Cafeterias into Classrooms: How to Transform Our Food Systems

Food systems are the number one threat to nature and a major contributor to biodiversity loss. Feeding a growing world population while protecting nature and reducing GHG emissions is the imperative of our time. While the challenges are universal, solutions must be tailored to local contexts, as food systems are deeply influenced by culture, heritage, and local context. This means that what works in one place may not be effective in another.

The Great Food Puzzle series adapts solutions to the unique needs of countries by clustering countries with similar socioeconomic and environmental factors. This classification helps identify key actions to drive the shift toward healthier and more sustainable food systems—offering an opportunity for countries to learn from each other and emulate the successes of peers. The US has a similar type of food system to that of the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan.

Potential to Accelerate Transformation

In the US, food systems activity has primarily focused on production, while diets and nutrition represent an untapped opportunity for transformation. We have great potential to accelerate transformation by elevating policy ambition, scaling up implementation efforts, and increasing the resources allocated to solutions. The following are some of the priority actions recommended for the US:

• Redirect agri-food subsidies. Countries spend $470 billion annually on agricultural subsidies that harm nature. In the US, agri-food subsidies are geared toward producing certain commodity crops and maximizing yields, often at the expense of environmental sustainability and crop diversity. The US Farm Bill represents a policy opportunity to make transformative changes. Greater political will and action by the government and corporations are needed. This shift would create opportunities for innovations in regenerative production and nutrition, among others.

• Make the best use of available land. This means maximizing the potential of all agricultural lands, including rangelands, while reducing inputs. An example of a critical step in optimizing land use is reducing the 40% of food that is wasted each year. Significant acceleration is required from federal, state, and local leaders, businesses, and communities to meet the goal of halving food loss and waste by 2030. Increasing public awareness, with an emphasis on changing behaviors, is a major opportunity.

• Establish nature-positive supply chains. Deforestation- and conversion-free supply chains have the potential to have a significant impact. But there is a gap between corporate pledges and actual implementation. The government can accelerate private sector action by investing in improved data and technology for tracking and traceability, revising policies that incentivize land conversion, and enforcing trade regulations to prevent deforestation.

• Strengthen science and technology. Science and data collection are key to driving food systems transformation in America. Investing in technologies like machine learning and AI can help address supply chain challenges, increase regenerative production, and reduce food loss and waste. For instance, on-farm data can help reward farmers for eco-friendly practices. The challenge may be worry over transparency rather than technology.

The importance of improving education, knowledge, and public awareness cannot be overstated. WWF’s Food Waste Warrior program is a good example. Since its inception in 2017, the program has become not just a curriculum but an opportunity to turn school cafeterias into classrooms, empowering students to measure and reduce food waste. Participating schools have cut food waste by more than half. A student group in Maryland introduced state legislation to increase funding for composting systems across the state. Such localized solutions, when implemented effectively, can have a ripple effect, inspiring similar actions in other places and for future generations.

A Path Forward

Great Food Puzzle provides a fresh approach to navigating food systems transformation—which must be rooted in local cultures and contexts . And we must follow through on existing commitments.

Moving forward, our focus must be on achieving the scale and urgency to tackle the global biodiversity and climate crisis. This is a call to action for everyone to unite in building a sustainable future for our food systems.

Pete Pearson is global lead for the food circularity program at World Wildlife Fund.