In the context of the broad global trends of population growth, the climate crisis, and inequitable diets, food systems need to be re-oriented to ensure they can produce enough food that nourishes the world. At the same time, food systems must decrease the pressure on biodiversity loss, conserve land and water resources, minimize air and water pollution, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The current COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an additional level of pressure on the governance, functionality, efficiency, and resilience of food systems, with potentially long-lasting implications. Transforming food systems requires moving towards on-farm sustainable food production practices, lessening food loss and waste, addressing poverty by creating jobs and decent livelihoods, and providing safe, affordable, and healthy diets for everyone. This is a lot to ask of an already entrenched system involving diverse actors with diverging priorities and motivations. Food policy is central to changing systems, and bold policies must be applied to accelerate and incentivize economic, societal, and technological transformations towards a more socially just and sustainable global food system. But policy decisions come with synergies, trade-offs, and short- and long-term, often unexpected consequences. In a world of uncertainty, can we have both human and planetary health—can we have it all? This seminar will explore that question through a global lens that takes the audience through a range of sticky debates that plague food system transformation and governance.About the presenterJessica Fanzo, PhD is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University in the USA. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JH
