Food System Change Research Articles

Food literacy in Pacific Island countries: a scoping review protocol.

The aim of this scoping review is to identify how food literacy is characterized and measured in the context of the Pacific Islands, and describe food literacy initiatives that may inform future policy, practice, and research. "Food literacy" is an emerging term used to describe the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required from individuals, households, communities, or nations to make healthy food choices. Given the complexity of changing food systems and the significant health challenges facing Pacific Island communities, understanding the evidence on food literacy in these communities may contribute to ensuring adequate nutrition for this population. The scoping review will examine all evidence that broadly defines, describes, measures, or explores food literacy and/or its components in residents of Pacific Island countries and territories, of any age or gender. Evidence on initiatives implemented to improve food literacy within this population will also be considered. Countries will be limited to member countries of "the Pacific Community." Key information sources to be searched for publications will include databases CABI, EBSCO, and Scopus, along with Google Scholar and Google for gray literature. Experts from relevant organizations and agencies will be contacted to locate additional sources. Results will be restricted to sources from the previous 30 years, available in English and French. Data will be extracted by two or more independent reviewers using a data extraction tool. Results will be presented with a narrative summary, accompanied by tabulated and/or charted results.

An analysis of the transformative potential of major food system report recommendations

Today's food systems are driving several intersecting public health and ecological crises of global concern. Acknowledging this, numerous major reports have made wide-ranging recommendations for achieving ‘transformative’ food systems change. However, no studies have yet analysed the transformative potential of these recommendations. Here we undertake a documentary analysis to assess the transformative potential of the recommendations of forty-one such reports. The report recommendations were coded against three systems science frameworks and organised by year published and actor type. We found a low number of reports made recommendations tackling food systems leverage points necessary to affect truly transformative change. Recommendations tended to ignore political economy factors, including power asymmetries between actors. The majority of recommendations were limited to adjusting or reforming rather than transforming food systems, indicating a mismatch between rhetoric and potential action.

Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition: Findings from a Guinea Sahelian ecological zone in Northern Ghana.

Heightened food insecurity in the hunger season increases the risk of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in childhood. This study examined the association of season of birth with SAM in a Guinean Sahelian ecological zone. We analyzed routine health and sociodemographic surveillance data from the Navrongo Health and Socio‐demographic Surveillance System collected between 2011 and 2018. January–June, the period of highest food insecurity, was defined as the hunger season. We defined moderate acute malnutrition as child mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC) between 115 mm and 135 mm and SAM as MAUC ≤ 115 mm. We used adjusted logistic regression to quantify the association between the season of birth and SAM in children aged 6–35 months. From the 29,452 children studied, 24% had moderate acute malnutrition. Overall, 1.4% had SAM, with a higher prevalence (1.8%) in the hunger season of birth. Compared with those born October–December, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for SAM were increased for children born in the hunger season: January–March (1.77 [1.31–2.39]) and April–June (1.92 [1.44–2.56]). Low birth weight, age at an assessment of nutritional status, and ethno‐linguistic group were also significantly associated with SAM in adjusted analyses. Our study established that being born in the hunger season is associated with a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition. The result implies improvement in the food supply to pregnant and lactating mothers through sustainable agriculture or food system change targeting the hunger season may reduce the burden of severe acute malnutrition.

The nutrition transition, food retail transformations, and policy responses to overnutrition in the East Asia region: A descriptive review.

The East Asia region is facing an increasing burden of overweight, obesity and related noncommunicable diseases, resulting from an ongoing nutrition transition. This study aimed to document the growing burden of overweight and obesity, and the accompanying dietary shifts, in the East Asia region and describe the policy responses to this. We present noncommunicable disease risk factor collaboration data on trends in the burden of malnutrition, and Euromonitor International data on trends in dietary purchases, in the East Asia region. We searched the NOURISHING and GINA databases to identify food and nutrition policies implemented in these countries. There is an ongoing nutrition transition in the East Asia region, notably in upper-middle and lower-middle income countries. The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and accompanying health conditions, purchases of ultra-processed foods and beverages, and purchasing from supermarkets, fast-food and takeaway outlets, and other convenience retailers, are increasing. The policy response to this nutrition transition is limited, with the majority of policies implemented in higher-income countries. East Asian countries are facing a growing burden of malnutrition, due in part to the dietary shifts occurring here. An ecological approach to policy intervention is needed to drive transformative food systems change.

