2011 Articles

Regional Food Systems-We can do better

Hunter, Danny; Fanzo, Jessica C.; Walsum, Edith

One of the greatest challenges facing the world is to ensure that everybody has access to adequate food that is healthy, safe and of high nutritional quality - and to do so in a manner that is environmentally sustainable. At present the current global food system is dramatically failing to deliver on this goal. It is estimated that a billion people go hungry or suffer from lack of vital micronutrients, while, at the other extreme, an even greater number of people are suffering from the effects of overweight and obesity as a consequence of eating unhealthy foods. The costs of treating the impacts of this double burden run into billions of dollars. Clearly, there is an urgent need for fundamental change.