From farm to fork, food production and consumption exert enormous environmental harms, contributing substantially to planetary destabilisation. 

In relation to the farm, harms include carbon emissions, fertiliser and manure pollution, deforestation, pesticides, unsustainable water extraction, water pollution, soil degradation and erosion, soil and water acidification, antibiotic resistance, etc. In the oceans, wild fish and seafood are harvested industrially and unsustainably. 

Food processing, transportation, and storage worsen the energy and climate toll. Plastics from packaging and fishing nets degrade to microplastics. Food loss on farms, and waste in retail, restaurants and homes add to the damage. 

These wide-ranging and severe burdens are due to the excessive consumption of many in the developed world, while much of the world’s population is yet to be fed adequately. Further, much of the environmental harm occurs in countries that barely contribute to the pollution of the oceanic and atmospheric commons. 

Technology has not proven to be our saviour, and the window for change is now extraordinarily small. The developed-world population continues to grow, and so do appetites, with much of the global population regularly eating or drinking well above their metabolic needs, whether meat or plant. More food means more agriculture, and more agriculture means more environmental damage. 

Social challenges are no less numerous or complex. Food is culturally significant, emotional, and politically sensitive. There are structural issues beyond individuals, such as the sometimes-addictive properties of ultra-processed foods, corporate interests in profit over people, low desire for policy to shape individual eating choice, food environments containing few healthy options, and poor food labelling. 

This research explores this urgent and wicked problem; a nexus that could be a site for impactful environmental, social, and health change. What do people already know about it? Is it being communicated? Why/not? What are the barriers and enablers? How do we win hearts and minds and instigate equitable change?