We have all been in that situation: the moving boxes are large and heavy, but we are determined to carry them all in one trip, even if that means we can’t see where we’re going. In the tropics, some leaf-cutter ants face a similar challenge: carrying a load that is several times their body weight. To make matters even more difficult, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama recently discovered that carrying oversized weights may create “blind spots” when leafcutter ants transport material on a trail.

In Vietnam, like many countries around the world, modern food retail is expanding, food is becoming more processed and packaged, and unhealthy food marketing is pervasive across physical and digital spaces. These shifts deliver convenience and (in some cases) safer handling, but they also make less healthy options easier to find and harder to avoid. A new study by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, along with their colleagues, maps these changes and the policy responses and proposes a more robust framework for a faster response.