Growing Popularity of Alternate Food Systems for Environment and Health

A food system could be defined as the path that food travels - starting from conception in the field to the resulting nutritional outcomes for those consuming it. This includes the growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food. The inputs used and outputs obtained at each stage are also an integral part of any food system. Environmental and health advocates point to the challenges with certain foods and the current food system, that have caused a large environmental footprint on the planet (Whitmee et al. 2015). This foresight brief highlights some of these environmental impacts with a focus on high animal-source food and the impacts on climate change, land and water. The question around food has moved beyond a focus on food security solely, to include the context of human wellbeing and the sustainability of our planet.