Pecan color change during storage: Kinetics and Modeling of the Processes

Postharvest changes in pecan nutmeat color are affected by many factors, both internal and external. The temperature, relative humidity (RH) of the surrounding environment, and storage time are major factors contributing to color deterioration of the nutmeats. Kinetic models have long been employed to provide insights into the physical and chemical changes in food systems; however, no kinetic model has been developed describing the color changes of pecan nutmeats during storage. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of temperature, RH and storage time on pecan nutmeat color change. Pecan nutmeats of three commercially important cultivars (Stuart, Pawnee and Desirable) were subjected to different temperatures (20, 30 and 40 °C) and RH conditions (30, 50, 75% and 80%) for up to 450 days in simulated storage. The observed color changes of the pecan nutmeats were measured as lightness, chroma and hue (LCh). Additionally, the USDA pecan color rating scale was digitized to encourage its use among researchers. It was observed that the change in hue followed a zero-order decay whereas change in lightness and chroma followed a first-order decay. The value of the reaction constants ranged from 0.010 to 1.315 day−1. An Arrhenius model was used to estimate the activation energy (Ea) corresponding to different storage conditions. The values revealed significant effects of temperature, RH and storage days on color degradation. The breakdown of flavonoids and reaction products from Maillard browning could be responsible for the formation of the reddish-brown color observed in degraded nutmeats. The kinetic parameters and models were used to develop a user-friendly online interface for predicting color change depending on selected parameters, with illustrations of the resulting pecan color (https://tinyurl.com/uspecans). The results of this study will aid pecan growers, processors and researchers to predict and visualize changes in color of pecan nutmeats during storage under various conditions of temperature and RH, and duration of storage. Although the study used cultivars Stuart, Pawnee and Desirable, the results likely have more general applicability to other cultivars too.

ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SUSTAINABLE NUTRITION: THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND FOOD SYSTEMS

Sustainability is to meet the needs of today's conditions by preserving the quality and existence of the resources that future generations need. In this study, we aimed to discuss the ecological effects of sustainable nutrition, its role in food systems and its importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This review study was prepared in line with the data obtained from research on sustainable nutrition and sustainable food systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Misuse of resources, while changing food systems; The increase in greenhouse gas emissions causes environmental problems such as the destruction of lands and the depletion of water resources, increasing the ecological, carbon and water footprint. Sustainable nutrition system, on the other hand, refers to a diet with low ecological impacts that provides food security for present and future generations. At the same time, sustainable nutrition; aims to minimize the consumption of high-energy, processed and packaged products, and to consume less animal-based and more plant-based foods. With the Sustainable Development Goals determined by the United Nations, it is aimed to ensure food security, end hunger and improve nutrition until 2030. But the COVID-19 pandemic seriously jeopardizes the ability to achieve many of these goals. Conclusion: Sustainable food systems during the pandemic require various food production supports and innovative interventions including food safety. It should not be ignored that the determined policies should have not only local but also global effects.

Changes in Food Behavior of Russians in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The subject of the article is the eating behavior of Russians under conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. We defined the purpose of the study as to study the changes in the eating behavior of the main socio-demographic groups of Russian society in 2020-2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The material of the study includes the works of foreign and Russian authors in the field of the study of food systems and food behavior of various social of various social groups under conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The methods used are divided into two groups: theoretical and empirical. The group of theoretical methods included: systematic approach, analysis of the works of foreign and domestic researchers on changes in world and regional food systems, and in individual food practices in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The empirical method is represented by a series of expert interviews conducted by the authors of the study in August - September 2021. The study showed that changes in the eating behavior of Russians during the Covid-19 pandemic are contradictory and non-linear, they are embedded in the regional food system and have a significant impact on local food markets. The study demonstrates importance of further interdisciplinary study of the food practices, in general, food culture of various social groups in Russian society. Such studies are necessary for the development and smooth functioning regional food systems, for a comprehensive solution to the problems of ensuring of food security under the conditions of economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Do EU consumers think about meat reduction when considering to eat a healthy, sustainable diet and to have a role in food system change?

