Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: a report from the 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium

Jessica Fanzo^{1

2

3}, Coral Rudie⁴, Iman Sigman⁵, Steven Grinspoon⁵, Tim G Benton⁶, Molly E Brown⁷, Namukolo Covic⁸, Kathleen Fitch⁵, Christopher D Golden⁹, Delia Grace^{10

11}, Marie-France Hivert¹², Peter Huybers¹³, Lindsay M Jaacks¹⁴, William A Masters¹⁵, Nicholas Nisbett¹⁶, Ruth A Richardson¹⁷, Chelsea R Singleton¹⁸, Patrick Webb¹⁵, Walter C Willett¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
² Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Metabolism Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House, London, United Kingdom.
⁷ Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, USA.
⁸ International Food Policy Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, United Kingdom.
¹¹ Animal and Human Health, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
¹² Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹³ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁴ Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Health and Nutrition Cluster, Institute of Development Studies, Falmer, United Kingdom.
¹⁷ Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁸ Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 34523669
PMCID: PMC8755053
DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab315

Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: a report from the 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium

Jessica Fanzo et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022.

. 2022 Jan 11;115(1):18-33.

doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab315.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
² Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Metabolism Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House, London, United Kingdom.
⁷ Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, USA.
⁸ International Food Policy Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, United Kingdom.
¹¹ Animal and Human Health, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
¹² Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹³ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁴ Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Health and Nutrition Cluster, Institute of Development Studies, Falmer, United Kingdom.
¹⁷ Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁸ Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 34523669
PMCID: PMC8755053
DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab315

Abstract

Food systems are at the center of a brewing storm consisting of a rapidly changing climate, rising hunger and malnutrition, and significant social inequities. At the same time, there are vast opportunities to ensure that food systems produce healthy and safe food in equitable ways that promote environmental sustainability, especially if the world can come together at the UN Food Systems Summit in late 2021 and make strong and binding commitments toward food system transformation. The NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard and the Harvard Medical School Division of Nutrition held their 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium entitled "Global Food Systems and Sustainable Nutrition in the 21st Century" in June 2021. This article presents a synthesis of this symposium and highlights the importance of food systems to addressing the burden of malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases, climate change, and the related economic and social inequities. Transformation of food systems is possible, and the nutrition and health communities have a significant role to play in this transformative process.

Keywords: affordable diet; double burden of malnutrition; food environments; food governance; food systems; inequity; obesity; stunting; sustainable diets; transformation.

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Figures

**FIGURE 1**
Food Systems Framework. Source: Fanzo et al. (162).

**FIGURE 2**
Inequities across nutrition. Source: Nisbett et al. (163).

**FIGURE 3**
Global population unable to afford a healthy diet in 2017. Source: Herforth et al. (16). Map available online at: https://www.datawrapper.de/_/6LhIP.

**FIGURE 4**
The dietary consumption of food groups regionally as compared to the EAT–*Lancet* reference diet. The graph shows the gap between global and regional dietary patterns in 2016 and reference diet intakes of food. The dotted line represents reference diet intakes. Data on 2016 intakes are from the Global Burden of Disease database. Source: Willett et al. (1).

**FIGURE 5**
Necessary food system transformations and policy entry points. Source: Glopan (2). FBDG, food-based dietary guideline; R&D, research and development.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447–92. - PubMed
1. Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (Glopan). Future food systems: for people, our planet, and prosperity. [Internet]. London, United Kingdom: Glopan; 2020. Available from: https://foresight.glopan.org/ (Accessed 2021 Aug 5).
1. Searchinger T, Waite R, Hanson C, Ranganathan J, Dumas P, Matthews E. Creating a sustainable food future: a menu of solutions to feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050. [Internet]. Washington (DC): World Resources Institute; 2019. Available from: https://www.wri.org/research/creating-sustainable-food-future (Accessed 2021 Aug 5).
1. Fanzo J, Bellows AL, Spiker ML, Thorne-Lyman AL, Bloem MW. The importance of food systems and the environment for nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021;113(1):7–16. - PMC - PubMed
1. Webb P, Benton TG, Beddington J, Flynn D, Kelly NM, Thomas SM. The urgency of food system transformation is now irrefutable. Nature Food. 2020;1(10):584–5. - PubMed

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Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: a report from the 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium

Affiliations

Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: a report from the 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical