Reports – Sustainability

The Nyéléni Global Forum (2025)

The world is in unprecedented turmoil, and we are all facing deep-rooted overlapping crises. We need a paradigm shift to reclaim the right to shape our own food systems for the well-being of people and the planet.

Launched in 1996 at the World Food Summit, food sovereignty promotes a people-focused approach to food systems, prioritizing locally produced, stable, healthy, and affordable food over dependence on global markets and neoliberal policies.

The International Nyéléni Forum in Mali (2007) established this vision as a global standard, uniting movements and organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and social justice. In 2015, the Nyéléni International Forum on Agroecology reinforced this,
placing peasant, indigenous, family agroecology at the centre of a strategy for addressing climate and biodiversity crises.

That is why the Nyéléni Global Forum are calling for a new mobilization within and beyond the food sovereignty movement, to build our response at both global and local levels, and tighten alliances with climate justice, antiracism, health, labour, feminist, and social and solidarity economy movements and organisations. Through a multi-year process, they’ve brought together thousands of grassroots organizations and other allies across six world regions, to discuss and put forward joint proposals for a system change and a strong political agenda for the years to come.

The Nyéléni Global Forum, to be held in 2025 in India, will be the space for strategy and organization, and to kick off this new phase of the food sovereignty movement.

These can be ideal spaces for D-Ns to get involved with either during or between events in Food Councils or other collaborations. Click through to find the organizations near you who are involved.

Open Food Network (website)

The Open Food Network (OFN) is a global network of people and organisations working together to build a new food system. OFN believes a sustainable and resilient food system needs to reconnect producers and consumers.

Together OFN members develop open and shared resources, knowledge, and software to support a better food system. They aim to empower people and communities and give them the tools and knowledge to develop the food systems they need to build new food systems for their community.

OFN has many case studies on their website. They highlight some of the over 847 amazing food enterprises selling on their platform. The case studies go deeper to know more about them – their stories, how they do things, what they care about, and how they make localised food systems happen in their communities.

2025 January

Global Roots (website)

Global Roots promotes regenerative, equitable, and nutritious plant-based food systems by modeling agricultural conservation projects, partnering with organizations around the world to implement whole systems change, and providing on-the-ground education programs. They are based in the USA* and the Dominican Republic** in partnership with the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and are exploring other expansion areas. By recognizing the overlap between nutrition for personal and planetary health, we can drastically improve global health standards while simultaneously reducing agricultural land use requirements paving the way for increased conservation.

Objectives:

Expand the practice of agriculture as a form of conservation, life-enhancement, and regeneration to areas around the world.
Provide education opportunities on how to transition consolidated, top-down food systems to community-owned land trusts and regenerative land practices.
Demonstrate through model programs how transitioning inefficiently used farmland from speculative markets to locally-owned land initiatives increases healthy food options, employment opportunities, and resilient communities of health.
Increase peer-to-peer networking and coalition building through the Whole-Communities platform.
Provide technical support to promote regenerative, equitable, and nutritious plant-based food systems.

* The Brightside Farm and Nursery in the USA is the home of Global Roots. The farm is located outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina in growing zone 8a and covers an area of 2.5 acres hosting the nursery, mixed vegetable production, and orchard. Operations of the farm and nursery are governed by the Global Roots staff and board of directors.

** The RAICES Institute education center is located in the Dominican Republic in the province of Las Hermanas Mirabal, north of Salcedo in the village of La Cumbre. The center is owned and operated by RAICES Global with program support from Global Roots and the T. Colin Campbell center for Nutrition Studies. The center hosts education programs and aims to establish plant-based communal food hubs.

2025 January

Serving hope: rethinking school meal programs in Latin America (2024)

López, D. S., Gamba, M., & Uriza-Pinzón, J. (2024). Serving hope: Rethinking school meal programs in Latin America. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 36, Article 100818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2024.100818

Fig. 1 School meal programs in Latin America.

This article is a commentary providing a good overview and links to improving school meals programs, including issues to foster and educate on Sustainable Food Systems.

Snippets from the Article: “To bolster the effectiveness of school food programs in LAC it’s imperative to adopt innovative strategies. The above involves integrating nutritional education into the school curriculum, establishing sustainable school farms with local products, and incorporating gastronomy into SMP to enhance menu acceptance and reduce food waste. Community involvement ensures cultural relevance and supports local farmers, while technological solutions aid in addressing socioeconomic disparities, infrastructure, and logistics, facilitating better monitoring and data-driven decision-making. Moreover, long-term initiatives for enhancing school food programs should focus on aligning policies, raising awareness, capacity building, and conducting research and evaluation.”

“Fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targeting hunger mitigation and universal food access within the framework of SMPs is crucial for global well-being. Enhancing quality and coverage in SMP across LAC is essential, requiring concerted efforts to improve nutrition, promote sustainable development, and advance global health.”