This paper aims to highlight the position of meat reduction in what EU consumers think “eating a healthy and sustainable diet” involves and who has a role to play in achieving food system change. The data are based on the Eurobarometer 93.2 survey (mid 2020). The participants were asked to make their own selections out of a variety of food-related items and actors, linked to meat (“Eating meat less often”) and other aspects of diets (“Eating more fruit and vegetables”). Their responses were analyzed separately in two EU regions: Northwest Europe—consisting of the 10 richest EU countries with the highest scores on economic and social sustainable development indicators— and the East and the South. Three principal components of dietary thinking were distinguished, relating to 1) nutrition issues, 2) easy “light green” issues and 3) more demanding “deeper green” issues, respectively. The analysis also distinguished three types of actors in the value chain (food chain actors, supporting actors, and governmental actors). In Northwestern Europe, a majority of consumers saw a role for themselves in making the food system more sustainable and a large minority saw meat reduction as part of a healthy and sustainable diet. Both responses were much less common in the East and South. In the Northwest, meat reduction was relatively strongly related to “deeper green” thinking but also weakly to nutrition-focused thinking, whereas the opposite was found in the East and South. However, meat reduction had no prominent position in their considerations. For policy-makers, therefore, it is crucial that both nutrition and environment can be motivating factors for consumers to consider meat reduction, albeit to different degrees.

Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture in Ethiopia: Political Economy Analysis

Governments globally are stressing on nutrition interventions combined with nutrition sensitive policies and programs to combat malnutrition. Governance at all levels has been identified as a critical element in ensuring success of national nutrition plan. Ethiopia has an integrated approach to addressing food insecurity and malnutrition; however, there is little clarity about the wider impact of government policy on food and nutrition. Overall, there have been notable successes in nutrition policy in Ethiopia, but significant challenges remain unsolved. Multi-sectoral nutrition governance has been hailed as an effective mechanism to reduce undernutrition. Ethiopia has adopted many approaches and has been implementing nutrition programs with some success, but undernutrition remains high for a range of reasons. This political economy analysis of nutrition sensitive agriculture of Ethiopia will address challenges of nutrition program design, coordination, and implementation, and looks at root causes that remain less understood. If these challenges are to be met successfully, greater consideration of how to address rapidly changing food systems in Ethiopia is needed at national policy level. The focus of government policy needs to shift from food availability to broader issues of food acquisition and particularly food affordability, which is mediated through food prices and waged employment. Ethiopia as country tried to combat food insecurity and malnutrition through different approaches. The country developed National Nutrition program, National food and Nutrition policy, National Nutrition sensitive agriculture strategy and the Seqota Declaration, which all are intended to eradicate poverty and reduce malnutrition. To attain the highest possible food security and nutritional benefits for the people of Ethiopia, it is essential that agriculture, nutrition, and health (ANH) sciences and their related research activities work together in an integrated manner.

Improving the Level of Economic Development and Social Welfare in Rural Areas for Young People

One of the three global goals set by states is to eradicate poverty and ensure economic and social progress for all.
 Young people in many low- and middle-income countries face exceptional challenges in finding their place in a globalizing economy. Integrating hundreds of millions of young people into the labor market is one of the greatest global development challenges for decades to come. Rural populations all over the world are aging. The role of young people as drivers of change in agricultural and food systems and their place in rural labor markets is receiving increasing attention at the global level, especially as a result of increased global migration flows. How can this problem be transformed into a “youth” driving force for rural development?
 This paper argues for leveraging growing demand for agricultural products and recent advances in the agricultural sector to expand youth employment opportunities and promote attractive decent jobs, especially green jobs, in rural areas.
 The paper analyses the situation in our daily life, in which the proportion of the worldwide countries are dealing with the problem related to the economic development and social welfare in rural areas. The paper includes the following issues such as the attractiveness and creation of opportunities for youth and consideration of them as the main partners in rural areas play a crucial role nowadays. Moreover, green jobs as well are effective and efficient in enhancement of both productivity and sustainability of agricultural sphere. The question is how to transform this challenge into an opportunity and harness the energy of young people as a driving force for development. The role of young people as drivers of change in agro-food systems and their place in rural labor markets is receiving increasing attention at the global level, especially as a result of increased global migration flows.
 A top priority for developed and developing countries is to systematically mainstream youth rural decent employment issues into programs and investment projects in agriculture, value chains, agro-industry development, rural transformation, and sustainable food systems. This paper argues for expanding employment opportunities for youth through the creation of decent jobs, especially green jobs, in rural areas.

