Reflections on Nutritional Health and the Environment: The Journey to Sustainability

This paper explores moves toward relocalizing the food system that have occurred in the twenty years since Gussow and Clancy first advanced the suggestion that dietary advice ought to take account of the environmental impact of various foods. Evidence is examined of the need to reverse the damage globalization has caused in the food system, and of increasing consumer interest in foods whose origins are more local and/or more sustainable. After considering two factors that might accelerate a movement toward more community-based food systems–energy and food safety concerns–the author suggests how nutrition professionals might promote health for people and the planet.