Food Systems, Health, and the Environment: What Progress Has Been Made to Inform Public Debates?

Nutrition is a key factor in the health of living beings throughout their entire lives. In humans, numerous epidemiological studies have established that a healthy, sufficient, balanced, and varied diet is essential to the physical and mental health of populations by providing the energy necessary for the body to function, enabling growth and strengthening the immune system, promoting fertility, and supporting healthy aging. Conversely, a diet that does not meet these criteria contributes significantly to the development of most chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and neurological diseases.

Furthermore, most food systems—from resource production to waste, including processing, packaging, transportation, and distribution—have short-, medium-, and long-term impacts on deforestation, soil and water resource degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change, thereby jeopardizing the very goal of food security and sovereignty that everyone seeks.

Finally, several studies have highlighted the negative impacts and hidden costs of our food systems on health, the environment, and the economy (between 8 and 12 percent of each country’s GDP, according to the FAO).

Given that agricultural, food, economic, health, and environmental issues are closely intertwined, this situation is no longer sustainable.

In light of these findings, transforming food systems to make them sustainable, healthy, and environmentally friendly is not a choice but a necessity that must be supported by societal, economic, and political change.

Speakers from various sectors, disciplines, and communities will be invited to participate. The organizers will also set up a space dedicated to developing collective recommendations for policymakers.