Where are you going to leave your one grain of spiritual sand on the universal scales of humanity?
—COMMON (PARAPHRASED)
Facing the facts of our food system is sobering. But after years of research and after speaking to dozens of experts, scientists, and policy makers about the solutions, I am left with a sense of hope and possibility. Understanding the problems and challenges we face sets the foundation for the solutions. It is also the beginning of reimagining a food system that provides real, whole, nutrient-dense food across the globe, addressing hunger and obesity. A food system that saves trillions of wasted dollars every year that could be redirected to solving our most intractable problems of disease, poverty, violence, lack of education, and social injustice. A food system that restores ecosystems, builds soil, protects our scarce water resources, reduces pollution, increases biodiversity, and reverses climate change. A food system that builds rather than destroys communities. A food system that is not extractive and destructive to everything that matters but is restorative and regenerative. A food system that is redemptive rather than rapacious.
We need to think about these issues as one interconnected, intersecting set of challenges that we can and must address if we are to reverse the crises we now face and avert the disasters just over the horizon. As Donald Rumsfeld once said, this is a “known known.” We may not be able to end war or achieve immortality, but this is a solvable problem. Yes, it will take enormous effort from every stakeholder, but first we must be able to see the problem in its entirety, draw the map, connect the dots, embrace the dangers we face as a species and a planet. That is the hope of Food Fix. This is just the beginning, a vision and call to action for fixing our food system.
This affects all of us, whether you are the CEO of Bayer or Coca-Cola or the head of the Sustainable Food Trust or the Environmental Working Group, or Republican, Democrat, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, any race or any ethnicity. This is the defining problem of our time and as yet has not been clearly recognized as a threat or addressed in a global, coherent, coordinated, strategic way.
We need new ideas, strategies, policies, and business innovations to fix these problems and bring diverse groups together to solve them together. Imagine if the groups at odds with one another come together to fight a common problem. It is possible. Solutions exist. They are achievable, and we need the push up from grassroots efforts and from the top down to shift public opinion, to create a movement that forces legislatures and policy makers to take notice and take action.
Remember that the campaigns for abolition, suffrage for women, civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights didn’t start in Congress. They ended in Congress. These massive shifts in laws occurred because we voted with our voices, our actions, and our ballots. We can vote with our forks and vote with our votes. Our collective actions and behaviors will move things in the right direction, and our children and their children might enjoy a sustainable future of good food and a safe climate.
The work has begun across the globe, illuminating a hopeful way forward. These nuggets of innovation and creativity restoring land and communities and inspiring new policies are the seeds of a new future. The nonprofit Beacons of Hope: Transforming Food Systems gathers these stories, learns from them, and has created a pathway for future change.1
Food Fix is just the beginning, the outline of the future of food pointing to solutions for citizens, grassroots organizations, advocacy groups, philanthropists, businesses, and governments. These are just a few of the many innovations and ideas moving from the margins to the center and providing a road map for fixing our food system. It is the great work of our time. And it depends on all of us.
We need a national (and ultimately global) campaign to fix our food system. If you’re interested in helping transform our food system and want to learn more, please join our campaign and prescription for a new food system at www.foodrxcampaign.org.
For a quick reference guide to all the Food Fixes in this book, visit www.foodfixbook.com.
To learn more about any of the issues that stem from our food industry, take a look at our online resource guide for articles, studies, reports, books, videos, companies, and organizations that are raising awareness and changing the conversation at www.foodfixbook.com/resources.