Reports – Sustainability

HEAL Food Alliance (website)

The Health, Environment, Agriculture, and Labor (HEAL) Food Alliance was born out of the understanding that no single individual, organization, or sector can transform food and farm systems in isolation. HEAL Food Alliance believes that true transformation requires diverse skills, roles, resources, and collective organizing for real and lasting change.

Today, HEAL is a national, multi-sector, multi-racial coalition of 55 member organizations that collectively represent more than 2 million people — including rural and urban farmers, ranchers, fishers, farm and food chain workers, Indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, community organizers, and activists.

Together, these members are building a powerful movement to transform food and farm systems away from extractive economic models and toward community control, care for the land, thriving local economies, dignified labor, and healthy communities nationwide. In doing so, HEAL advances the sovereignty and well-being of all living beings.

HEAL’s mission is to build collective power to create food and farm systems that are healthy for families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve food — while protecting the air, water, and land on which everyone depends.

HEAL’s vision is that all people and all communities have the right and the means to produce, procure, prepare, share, and eat food that is both nutritionally and culturally appropriate, free from exploitation of themselves or others, and aligned with a harmonious relationship with the rest of the natural world.

HEAL’s 10-Point Platform for Real Food expresses the belief that food is humanity’s most intimate and powerful connection to one another, to culture, and to the earth. To transform the food system is to take a powerful step toward healing bodies, economies, and the environment.

Crafted by HEAL members, the Platform serves as both a call to action and a political compass for transformation. The 10-Point Platform represents the bedrock of HEAL’s principles and the policy goals it actively pursues. It is a roadmap — a shared path toward a future that truly nourishes health, economies, and the environment.

For more details, you can download the whole document on their website.

Economy

1 – Dignity for Food Workers

2 – Opportunity for All Producers

3 – Fair & Competitive Markets

4 – Resilient Regional Economies

Health

5 – Dump the junk

6 – Increase Food Literacy & Transparency

7 – Real Food in Every Hood

Environment

8 – Phase Out Factory Farming

9 – Promote Sustainable Farming, Fishing, & Ranching

10 – Close the Loop on Waste, Runoff, & Energy

updated 2026 January

Rikolto (Website)

Rikolto, which means harvest, is an international NGO with more than 50 years’ experience in partnering with farmer organisations and food chain stakeholders across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Their work is structured around three global programmes: our international Rice, Cocoa & Coffee and Good Food 4 Cities programmes.

‍Inclusive business is at their core. They promote long-term business relationships, fulfilling farmers’ and buyers’ needs alike. They ensure the sustainability of our actions through a holistic sustainable food systems approach, facilitating collective action among all food system actors.

Mission:

A sustainable income for farmers and nutritious, affordable food for everyone.

Good Food for Cities: Healthy, sustainable, and nutritious food in Latin American cities

Rikolto collaborates with local food system actors (governments, farmers, food retailers and distributors, citizens and their organisations, thematic experts, financial institutions, civil society organisations) to make urban food environments and food supply chains more conducive to healthy, sustainable, and nutritious diets in 11 cities. With diverse stakeholders, they collaborate and promote full participation (all represented), so that no one is left behind.

Contributed by Christine McCullum-Gomez, PhD, RDN

updated 2025 December

Collaborative co-design for local blue food system transformation: the practicalities and challenges of the UK’s (FoodSEqual) ‘Plymouth Fish Finger’ pilot study (2025, Accepted Manuscript)

Hunt, L., Pettinger, C., Tsikritzi, R., & Wagstaff, C. (2025). Collaborative co-design for local blue food system transformation: The practicalities and challenges of the UK’s (FoodSEqual) “Plymouth Fish Finger” pilot study. Environmental Research: Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.1088/2976-601X/ae1f1c (Open Access, Accepted Manuscript)

Abstract

Purpose: UK food system transformation is urgently needed but blue foods (e.g. fish) have been only minimally part of this discourse. Informed by community action research in a UK southwest coastal city, fish was identified as a food commodity for food system innovation, leading to local collaborative ‘co-design’ of an iconic British food. The ‘Plymouth Fish Finger’ pilot assessed the practicalities and challenges of this social innovation and its provision into the school meal system.

Design: Exploratory creative mixed methods mapped the journey of the Fish Finger as a social innovation. Methods drew on ‘co-production’ approaches, involving Community Food Researchers (CFR), co-design with secondary school students, expert fish/school stakeholder consultations, educational pop-up taste tests in primary schools, processual observations and fieldnote reflections. Descriptive statistics and participatory analyses provided quantitative and qualitative insights respectively.

