Diversification for sustainable food systems
This edition of the Greats Insights magazine (PDF) has a thematic focus on sustainable food systems. The articles seek to address the ‘People, Profit and Planet’ sustainability challenge in food systems, focusing on how greater sustainability and inclusiveness are achievable. There are several critical issues that challenge food system performance: 1) rapid urbanization and the growth of megacities, 2) requirements for agro-food systems upgrading, and 3) management of food access, distribution and price through rural-urban linkages. These challenges and perspectives for supporting sustainable and inclusive food systems are discussed in this article. International expert recommendations point to the need to diversify production and consumption, which is discussed in this article. Diversified sustainable food systems deliver food security and nutrition and are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. One way to foster food variety in our food systems is by supporting the production, processing, marketing and consumption of neglected and underutilized species (NUS), about which more can be read in this article. ‘Traditional’ food will be key to address together the challenges of nourishing people, protecting the planet and reducing inequality. Policies that affect the food system are currently not aligned towards improved nutrition outcomes. The author of this article states that is now time for careful analysis of opportunities for policy coherence for nutrition, along with other food system goals.