Rethinking farmer knowledge from soil to plate through narrative inquiry: An agroecological food systems perspective

This paper illustrates how farmer knowledge is generatively constructed and framed within an agroecological context to address the complexities of our food system more fully. For some, farmer knowledge is a hidden asset below the surface that acts as a reserve for sustaining and fortifying food system possibilities. We interviewed 12 self-identified smallholder farmers in Virginia using narrative inquiry as a dynamic methodology to explore the rhizomatic quality and mycorrhizal nature of smallholder farmers’ knowledge and experiences of soil, conservation, and place. The narrative inquiry method offered a participatory research approach to analyze how farmers perform their work in ways that extend across and are entangled with other domains of the food system that reflect agroecological values. Five primary themes were identified from the narrative inquiry data analysis by drawing upon the whole measures of community food systems as a values-based framework. Our findings illustrate how farmer praxis is reflective of and influenced by the ecological and sociopolitical ethos of land, food, health, and liberation. For scholar-practitioners, this research emphasizes the current claim for reevaluating and reconceptualizing research and outreach responses to mounting food system crises. The construction and expansion of farmer knowledge are not linear but rhizomatic and mycorrhizal in quality; therefore, scholar-practitioner responses to understanding and engaging with farmer knowledge systems should be amenable to a diversity of culturally dynamic sys­tems of knowing that embody socio-eco relations and networks. Like others, we argue that an over­emphasis on essentialist “best practices” and tech­nocratic problem-solving does not adequately help us see these generative possibilities from soil to plate. Thus, we recommend that food system practitioners and researchers emphasize engaged listening, storytelling, and generative—not extrac­tive—approaches as an epistemological frame for expanding our understanding of agroecology and food systems change.

Emerging agricultural expansion in northern regions: Insights from land-use research

Emerging agricultural expansion in northern regions: Insights from land-use research

An in‐situ method to track the quality change of frozen surimi as a whole: Multi‐molecular infrared spectroscopy in combination with LF‐NMR

The rapid overall characterization of quality changes in complex food systems is considered extremely challenging. Herein, a multi-molecular infrared spectroscopy (MM-IR) methodology in combination with low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and chemometrics, to in-situ reveal the quality changes of surimi (protein) products as a whole was developed. Surimi with cryoprotectant (SWC) and without cryoprotectant (SWO) were used as a typical demonstration. Specifically, secondary structures in proteins could transform into each other and the structural variation of SWC was smaller than that of SWO. Cryoprotectant could slow down the water conversion from non-moveable to free, thereby slow down the rate of protein degradation. principal component analysis results of massive samples verified the differences in quality between SWC and SWO at different storage stages. Therefore, the addition of cryoprotectant led to the frozen surimi having less protein secondary structure conversion and water migration. In sum, the developed MM-IR could be applicable for the quality tracking of frozen surimi. Practical applications Low-temperature storage is currently the most mainstream storage method for surimi, and the preservation time of surimi can be extended by adding cryoprotectants. In this study, the overall quality of frozen surimi could be characterized in situ and simultaneous multi-component analysis could be realized, and the changes in the secondary structure of surimi protein and the migration of water could be tracked in situ. The results of this work had the potential to track the quality changes of complex frozen aquatic products as a whole and predicted the frozen storage time.

