Food Systems

Deciding to care about regenerative food systems is the basic starting point because too often the system has separated us from our food: from the beginning of growing our food through the act of eating to the waste we’re left with at the end. From that starting point, learn about what aspects of our food systems are driving negative environmental and social outcomes and be more mindful about how your food choices and actions support the food systems you care about. Importantly, remember that we cannot build regenerative food systems based on shame, judgment and condemnation of food choices.

Expert: Jennifer Schmitt, Research Professor in Sustainable Food Systems at the Institute on the Environment

Food systems must be resilient and regenerative for the long-term health of our planet and people. We know that people have been farming and practicing agriculture for over 14,000 years. The history is fascinating and we forget our roots at our peril. Over the past 150 years, the percentage of the workforce engaged in farming dropped from nearly 70% to around 1% today. What knowledge, skills and practices have we lost in those few generations? That is why food systems must start from the ground up, person by person, remembering and creating sustainable food systems for the future. Onward!

Expert: Kathy Draeger, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Statewide Director, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, University of Minnesota

Our food systems generate some large-scale effects that are particularly experienced by certain groups, leading to environmental injustice. For example, rural communities in the Midwest are exposed to flooding that damages vital rural infrastructure like roads and bridges. This risk results from how we handle water in our Midwest farming. We use a large rural “plumbing system” to rapidly drain water from many millions of acres, which enables us to grow important crops like corn and soybeans but has unintended consequences related to flooding. Efforts are underway to reduce reliance on rapid drainage, which will have many benefits.

Expert: Nicholas Jordan, Co-Director of the Forever Green Initiative and Professor, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

In my recent book on sustainable food writing, I argued “there is not just one way to imagine what sustainable food production, processing and consumption should look like. It depends on who is producing, processing or consuming it; what materials it consists of; where it is located; when it is being produced, processed or consumed; and why and how it is being produced, processed or consumed that way.” In other words, sustainability is not a fixed set of rules or goals but a diverse collection of practices that are always embedded in human history and culture.

Expert: Dan Philippon, Professor of English, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota Twin Cities