Science and Public Health Take a Good Look at the Food System

February has been ripe with discourse about the transforming the food system to one that can feed the world equitably and healthfully while mitigating the effects of climate change and environmental degradation.

On Feb 12, a special edition of the journal Science devoted to the question of feeding a growing population with finite resources was made available online for free.  I’ve just begun getting through pieces like Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People, What It Takes to Make That Meal, Measuring Food Insecurity, and Sustainability and Global Seafood, but I can wholeheartedly recommend it as an important resource for those interested in taking a serious look at our global public health and environmental crises and considering the solutions. The introductory article Feeding the Future starts off dramatically:

Feeding the 9 billion people expected to inhabit our planet by 2050 will be an unprecedented challenge. This special issue examines the obstacles to achieving global food security and some promising solutions…. We have little time to waste. Godfray et al. (p. 812) note that we have perhaps 40 years to radically transform agriculture, work out how to grow more food without exacerbating environmental problems, and simultaneously cope with climate change. Although estimates of food insecurity vary (Barrett et al., p. 825), the number of undernourished people already exceeds 1 billion; feeding this many people requires more than incremental changes (Federoff et al., p. 833).

Then last week, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement sponsored a web program in their WIHI series, titled  “ Tipping the Scales: Fresh Ideas to Combat Obesity.”   The program focused on our food environment and it’s impact on our food intake.   In it, I was impressed to hear Dr David Kessler former FDA Commissioner and author of The End of Overeating say, “Unless we dramatically change our relationship with food, including the environment..” ...the epidemic of obesity will go unresolved.  Then Charles J. Homer, MD, MPH, said, “overweight is not a matter of personal choice…we live in a toxic environment and we need to change it.”   And Rachelle Mirkin of the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality talked about how a big, systemic change will be needed to make a difference in the epidemic of obesity.   She said, that for “real change” to happen, “we’re going to need to change the environment.” 

And today  an exciting webinar on Bridging Food Systems and Public Health was aired. The hosts promised it would be available online tomorrow.  For now you can access the special issues of the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition  that the webinar explored: Food Systems and Public Health: Linkages to Achieve Healthier Diets and Healthier Communities.  David Wallinga, MD, MPA, of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Michael Hamm, PhD, of Michigan State University, and Angie Tagtow, MS, RD, LD, HEN/ADA Managing Editor were the featured speakers.  I can’t say enough about this webinar.  Not only did the speakers address opportunities for positive changes in local and federal policy and ways for health professionals to “dig in”, they shared visions of what a healthy and sustainable food system might actually look like.

Sustainable Nutrition Bottom-line:  Our environmental and public health crises intersect in the food system.  And there is a lot of work to be done to tackle these crises.  I loved when Michael Hamm of the JHEN webinar defined our food system challenges as a “wicked problem”--a problem that is "difficult or impossible to fix…. because of complex interdependencies.”  But in acknowledging the scope of the problem we should not give up.   Each and every one of us has opportunities to make positive changes on the individual, local, nationwide and global level.  If we find ways to act quickly and act together to support good policies that can help us to change our collective and individual foodways, we just might be able to create an equitable, healthy, and sustainable food system.