Findings: Taste testing with schools and communities showed positive sensory and educational attributes. Participatory analyses resulted in five core themes:
i) ‘Supply’ – disrupting traditional supply chains;
ii) ‘Environmental benefits’ – reduced impact of small vessels;
iii) ‘Processing’ – making an appealing product;
iv) ‘Education’ – the value of educational input; and
v) ‘Upscaling and legacy’ – routes to possible future expansion.
An underpinning category was also constructed – ‘Pride and identity meets reality’, which illuminates pride in the product and the imperative of its economic viability.

Originality: This small-scale exploratory pilot study forged relationships between academics, communities, fishing industry stakeholders, schools, and school meal providers. It successfully built the concept of a community-led fish finger social innovation, advocating for collaborative action towards (blue) food system transformation. This paper offers insights and recommendations for research, policy, and practice, which exemplify the complex interplay between factors driving distortions in access to and availability of fish within the local food system

2025 December: When the Accepted Manuscript is finalized this figure will be updated.

updated 2025 December

Mainstreaming agrobiodiversity in planet-friendly school meals for children: a scoping review (2025 Nov)

*Distribution of evidence from the 124 articles on home grown school meals or school garden interventions, or both, with labels showing the number of articles per country.*

Estrada-Carmona, N., Hunter, D., Samrat, S., & Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition. (2025). Mainstreaming agrobiodiversity in planet-friendly school meals for children: A scoping review. The Lancet Planetary Health, 9(11), 101374. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00252-9[1]

The global shift away from healthy, diverse, and sustainable diets threatens children’s health and futures. Although school gardens and home-grown school meals can reconnect children with nutritious, sustainably produced food, these interventions are often implemented separately and with little attention to agrobiodiversity, which is a cornerstone for sustainability and healthy diets.

Via a scoping review of 124 articles from 35 countries, we identified wide-ranging and complementary benefits of these interventions beyond health and education. The benchmark of the species used in these interventions against cultivated, predicted, and listed edible plants shows that agrobiodiversity is underused.

Despite fragmented and incomplete evidence, our research shows that these interventions can jointly drive profound transformation. Realising this potential demands systemic shifts toward holistic, rights-based approaches that overcome surmountable barriers and build objective, sustainable, and resilient food systems delivering planet-friendly school meals.

Contributed by Christine McCullum-Gomez, PhD, RDN

updated 2025 December

Switzerland’s National Pathway for Food Systems Transformation in Support of the 2030 Agenda (2025 July)

In response to the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021, Switzerland developed its first National Pathway for Food Systems Transformation as part of global efforts to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Grounded in Switzerland’s 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS 2030) and its initial Action Plan, the Pathway outlines national priorities and actions toward more sustainable consumption and production, both domestically and internationally.

Since its adoption, Switzerland has further refined this framework through new strategic documents—including the Agriculture and Food Climate Strategy 2050, Swiss Nutrition Strategy 2025–2032, and the Action Plan against Food Waste, among others.

This updated version of the National Pathway highlights progress made during the first three years and sets out next steps toward a resilient, equitable, and sustainable food system.

By 2030, Switzerland aims to achieve key milestones: moving toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, halting biodiversity loss, and eradicating hunger and all forms of malnutrition—while ensuring that environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability are balanced and integrated.

updated 2025 December

Mexican Dietary Guidelines (2025)

Mexico launches new Dietary Guidelines with a sustainability lens 🌱 by Cecilia De Bustos, UNICEF Mexico:

On 2025 October 16, the Government of Mexico officially launched the second edition of the Dietary Guidelines for the Mexican Population 2025–2030, a milestone in public health and food systems transformation for Mexico. These guidelines are not just about what we eat—they are a call to action for a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable future.

UNICEF México is proud to have provided technical support in the development of these guidelines, alongside the Ministry of Health, INSP, FAO and many other stakeholders. This collaborative effort reflects a shared commitment to improving nutrition while protecting our planet.

🌍 What makes these guidelines groundbreaking?

✅ They promote environmentally friendly dietary patterns, including breastfeeding and the consumption of local, seasonal, and plant-based foods.
✅ They adopt a sustainable food systems approach, considering the entire food chain—from production to consumption—with a focus on sustainable agriculture and responsible supply chains.
✅ They call for the reduction of food waste, both at home and across the supply chain.
✅ They support the consumption of foods that preserve biodiversity and natural resources, including water and soil.
✅ They value traditional food practices and promote diets that are culturally appropriate, accessible, and equitable for all.

🌽 The guidelines also celebrate the Dieta de la Milpa—a traditional Mexican dietary pattern —as a model for healthy, sustainable eating.

