The pig and poultry industries have substantially improved productivity through improvements in nutrition, health and genetics. However, due to environmental, economic and social pressures there is further need for evaluation and improvement which will coincide with an increased demand to feed a global population of 9 billion in 2050. The goal therefore is to produce sustainable food from sustainable feed (and feeding) and ensure minimal trade-offs with the environmental and health aspects of production. Trade-offs means that there is not a ‘win-win’, but a ‘win-lose’ dilemma, and the decision where to win and where to lose is made by different stakeholders (e.g. legislators, producers, consumers). Nutrition is a key component of the economic feasibility with over 70% of total costs of production related to feed. An example of a trade-off between animal health and production is the ban on the use of antibiotics and ZnO. This is a ‘win-win’ for public health and the environment, but a ‘lose-lose’ for animal (gut) health and production. The environmental impact predominantly relates to nitrogen and phosphorus excretion with strategies such as reduced crude protein, increased use of synthetic amino acids and optimization of phytase rates requiring further industry integration. The future industry will require a focus on precision animal nutrition, validation of alternative feed ingredients (insects, algae, microalgae, seaweed etc), optimization of current enzymatic use and an increased usage of food waste and co-products. This precision nutrition will focus on the interaction of nutrition with animal physiology, microbiology, immunology (immunometabolism), host genetics (nutrigenomics). The tools that we need should quantify the ‘win’ and the ‘lose’ of the dilemma, so that each stakeholder can make a well-informed decision. We are now in an era that large-scale non-invasive animal monitoring is feasible and research should focus on how these tools can be used to assess health, production, and welfare. Also, for complex issues such as gut health, targeted experimental research will be required to identify the mechanisms behind promising (nutritional) levers that ensure gut health.