2025 January

Sustainable healthy diets: guiding principles (2019)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly held an international expert consultation on Sustainable and Healthy Diets from 1 to 3 July 2019 at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The Consultation agreed on guiding principles for what constitutes “Sustainable Healthy Diets”, which comes when the debate around the sustainability of diets is high on the agenda of governments, international organisations, civil society organisations, the private sector and academia.

Considering the detrimental environmental impact of current food systems, and the concerns raised about their sustainability, there is an urgent need to promote diets that are healthy and have low environmental impacts. These diets also need to be socio-culturally acceptable and economically accessible for all.

These guiding principles take a holistic approach to diets; they consider international nutrition recommendations; the environmental cost of food production and consumption; and the adaptability to local social, cultural and economic contexts. At the consultation, the experts agreed on the term “Sustainable Healthy Diets” which encompasses the two dimensions – sustainability and healthiness of diets. Countries should decide on the trade-offs according to their situations and goals.

These guiding principles emphasize the role of food consumption and diets in contributing to the achievement of the Sustatinable Development Goals (SDGs) at the country level, especially SDGs:
1 No Poverty
2 Zero Hunger
3 Good Health and Well-Being
4 Quality Education
5 Gender Equality
12 Responsible Consumption and Production
13 Climate Action

Also see our ICDA SFS Toolkit’s SDG Briefs: Dietitian-Nutritionist Roles that includes D-N Roles for SDG 4, 5, 12, and 13 above as well as:
6 Clean water and sanitation
8 Decent work and economic growth
14 Life below water
15 Life on land

2025 January

The Food Planet Prize

The Curt Bergfors Foundation was established on August 30th, 2019, in acknowledgement of the perils that our current food systems pose to the health of people and the planet, and with the conviction that the ways we produce, distribute and consume food must be radically and urgently reformed if future generations — and the planet itself — are to survive and thrive. Immediate action is required.
* The vision is a well-nourished world population on a thriving planet.
* The mission is to drive a rapid transition to a sustainable global food system. They do this through research grants, awards, and information campaigns. Most of their activities are centred around the Food Planet Prize.

Through the foundation and the founding capital that Curt provided (500 million SEK came from his private assets), Curt acknowledged that our current ways of producing, distributing, and consuming food are causing significant damage and that we must urgently and drastically change our modus operandi to save both human and planetary health. The foundation supports the transition to sustainable food systems through research grants, awards, and information campaigns. Its primary tool is The Food Planet Prize. With an annual award of two million USD, it is the world’s most significant environmental endowment.

The Food Planet Prize rewards innovative initiatives that will improve the global food system within a ten-year period while supporting a resilient biosphere and feeding a growing world population. It is Curt’s brainchild and his greatest legacy. He wished to contribute to a better, more bountiful Food Planet and was confident that it could be nursed back to health.

We share this with you as there is a long list of winners and nominees you can gain inspiration from, or partner with, as you work to further Sustainable Food Systems wherever you are.

Or maybe you will apply to win the award yourself!

Winners & nominees

Center for Ecoliteracy

The Center for Ecoliteracy in California, USA, advances the teaching and modeling of sustainable practices in K–12 schools. We build partnerships and the capacity of K–12 schools to support healthy, sustainable school communities and food systems change in schools. The Center for Ecoliteracy leads systems change initiatives, publishes original books and resources, facilitates conferences and professional development, and provides strategic consulting. We work at multiple levels of scale, with local, regional, state, and national programs.

Our California Food for California Kids® initiative builds the capacity of public school districts to provide students with fresh, locally-grown food and reinforce connections between the classroom, cafeteria, and garden. With a network of over 100 public school districts across the state, California Food for California Kids advances practical solutions that transform school food systems and how students learn about the food they eat.

In 2021, the Center for Ecoliteracy successfully advocated for California to become the first state to adopt universal school meals as a co-sponsor of the Free School Meals for All Act and a core member of the School Meals for All coalition. We are proud to be part of California’s leadership in transforming school food and recognizing the important role of school nutrition professionals.

Strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems to achieve food security and nutrition, in the context of urbanization and rural transformation (2024 July)

Citation: HLPE. 2024. Strengthening urban and peri‑urban food systems to achieve food security and nutrition, in the context of urbanization and rural transformation. Rome, CFS HLPE‑FSN. Retrieved from FAO CFS HLPE-FSN wesbiste.

In an era in which almost 80 percent of the global population resides in urban and peri‑urban (U‑PU) areas, understanding and addressing the complexities of U‑PU food systems is more critical than ever. This groundbreaking report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE‑FSN) challenges prevailing narratives, revealing that over three‑quarters of the world’s food‑insecure population lives in urban and peri‑urban regions, and that U‑PU areas are epicentres of multiple burdens of malnutrition.

