Setting a Strategic Agenda Towards Promoting Sustainable Diets via Institutions

Erica Kenney, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Aviva Musicus, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Human food systems have massive impacts on our environment. With the current trajectory of population growth, environmental effects of the food system are projected to reach levels exceeding the planetary boundaries within which humans can safely exist. One way to address this impending crisis is to promote environmentally sustainable dietary patterns that support human and planetary health.

A fair amount of research has been devoted to identifying healthful, sustainable dietary patterns, but there is a dearth of research identifying how these recommendations can be translated into institutional policy and practice to create real change. Some institutions and local governments have begun taking steps to address issues of dietary sustainability on their own, but there is a need to identify the most effective strategies and disseminate them to create widespread change.

For this accelerator workshop, we will bring together leaders from academia, institutions, and government to share barriers and facilitators to implementing changes in policy and practice that can promote dietary sustainability. Based on this discussion, we will collaboratively create a strategic science research agenda that can identify gaps in the scientific literature that researchers should pursue to build evidence and inform change toward sustainable dietary patterns at the institutional level.