The global and regional costs of healthy and sustainable dietary patterns: a modelling study

SummaryBackgroundAdoption of healthy and sustainable diets could be essential for safe-guarding the Earth's natural resources and reducing diet-related mortality, but their adoption could be hampered if such diets proved to be more expensive and unaffordable for some populations. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the costs of healthy and sustainable diets around the world.MethodsIn this modelling study, we used regionally comparable food prices from the International Comparison Program for 150 countries. We paired those prices with estimates of food demand for different dietary patterns that, in modelling studies, have been associated with reductions in premature mortality and environmental resource demand, including nutritionally balanced flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan diets. We used estimates of food waste and projections of food demand and prices to specify food system and socioeconomic change scenarios up to 2050. In the full cost accounting, we estimated diet-related health-care costs by pairing a comparative risk assessment of dietary risks with cost-of-illness estimates, and we estimated climate change costs by pairing the diet scenarios with greenhouse gas emission footprints and estimates of the social cost of carbon.FindingsCompared with the cost of current diets, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were, depending on the pattern, up to 22–34% lower in cost in upper-middle-income to high-income countries on average (when considering statistical means), but at least 18–29% more expensive in lower-middle-income to low-income countries. Reductions in food waste, a favourable socioeconomic development scenario, and a fuller cost accounting that included the diet-related costs of climate change and health care in the cost of diets increased the affordability of the dietary patterns in our future projections. When these measures were combined, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were up to 25–29% lower in cost in low-income to lower-middle-income countries, and up to 37% lower in cost on average, for the year 2050. Variants of vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns were generally most affordable, and pescatarian diets were least affordable.InterpretationIn high-income and upper-middle-income countries, dietary change interventions that incentivise adoption of healthy and sustainable diets can help consumers in those countries reduce costs while, at the same time, contribute to fulfilling national climate change commitments and reduce public health spending. In low-income and lower-middle-income countries, healthy and sustainable diets are substantially less costly than western diets and can also be cost-competitive in the medium-to-long term, subject to beneficial socioeconomic development and reductions in food waste. A fuller accounting of the costs of diets would make healthy and sustainable diets the least costly option in most countries in the future.FundingGlobal Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition and Wellcome Trust.

Climate change and health impact: is food missing in the equation?

Abstract It has been generally recognized by researchers and regulators that climate change constitutes an important driver affecting the food sector, representing a public health issue that deserves particular attention. Climate change is associated with increasing temperatures and more extreme rainfall; it alters relationships among crops, pests, pathogens, and weeds; and it exacerbates several trends including declines in pollinating insects, increasing water scarcity, increasing ground-level ozone concentrations, and fishery declines. In one hand, climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. Agricultural productivity is affected by changing rainfall patterns, drought, flooding and the geographical redistribution of pests and diseases, with consequent implications in food availability, a key requirement for food security. On the other hand, despite less debated, climate change could also affect food safety, namely through the occurrence of food safety hazards at various stages of the food chain, from “farm to fork”. The tendency to increase the use of agrochemicals to balance the effects of more frequent extreme weather events and water scarcity in some regions could become more frequent. In addition to pesticide residues, both chemical and microbiological risks are expected to impair food and feed safety as a consequence of climate change: in particular mycotoxins, marine biotoxins (phycotoxins), trace metals, among others. Here, all these concepts will be discussed and integrated, to highlight the potential impact of climate change in food systems, focusing particularly on the contribution to human health especially in what concerns food safety.

The food system and climate change: are plant-based diets becoming unhealthy and less environmentally sustainable?

A plant-based diet, which can include small amounts of meat, is the foundation for healthy sustainable diets, which will have co-benefits for health, climate and the environment. Studies show that some of the barriers to making this dietary change and reducing meat consumption are perceptions that plant-based diets are inconvenient, it takes too much time and skills to prepare meals and ingredients are expensive. The food environment is changing and the industry is responding with the exponential increase in the market of highly processed, convenient and cheap plant-based foods. This overcomes some of the barriers, but there is concern about whether they are healthy and environmentally sustainable. Plant-based foods have a halo effect around health and the environment, but many being produced are ultra-processed foods that are high in energy, fat, sugar and salt and have a higher environmental impact than minimally processed plant-based foods. The trend towards eating more highly processed plant-based convenience foods is a concern with regard to both public health and the targets set to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The 'modern day' plant-based diet emerging is very different to a more traditional one comprising pulses, vegetables and wholegrain. Studies show that those who are younger and have been a vegetarian for a shorter duration are eating significantly more ultra-processed plant-based foods. While there is a place for convenient, desirable and affordable plant-based food to encourage dietary change, care should be taken that this does not subconsciously set a path which may ultimately be neither healthy nor sustainable.

