Author: Elta Smith

How safe is our food? We probably don’t consider food safety all that often. As with so many things, however, COVID-19 made us think about issues that often go unnoticed. Could the virus be transmitted on food or food packaging? So far there is no evidence that COVID-19 is associated with handling or eating food. But…

When we talk about climate change, we often talk about transportation and energy use. Before Covid-19 brought most travel to a standstill, I regularly heard friends and colleagues talk about how they were trying to reduce their carbon footprint by limiting their air travel, spending more time on trains where that was a plausible alternative…

As I was preparing dinner the other night, my husband wandered into the kitchen and looking at the vegetables next to the chopping board said, apropos of nothing — ‘that’s some wonky carrot!’ Indeed, it was. A totally crooked carrot can come as a bit of a shock when you’re used to the produce that…

Our food systems are complex, and they represent a dynamic and interdependent set of problems, as well as opportunities. Over the last eight weeks I’ve focused on the problems. This week I want to start looking more closely at the opportunities. I want to start that reflection with a story – a legend, in fact,…

Our food systems are complex and interdependent with other systems such as the environment and health. This makes it difficult to identify solutions to the crises of inequality, health, safety, sustainability and stability affecting our food systems.  Over the last six weeks I’ve set out what I see as the problem diagnosis. Clarity on the…

There is much to applaud in our current food systems – for most of us in high income countries, there is enough to eat, plenty of choice, and access to healthy foods (if we choose to eat them). Nevertheless, when I look more closely, I believe our food systems are in crisis, with deep underlying…

Our food systems are responsible for the world’s health and nutrition, and provide economic, as well as environmental benefits. But our food systems also have profoundly negative impacts on biodiversity and contribute a significant share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The bottom line is that our food systems are unsustainable. Globally, the agri-food sector…

Last week I wrote about the abundance of food that we produce globally – more than enough to feed everyone in the world. This productivity is a good thing. We can be thankful that we are no longer in a situation where we are concerned about having enough. But all this productivity has come at…

COVID has given us a glimpse at how our food systems are in crisis. Food. What we eat, and how we eat seems to receive a lot of attention these days. There is virtually no shortage of abundance for those of us fortunate enough to have at least an average income in most countries. We…

Last week I wrote about the abundance of food that we have access to here in the UK and in so many other places. Indeed, we already produce enough food worldwide to feed every single person (and then some…) The problem is not whether we have enough food. We produce—and waste—a lot, but still people are going hungry. Our food…