Food Guide for Colombia: biodiversity, identity, and health at the table (2025)

English Translation by Christine McCullum-Gomez, PhD, RDN, Bogota, Colombia

In 2025, the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) and the University of Antioquia presented the Dietary Guide for the Colombian Population based on Biodiversity and Real Food. This document is not a single recipe or just another technical manual: it is the result of a participatory process with communities from the country’s 13 food-related territories—from the Amazon to the Caribbean, including the Pacific, the Llanos, and the Andean region.

The guide was developed through knowledge-sharing dialogues with farmers, Indigenous communities, Afro-Colombian communities, Raizal communities, Palenquera communities, and urban families. This approach allowed for the collection of ancestral knowledge, culinary practices, and diverse nutritional realities, recognizing that Colombia is not only a megadiverse country in terms of ecosystems, but also in cuisines, flavors, and ways of relating to food.

Traditionally, dietary guidelines have been based on universal parameters that prioritize nutrients and calories, but overlook the cultural, social, and environmental context. The new Colombian proposal innovates by incorporating the NOVA classification, which differentiates foods according to their level of processing, highlighting the importance of preferring fresh and real products over ultra-processed ones.

Furthermore, it introduces crucial topics such as:

– Food sovereignty: the right of peoples to decide what to eat and how to produce it.

– Agroecology and sustainability: the relationship between biodiversity, water, and responsible production systems.

– Public health: recommendations for addressing growing problems such as obesity, malnutrition, and chronic diseases associated with the excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods.

– Food governance: strategies that go beyond the kitchen and involve public policies, equitable access to food, and the protection of native seeds.

The value of this guide lies in its practical utility and local relevance. For families, it offers clear guidance on which foods to prioritize in their daily diet, how to revive traditional recipes, and how to identify ultra-processed products that should be reduced. For communities, it represents recognition of their knowledge and the importance of keeping their culinary traditions alive.

In the Amazon, the consumption of native fruits, roots, and local fish is promoted.

In the Andean region, dishes based on potatoes, corn, and quinoa are being revived.

On the Caribbean Coast, fish, seafood, and coconut-based combinations are valued.

On the Pacific Coast, traditional Afro-Colombian dishes are being strengthened with an emphasis on fresh, locally sourced products.

For decision-makers, this guide also offers data on the population’s energy and nutritional needs by region, environmental indicators such as carbon and water footprints, and proposals for integrating food considerations into public policies.

In a country with high levels of food inequality, this guide aims to become an instrument for social transformation. Its importance transcends individual nutrition: it strengthens cultural identity, boosts the local economy, protects biodiversity, and proposes solutions to the challenges of climate change. Ultimately, the Colombian Population’s Food Guide based on Biodiversity and Real Food invites all Colombians to rediscover the richness of their land and to make conscious choices that benefit their health and the planet.

2025 November

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (website)

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

Transforming food and agriculture through a systems approach (2025)

The purpose of Transforming Food and Agriculture through a Systems Approach is to clarify what a systems approach involves in practice across agrifood systems. It explains what a systems approach means in the context of agrifood systems, why it matters, and how to adopt it. It advances the operationalization of a systems approach by outlining the key shifts needed to embed systems thinking into policies, programmes, projects, and interventions, and illustrating how countries, regions, and municipalities are putting these shifts into practice.

Citation: FAO. 2025. Transforming food and agriculture through a systems approach. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd6071en

Planetary Health Alliance (website)

Planetary Health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth.

Planetary Health aligns with Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) and can be a good space for Dietitians and Nutritionists (D-Ns) to link to and build on. The following Declaration on Planetary Health demonstrates that, especially in the statements on Agriculture/Food Systems, Health, Schools, and Universities.

Click through to the website to utilize the myriad of free resources including curricula, videos, and webinars/podcasts; become a free member and join regional hubs; and start linking with like minded colleagues!

2021 São Paulo Declaration on Planetary Health

A multi-stakeholder call to action co-created by the global Planetary Health community on what is necessary for each of us to achieve a just transition to a world which optimizes the well-being of all people in harmony with Earth’s natural systems

The global planetary health community warns that the ongoing degradation of Earth’s natural systems poses an urgent threat to human well-being everywhere. A just and global transformation in how we live is essential to protect both people and the planet. Crises such as the COVID‑19 pandemic, climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have devastated lives and livelihoods, particularly among the most vulnerable.

The evidence is clear: human health cannot be secured without restoring the planet’s life-support systems. This calls for the Great Transition—a fundamental shift in how we produce and consume, build our cities, govern, and relate to nature and each other, moving from exploitation to interdependence, equity, and regeneration. Achieving this vision demands cooperation across all sectors, cultures, and generations. We invite everyone to see themselves as partners in planetary healing.

In an interconnected world, each action inspires others; together we pledge to dedicate our lives to the service of humanity and to the protection and renewal of the natural systems that sustain all life on Earth.