The current approach to food, nutrition, agriculture, and the environment is unsustainable and must change.”
NTERACADEMIES PARTNERSHIP (2018)
What is the Food System?
The food system is the social and ecological system encompassing all the drivers, activities and resources that go into producing, distributing and consuming food. The food system intersects with aspects of public health, culture, society, economics, public policy, and the environment.

Moving toward a more sustainable food system will require addressing the problems in the food system in a comprehensive and systematic way.
NTERACADEMIES PARTNERSHIP (2018)
Challenges Facing Food Systems: Ecological and Social Issues from Global to Local
- Oxford University: Food System Challenges
- InterAcademy Partnership Global Perspective on Global Food Systems
- Global Alliance for the Future of Food: Food systems transformation is urgent
- National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)
- Stockholm Resilience Center 2018. Anthropocene Analysis of Food and Agriculture (video).
- Food Insecurity in the United States: Feed the Hunger
- USDA Economic Research Service: Food Security in the US
- Look, M. A., Soong S., & Kaholokula, J. K. (2020). Assessment and priorities for health and well-being in native hawaiians and other pacific peoples. Honolulu, HI: Dept. of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaiʻi.
Defining Sustainable, Equitable, Resilient and Healthy Food Systems
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Food and Nutrition Board: Building a More Sustainable, Resilient, Equitable, and Nourishing Food System
- EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health
- University of California Agricultural Sustainability Institute: Sustainable Community Food Systems

Position Papers, Case Studies, Initiatives and Planning Documents on Food Systems Change:
Hawaiʻi:
- Hawaiʻi Climate Commission (2021). NATURE-BASED RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN HAWAIʻI: A Climate Ready Hawaiʻi Working Paper.
- Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture.
- Aloha + Challenge and Hawaiʻi Green Growth: Local Food and UN SDGs
- Meter and Goldenburg (2017). Hawaiʻi’s Food System: Food for All. Crossroads Resource Center.
- Gail Byrne Baber/The Kohala Center (2017). Affordable Land and Housing for Farmers.
- Statewide agricultural land use baseline studies: Melrose et al. 2015; Melrose and Delparte 2013.
- DBEDT (2012).INCREASED FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY STRATEGY: A STATE STRATEGIC/FUNCTIONAL PLAN
- Page, C., Bony, L. and Schewel L. (2007). Island of Hawaiʻi Whole System Project: Phase I Report Rocky Mountain Institute.
The Science of Sustainable Food System: Peer-Reviewed Literature on Building Sustainable, Equitable, Healthy & Resilient Food Systems
Fardkhales, S. A., & Lincoln, N. (2021). Food hubs play an essential role in the COVID-19 response in Hawaiʻi. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(2), 1-18.
Look, M. A., Soong S., & Kaholokula, J. K. (2020). Assessment and priorities for health and well-being in native hawaiians and other pacific peoples. Honolulu, HI: Dept. of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaiʻi.
Suryanata, K., Mostafanezhad, M., & Milne, N. (2020). Becoming a New Farmer: agrarianism and the contradictions of diverse economies. Rural Sociology.Khan, S. S., Arita, S., Howitt, R., & Leung, P. (2019). A calibrated model of local food system of Hawaiʻi: What are the economic implications of the state’s food goals and policies?. Natural Resource Modeling, 32(1), e12196.
Kurashima, N., Fortini, L., & Ticktin, T. (2019). The potential of indigenous agricultural food production under climate change in Hawaiʻi. Nature Sustainability, 2(3), 191-199.
Mostafanezhad, M., & Suryanata, K. (2018). Is farming sexy? Agro-food initiatives and the contested value of agriculture in post-plantation Hawaiʻi. Geoforum, 91, 227-234.
Winter, K. B., Beamer, K., Vaughan, M. B., Friedlander, A. M., Kido, M. H., Whitehead, A. N., … & Nyberg, B. (2018). The Moku System: Managing biocultural resources for abundance within social-ecological regions in Hawaiʻi. Sustainability, 10(10), 3554.
Kimura, A. H., & Suryanata, K. (Eds.). (2016). Food and Power in Hawaiʻi: Visions of Food Democracy. University of Hawaiʻi Press.
Mostafanezhad, M., Suryanata, K., Azizi, S., & Milne, N. (2015). “Will weed for food”: The political economy of organic farm volunteering in Hawaiʻi. Geoforum, 65, 125-133.
Press Works on Food Systems and Sustainability
Hawaiʻi and Beyond
- Civil Beat: Hawaiʻi Grown – A Special on Food and Agriculture in Hawaiʻi
- Mathews, Bruce (February, 2021). Bruce Mathews responds to UHERO agricultural report: There are more things to consider than GDP.
- Jessica Terrell. (January 27, 2021). Hawaiʻi’s Food System Is Broken. Now Is The Time To Fix It. Honolulu Civil Beat.
- Quintus & Lincoln (July 6, 2020): How Landscape Legacies Enhance Hawaiʻi Agriculture. Honolulu Civil Beat.
- Cheng, Martha (April 21, 2020): Can We Ever Eat All Local in Hawaiʻi?
- Miles, Albie & Merrigan, Kathleen (April 11, 2020): If We Get Food Right, We Get Everything Right: Rethinking agriculture and our food system in a post-COVID-19 Hawaiʻi. Honolulu Civil Beat.
- Lincoln, Noa (February 12, 2020): Here’s an Even Better Vision for Food Sustainability. Honolulu Civil Beat.
- Heaivilin, Hunter (January 30, 2020): We Need a Better Vision for Food Sustainability. Honolulu Civil Beat.
- Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission Summary Report on healthy diets from sustainable food systems
More resources on the food system:
Food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth..”
The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health (2019).