What if food systems nourished life and wellbeing?

What if the global food system wasn’t rooted in the belief we need to monocrop the planet to feed humanity?

What if we prioritized local, seasonal, nourishing food over a homogenous mass production of empty calories?

What if the default setting of amusement parks, schools and cinema’s food that nourished children, instead of using them as easily persuaded cash cows?

What if it wasn’t intentionally made so ridiculously hard to make the right choices?

What if our ‘radical’ imagination for nourishing food systems is infinitely more realistic than the status quo currently kept firmly in place by big-agri, banks, pharmaceuticals, marketing agencies and big corporates around the world?

Shifting Horizons from mono to regenerative shows us the uncomfortable absurdity of our current global food system. A system that for decades prioritizes financial gains over human wellbeing, soil health, biodiversity or in other words, life.

The absurdness of our current food system

Normally I am a firm believer in leading with stories not statics. But when it comes to the global food system the statistics are so utterly absurd no heartfelt story is needed to convey the urgency of the matter.

• 52% of agricultural soil is already degraded. A deeply scary reality as healthy soil is the source for 95% of global food production.
• Unsustainable food systems account for 70% of the world fresh water usage (Read that again!)
• Agriculture alone is the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction
• Food systems cause cause 80% of deforestation and the degradation of many other precious habitats such as wetlands and grasslands

The global food system does not only degrade the soil, deforest the rainforest, threaten species in extinction and pollute fresh water. Simultaneously it is failing to feed the earth. More than enough food is produced to feed every single person on earth.

• Yet, 309 million people are facing acute food insecurity.
• Over 780 million experience hunger.
• 1/3 of food world wide is lost or wasted.
• 3 Billion people can’t afford healthy nourishing diets.
• 12 Plants and 5 animal species represent around 75% of total calories eaten globally

This list is not a finger wag to the farmers of the world or an attack on big FMCG corporates. Most people in the global food system are genuinely working on feeding the planet. Unfortunately they are sucked into a system so short-sighed that it is leading to a colonization of the future.

My unusual nomadic lifestyle in combination with a career that often is more voluntarily than paid (an other topic in the impact space that needs more attention!) leads me to find creative solutions to eat healthy and affordable. One of them is picking up TooGoodToGo’s, a food waste app used by restaurants, supermarkets, bakery’s and food vendors across the globe. This app often reflects pretty accurately what type of food is dominate a city. Unsurprisingly, in almost all cities fast and unhealthy is available everywhere and the organic and healthy options are far and few between. How do we expect people to make healthy food choices when all ‘affordable’ in your face options are unhealthy?

For those of you are reading this and living in a city, next time consider sharing your TooGoodToGo (or buying one extra) with people experiencing homelessness. This way you brighten someone’s day and less food is thrown away.

The obvious benefits of Regenerative Food Systems

Food is nature, and nature is regenerative. For billions of years, without pesticides and human interventions living organisms have grown, thrived and died in a never ending cycle of feeding, eating and becoming food. The current global food system brutally breaks this natural cycle. We can re-imagine and redesign food systems to follow the cyclical rhythm of life.

“Regenerative food production makes harvests more reliable and resilient in the long term, by enhancing the health of soils, ecosystems and species on which we rely. This can make individual farms more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as flooding, drought, and changes in temperature and precipitation.” Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation

Reducing emissions

Regenerative food systems can reduce emissions in various ways. Healthier soils capture more carbon. A shift away from pesticides and other synthetic inputs reduce green house gasses in production. Local and seasonal food systems reduce emissions of transport and heated greenhouses.

Increasing Biodiversity

Regenerative practices enhance life. The organic matter in the soil is increased. The diversity of plants and crops rises. Attracting pollinators, insects and other wildlife. Farms become a habitat for a all sort of living organisms. Increasing both the diversity of life and the resilience of the farm.

More resilient food network

We are living in times were 100 year floods happen multiple times a year. Down pours, extreme weather events and diseases are a risk to all farms. But more to one basket mono crop farmers than to regenerative farms whose efforts increased resilience by e.g. less soil erosion and better water retention abilities.

Feeding Malnourished Farmers and other people

“Fifty percent of people who are malnourished in the world are farmers, and an additional group of people who are malnourished work on farms” ReNature

Think about this for a moment. People whose livelihood depends on growing food are struggling to feed themselves. What if regenerative practices can help these farmers restore soil health, increase biodiversity and grow more nourishing food? What if we prioritized feeding the farmers with nutrient dense food? Instead of feeding them false dreams of ‘optimizing’ their yields and using them as pesticide buying cash cows. Yes, I used that metaphor twice. Apparently their almost as many unfortunately cash cows in the food system as actual livestock.

Decreasing Deforestation and enhancing biodiversity

What if instead of deforesting the rainforest for monocrops of soy and palm we increased the life on already existing agricultural lands? Leaving the forests be and increasing biodiversity on farms. What if we had agriculture inclusive nature instead of nature inclusive agriculture? What if we prioritized life over mono?

The Butter(Fly) Effect

Food is so deeply engrained in traditions, cultures, stories, family gatherings and all other walks of life. Changing the way we think about food will undoubtedly lead to a butter(fly) effect.

When I am talking about changing food systems it’s not just about environmental resilience. Food connects directly to our wellbeing, mental health and happiness. It affects the way we unite, spend our evenings, weekends and lunch breaks. It influences our interaction with nature, deepens our connection to the land we live on, the farmers who produce our food and the soil that feeds us. It connects us to past and future generations. It connects us to ourselves and each other.

Mono Kills Life - Diversity Builds Life

Regenerative futures can only be realized through diversity. In agriculture, the types food that feeds the world, biocultures, perspectives, leadership styles, narratives, people, ecosystems and all living beings.

How can we diversify the crops we eat, the organic matter in the soil, the biomes in our gut, the pollinators on the land, the fish in the sea, the life on earth? How can amplifying all forms of diversity become our decision making compass towards regenerative futures?

Taste The Shift - This June in Tuscany

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A healthy society is connected and a nourishing food reconnects us to earth, our well-beig and future generations. By reconnecting (aspiring) regenerative intrapreneurs, leaders and change-makers to real food, we can find our way back to what it means to be a healthy connected living beings. Food can nourish our soil, health, minds, society and future generations. Taste The Shift is an invitation to embody the regenerative lens, natural intelligence and wisdom through the medium of Food.