Food and culture writer Alicia Kennedy has published a piece in The Washington Post that tackles the question of what “sustainability” means and what it would take to fix the food system to meet the challenges of climate change.

Takeaway: Defining “the food system” is as hard as defining sustainability. If we’re talking about The Food System in a grand, unified sense, it won’t be fixed without policy solutions; that’s an economic game, and we need legislators who are willing to rewrite the rules. On the other hand, if we’re talking about the food systems that arise from the small-scale daily choices made by everyone who eats, then we’re talking about culture, not just economics. Creative marketing and exposure to diverse, regionally appropriate foods can inspire eaters to broaden their culinary horizons, and broader culinary horizons give rise to “strong regional food systems growing esoteric vegetables and saving seeds to secure future crops as weather patterns become more and more unpredictable.”

Read it here:
Want to eat sustainably? Learn to cook something new.
by Alicia Kennedy for The Washington Post
August 21, 2024