accounted for 29–39% of deforestation-related emissions, with livestock and oilseed production representing over half of this amount [83].