Professor John Ingram: Transforming Food System Outcomes for Health, Environment and Enterprise- A Food System approach to identifying who has to do what

One of the great human achievements over the last half century is that advances in food production have largely kept pace with demand on a global basis. Today, around 7 billion people are not hungry, up from about 3 billion 50 years ago. But we should not be complacent: despite these successes, over 800 million people are still hungry, perhaps 3 billion more lack sufficient nutrients, and at least 2.5 billion people consume excess calories for their physiological needs. Stunting and wasting due to insufficient nutrients and calories, and especially in early years, have lasting impacts on an individual’s potential. Meanwhile, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes are already major – and very expensive – health sector issues afflicting many of the ever-increasing number of people over-consuming calories for their physiological need and are the leading cause of death in many countries. The social and financial impacts of the triple burden of malnutrition are massive. There are also significant, and growing, impacts of our food system on the climate and natural resource base upon which our food security ultimately depends. The presentation will introduce how adopting a food systems approach helps to identify how and where the food system impacts health and other social and economic outcomes, and the environment. This draws on an understanding of the wide range of food system activities from consuming food through to primary production (a ‘fork-to-farm’ approach), the actors involved, and the drivers that influence their decisions. In addition to considering the consequences of these activities on the range of outcomes, the presentation will highlight how, in turn, these outcomes need to be better balanced given the inherent trade-offs within the ‘diets-health-climate’ discourse. This will be considered against the need to better manage – i.e., not just continuing to strive to meet – food demand. To this end, the presentation will also unpack the notion of ‘food system transformation’, the respective roles that food system actors and public and private policy makers need to play, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. It will close with some take home messages for food system practitioners, educators, and policy makers.