In 1996 the World Food Summit defined food security as existing “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". Although good progress has been made towards reducing world hunger through initiatives such as the Millenium Development Goals, the numbers of people who are still under- and malnourished today remains disturbingly high. It has been recently estimated that 868 million people (which represent 12.5% of the global population) do not have enough food to eat for their minimum dietary energy requirements, while 2 billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies. At the same time 1.4 billion people are overweight and 500 million of these are obese, triggering new public health epidemics in developed and emerging nations including more people suffering from chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (FAO State of Food and Agriculture report 2013). Plant and Crop sciences can help to generate solutions to these global problems through a variety of strategies, including increasing yield and nutrient levels in staple crops, producing crops that provide beneficial nutrients such as anti-oxidants, healthier oils and starches, and diversifying the types of crops to be consumed. Together with socio-economic initiatives such research-based strategies can contribute to providing a balanced and nutritionally adequate diet.Reflecting the central importance of plants and crops in the food chain there are already a number of initiatives across the world that are focused on improving the nutritional value of crops by increasing micronutrients and vitamins, and also by enhancing the levels of ‘phytonutrients’ with proven health benefits. However, these efforts operate at different scales with varying degrees of integration and communication. International cooperation and global coordination is therefore needed to minimize duplication of efforts and maximize impact from investment to deliver improved crops for a healthy nutrition in order to effectively reduce or eradicate global hunger and malnutrition. The Global Plant Council (http://globalplantcouncil.org) has recognized this need and will address it in a forum on biofortification, micronutrient efficiencies and improving the nutritional value of crops in Xiamen China 5-6th July 2014. The forum will bring together key stakeholders to discuss current projects, assess current strategic investments into R&D, and initiate a gap analysis to begin the process of ensuring that current major nutritional needs and future nutritional improvements are met through an international coordinated approach. The forum provides a unique opportunity for experts from plant, crop, nutrition and political sciences, as well representatives foundations, NGOs (all of whom do not interact on a regular basis) to come together and discuss potential new approaches based on respective expertise, in order to reach a consensus on the strategic efforts that are necessary to contribute to the relief of malnutrition and the prevention and amelioration of chronic diseases.