Supporting healthy diets

Align policies on food production and consumption for healthy diets

Governments create economic incentives that not only influence the decisions that food producers make, but also affect food costs and accessibility for consumers. Policies that shape our food production systems favor production of large quantities of a small number of crops (such as corn and soy); subsidize vertically integrated industrial livestock production; and distort the true cost of food. This reality conflicts with federal nutrition guidelines about what we should be eating to support health and creates barriers for diversified farms producing healthy food. In other words, policies influencing how we grow food often do not consider health or local community impacts, and policies influencing nutrition and health often do not consider farmers and how the food is produced. Instead, we should align food production and consumption policies to support human health and build resilient food systems, while also supporting communities and paying attention to community-driven solutions.

Examples of our work in this area:

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

Supporting healthy diets

Align policies on food production and consumption for healthy diets