The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the overarching institution that houses various specialized centers, including the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) and the Center for Planetary Health. There are a myriad of resources to aid and support D-Ns in contributing to SFS within their roles.
- The Center for a Livable Future, founded in 1996 within the Bloomberg School of Public Health, focuses on applying science and systems thinking to build healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems through research, education, and policy advocacy. It addresses the interconnections among diet, food production, environment, and human health.
- The Center for Planetary Health, launched in 2024, accelerates cross-university collaboration in addressing the degradation of Earth’s natural systems and its impacts on human health and well-being. JHIPH’s mission is to catalyze scholarship and practice of Planetary Health by bringing together a community of faculty, students, and staff united by their commitment to work across disciplines to address the urgency of the Earth crisis and its impacts on humanity. One of the four cornerstones for action uses the food system as an example:
Revealing the hidden health costs of environmental destruction with transparent accounting to identify efficient changes—for example, transforming the global food system would cost substantially less than current hidden healthcare impacts.
– From the JHIPH’s four cornerstones for Planetary Health
Some useful resources on planetary health include:
- The Case for Planetary Health: A million years of biological evolution and thousands of years of social evolution have brought us to this question: Can we change? Listen as Samuel Myers, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, explores humanity’s impact on the planet and the need for a new path forward before it’s too late.
- A Special issue of Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine, “Our Planet, Our Health,” – The Case for Planetary Health by Samuel Myers, on the choices we make today that will determine whether we have a livable future. The issue explores systemic challenges in food systems related to climate change and nutrition, highlighting research on how environmental changes contribute to hidden hunger and affect public health, and discusses innovative approaches to improving food system resilience, reducing food waste, and ensuring equitable access to nutritious food, emphasizing the interdependence of planetary health and human nutrition.
- Nourishing the Future: Sustainable Food Systems for Nutrition and Dietetic Students (partially done 2026 January) – Together with Food + Planet, they are working on developing a set of learning modules to inspire and equip the next generation of registered dietitian nutritionists to become advocates for sustainable food systems. These modules offer a comprehensive overview of food systems as they relate to sustainability and public health, with a strong emphasis on nutrition. Designed for students in dietetic internships and coordinated programs, these evidence-based modules provide well-rounded training that addresses the complex, interconnected aspects of sustainable diets—including human health, sociocultural factors, and environmental impact. Each module includes a set of slides with notes, case studies, discussion questions, and additional resources.
- Module 1: Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems
- Module 2: Food Systems for All (available January 2026)
- Module 3: Food and our Climate (available February 2026)
- Module 4: Aquatic Foods, Nutrition, and Sustainability (available March 2026)
updated 2025 December
Transparency | Diversity | Dynamism | Evidence-based |