A description of Chilean food and nutrition health policies.

Chile has implemented numerous successful food and nutrition initiatives since the early 20th century, aiming to address malnutrition in all its forms. To summarize the major nutrition and food-related policies, strategies, and programs implemented in Chile, using the NOURI-SHING Framework. The NOURISHING framework proposes a methodology for reporting, monitoring, and categorizing actions to promote healthier eating in three main domains: food environment, food system and behavior change communication. The data collection was carried out reviewing the databases of the Chilean Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development, and the Parliament. Information about nutrition related public health policies, strategies or programs was obtained from peer reviewed articles, official reports, official State websites, as well as interviews with former and current stakeholders. Chile has mandatory nutritional labeling that was updated to front-of-package warning labels about critical nutrients. In addition, the advertising of unhealthy foods and breast milk substitutes is restricted, among other food and nutrition policies. Nevertheless, strategies related to mass and social media communication campaigns, or periodic education and information interventions still need to be implemented. Using the NOURISHING framework, a comprehensive summary and description of nutrition and food public health policies implemented in Chile is described. An overview of the policy changes required according to the nutritional needs of the population and the nutritional transition in Chile is provided.

Food system resilience thinking: from digital to integral.

The current food system is directly influenced by the increase in environmental problems and nutritional inequality globally. Financial and political collapses, health crises, excessive urbanization, and rapid industrialization are some of the principal factors threatening the food supply's security. The food system needs a profound transformation to avoid ecosystem destabilization and a global food crisis. Concerning this transformation, we are certain that the first step for a successful food system change is global resilience thinking. To reach an integrated food system, we proposed introducing the resilient concept linked with other known concepts, such as circular economy and sustainability. A resilient food system can recover over time, ensuring the supply of sustainable and quality food and access to all. This would mean redesigning the value chains in the food system, re-educating consumers to implement a healthier diet, and introducing technology such as digital innovation. Re-evaluating these relevant points, redesigning the focus of the food system, not only for economic efficiency but also including significant trade-offs, or valuing other services in the food system, are essential to reaching the desired resilience. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Evan Weissman: Remembering our advisor, professor, and comrade

First paragraphs: In the early spring of 2020, the Syracuse University community was dealt a sudden and painful blow with the loss of Dr. Evan Weissman. It is to his vibrant memory that this special issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development is dedicated. What follows are the reflections of the special issue’s guest editorial team and our peers in the Syracuse University Food Studies graduate program—a program and department that Evan helped to create shortly after completing his own graduate education at Syracuse University. Evan was the very reason many of us came to Syracuse University or stayed in the city to pursue our graduate educations. He was, and remains, a model for a particular kind of scholarship, which was the inspiration for the theme of this special issue. He was a community-engaged scholar in the truest sense, and likewise encouraged students to commit themselves to becoming active participants in food systems change. Moreover, he had an unwavering belief that this was something we could do, that if we were will­ing to put in the work, as he did all the time, we could play a part in working toward a more just world. Evan’s commitment to his community and his deep belief that food could be used as a tool for social change have influenced many of us to undertake active roles in our own cities, be it managing a network of community gardens, overseeing an anti-poverty initiative, or fighting for workers’ rights. . . .

Food as a Tool for Social Change: Introduction to the special section

First paragraph: In this special section of the summer issue, we honor the work and legacy of the late Dr. Evan Weissman, who contributed tirelessly to the community of food scholars as an editor and reviewer for several journals, includ­ing JAFSCD; as a professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Syracuse University; and as a collaborator with countless community organizations. As is illustrated in the tributes, commentaries, and peer-reviewed papers that follow, Evan imparted a strong belief that revolutionary food systems change is possible. The inspiration for this special issue’s theme came from a recurring question that Evan asked his students and himself: “How can we use food as a tool for social change?”. . .