The report provides an in‑depth analysis of the unique challenges and opportunities in these areas. It shows how U‑PU areas have a profound impact on food systems, influencing production, distribution and consumption patterns worldwide. The report emphasizes the need for equitable, accessible, sustainable and resilient food systems, for the realization of the right to food.

The report also stresses the importance of multilevel, multilateral and multi‑actor governance and highlights the intricate linkages between food systems and other critical systems related to water, energy and mobility. With action‑oriented policy recommendations, this report is an essential tool for policymakers, researchers and stakeholders dedicated to ensuring food security and nutrition in the context of rapid urbanization.

For a longer, more descriptive summary of the report, see the FAO news about the launch of the report on 2 July 2024.

#Dietitians & #Nutritionists are ideally placed to complement these efforts!

Austrian Dietary Guidelines (2024)

The 2024 Austrian Dietary guidelines were developed by the Competence Center for Climate and Health of Austria GmbH (GÖG) together with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) and the Austrian Society for Nutrition (ÖGE). Both health and climate aspects were taken into account.

Visit the link to also download the brochure “Healthy eating, good for the climate” (in German) or it can be accessed or ordered via the brochure service of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The brochure contains healthy and climate-friendly recipes based on the plate model. It was developed by three universities of applied sciences for dietology on behalf of the Ministry of Health.

Exploring the barriers and facilitators for following a sustainable diet: A holistic and contextual scoping review (Barcelona, 2024)

Muñoz-Martínez, J., Cussó-Parcerisas, I., Carrillo-Álvarez, E. Exploring the barriers and facilitators for following a sustainable diet: A holistic and contextual scoping review. Sustainable Production and Consumption (2024). 46, 476-490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.03.002 (pay wall)

Relevant to:

Dietitians, nutritionists, and public health professionals aiming to promote a shift towards sustainable and healthy diets.

Question:

Identifying the barriers and facilitators people experience when following a sustainable and healthy diet.

Bottom line for nutrition practice:

This research recognises the intricate net of factors that influence individuals to adopt a sustainable and healthy diet. Such influences vary significantly in magnitude and direction among different individuals. The complexity surrounding food decisions demands that interventions and actions targeting food behaviour are tailored to the characteristics and needs of the target population.

Abstract:

Changing current dietary patterns to more sustainable ones is paramount to decrease the pressure food systems are putting onto the planet and people’s health and wellbeing. However, modifying consumers’ behaviour is extremely challenging since multiple factors of variable nature (i.e., personal, socioeconomic, cultural, external…) influence food choices.
For this reason, we aim to identify consumers’ barriers and facilitators for following a sustainable and healthy diet, and explore how these are perceived among people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
To do so, we conducted a scoping review of the literature with a consultation phase with citizens from Barcelona with different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Results revealed one hundred intricate factors that influence people’s food behaviour, which were grouped into internal, and external factors. Although the literature generally agreed on the direction of influence from the identified factors, the consultation phase generated substantial disagreements given the participants’ diverse perspectives and motivations. However, some limiting factors were commonly mentioned across groups which corresponded to feelings of distrust towards the food industry, lack of time, disgust towards specific foods, and the high cost of foods. Differences across socioeconomic groups were not observed except for the latter. All participants agreed that cost acted as a barrier, although participants from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more capable to find arguments to overcome the price barrier.
Results are necessary to acknowledge the particularities embedded in each person and the need to design context-based interventions to effectively overcome people’s barriers and enhance their facilitators.

Details of results:

The scoping review revealed 100 intricate factors influencing consumers in following a sustainable and healthy diet.
The consultation phase allowed to identify the nuances surrounding the findings from the literature review.
Significant differences across socioeconomic groups were not observed except for how cost was considered as a barrier. For individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, the high cost of food is a decisive factor for not purchasing sustainable food, whereas for those from high socioeconomic backgrounds, the cost barrier can be dissipated by factors linked with knowledge and consciousness.
Additional commonly identified decisive limiting factors were the distrust towards the food industry, lack of time, and disgust towards specific foods.
Newly recognised determining factors included knowledge of ethical aspects of food production, trust in small producers and food sellers, emotional involvement with producers, food addiction, lack of interest, selfishness, the belief that legumes put on weight, being a time-oriented individual, access to culture, food safety, social media, and perceived lack of time.

Of additional interest:

The results from the literature review barely covered the socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of sustainable diets. Although efforts were made to address this limitation by purposely covering this dimension during the consultation phase, future research should take these aspects into account to address sustainable diets in their broadest understanding.

Conflict of interest/ Funding:

None

Corresponding author:

Irene Cussó-Parcerisas, PhD
irenecp2@blanquerna.url.edu