Healthy foods are grown sustainably; they don’t harm ecosystems. Healthy foods are varied, nutrient-dense, and minimally processed; they support and enhance human health and wellness over the course of a lifetime. And although nutrient-dense foods mean different foods to different peoples, they need to be accessible to all. Our future depends on a sustainable, nutrient-rich, inclusive and diverse foodscape.

In order to grow and market affordable healthy foods in all communities, system-wide changes needs to occur from farm to fork. Nutrition education in the public schools, local food councils, state and federal nutrition programs, legislation to limit advertising for fast foods and ultra-processed foods (especially to young children), unhealthy food taxes, and support for local and sustainable food producers can all make a significant difference. Advocating for food system reform by contacting and supporting local, state and federally elected officials who will protect the public’s health and promote food equity is also essential. In addition, sustainability in the food system can be achieved with innovation, cooperation and a vision for the future. “The long-term environmental and social sustainability of food systems requires that investors collectively shift their financing focus from sustainable asset management to sustainable landscape management (e.g., from sustainable timberland to sustainable forests or sustainable seafood to sustainable coastal habitats)”(Olson).

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “For decades, the public policies and big corporations that shape our food and agricultural system have pressed farmers to manage their land like food factories—places where inputs in the form of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, or animal feed are converted to outputs in the form of marketable food products. This model of agriculture is marked by practices such as monoculture (planting the same one or two crops over a large area year after year), raising crops and livestock in isolation from each other, and leaving farmland bare and vulnerable to erosion and nutrient loss between commercial crops. The industrial model ignores a crucial fact: farms are ecosystems—complex, interdependent networks of living things. Farmers succeed by managing their ecosystems to produce food efficiently. But if we want that success to continue over the long term, we must also manage farm ecosystems sustainably, nurturing their resilience and self-regenerating capacity” (Sustainable Agriculture).