3.6: Nutrition in Action

Nutrition in Action

The field of nutrition goes beyond the foods you choose to eat to get necessary nutrients. We need to understand modern food systems to keep ourselves and the people in our communities healthy, both locally and globally. Feeding our world, today and into the future, will require some changes to improve access, availability, food security, and food sustainability. We cannot make large changes and help improve nutrition in communities across the world unless we think about how our choices play a role in modern food systems. As a consumer, you have the power of choice to support the production and availability of nutritious foods for your community. However, there are many other actions you can take to help build sustainable food systems for your community and across the world. As you continue learning about nutrition in this book, keep in mind how your actions can support healthy nutrition for yourself, those around you, and everyone throughout the world by supporting the growth of sustainable food systems.

Tools for Change

Modern food systems must become more sustainable, and your actions can help support this change. Even small changes in your daily activities can add up to large changes that can improve food security and sustainability in your community and across the world. As previously discussed, sustainable food systems are environmentally friendly, remain profitable and affordable, and ensure access and availability of nutritious foods for everyone. There are actions you can take to support each of these factors (environmental, economic, social) to promote sustainability in our modern food systems.

Environmental Actions

1. Eat a low-carbon diet. Because almost half of the greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture come from livestock, a low-carbon diet has more plant-based foods. Beans, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are more energy efficient than beef, pork, and chicken. The United Nations Climate Action website has more information, including links to sustainable food recipes.
2. Reduce food waste. Food waste increases the amount of trash that ends up in landfills and wastes critical resources in our modern food systems. Planning ahead is a key step in preventing food waste. If you make a meal plan for the week, you only buy what you need. Another action you can take is to ensure proper food storage so food doesn't spoil, buy in bulk only when you need to, and freeze foods before they spoil. You can also buy imperfect fruits and vegetables to avoid nutritious food ending up in a landfill. The US EPA website on Preventing Wasted Food at Home has many helpful resources for reducing food waste.
3. Grow your food. If you grow your own food, you save the resources required for shipping and marketing foods. It is helpful to start small with an herb container garden or one vegetable you know you like to eat. Gardening doesn't require a lot of land—you can start a window garden, join a community garden, or volunteer at a garden in your community. Learn more about growing herbs, fruits, and vegetables at the University of Maryland Extension site.
4. Cook in batches. Cooking meals in large batches is a great way to save time, money, and resources. Even though you may only eat one bowl of soup for dinner, you can make a large pot and freeze the leftovers in small portions or batches. Batch cooking helps save resources by reducing the energy required to cook the food and reducing the amount of food waste by storing leftovers for later meals.
5. Conserve water. Fresh water is a natural resource that must be conserved to ensure sustainability. When cooking, you can conserve water by using only what you need. If you boil pasta, you can avoid wasting water by using just what you need. Steaming vegetables uses much less water than boiling. Rinse vegetables in a bowl instead of under running water in a strainer.

Community Gardens

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A community garden at an elementary school in Washington, DC. Community gardens are gardens where community members can pay to have a plot or volunteer to support the gardening in the community. This garden in Washington, DC, is at an elementary school where kids learn about growing healthy foods, help maintain the gardens, and share the harvest with the school and community. Source: Erin Shanle licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Economic Actions

1. Buy locally produced foods. Buying from local farmers at farmer's markets, roadside stands, or a food CSA (community-supported agriculture) helps the environment by reducing the need to ship and distribute foods using fossil fuels. It also helps support the local economy in your community by giving farmers fair pay for the crops they grow. Supporting this food source ensures that nutritious foods are available in your community, thus ensuring that food is available to community members at risk for food insecurity.
2. Buy in bulk. Buying foods in bulk can help you save money if you plan to use the foods to batch cook meals, for example. Bulk foods often have less packaging, which reduces the overall cost of the food.
3. Buy foods with less packaging. As described above, you can keep your food prices lower and help the environment by choosing foods with less plastic packaging. For example, you can buy a large bag of carrots instead of individually wrapped snack packs. This saves resources and money for the consumer and the parts of the food system that package and distribute the food.
4. Shop intentionally. You can support sustainable food systems if you use your food dollar intentionally. Shop organically to reduce the use of chemicals in modern food systems, buy fair trade products to ensure everyone in the food system is equitably compensated, and buy products from companies that support sustainability.

Social Actions

1. Become a food citizen. A food citizen is more than someone who shops intentionally. As a food citizen, you recognize that you are not just a consumer: you can be a member of modern food systems. Food citizens support policies and organizations that promote sustainable food systems. For example, you can contact local representatives to advocate or ask for policies that ensure food security for everyone in your community. Food citizens can volunteer at food banks or food pantries to help support access and availability of nutritious foods. Overall, food citizens work to advocate for change through policies or projects in their communities.
2. Educate your community. An easy way to fight malnutrition and food insecurity is to talk to your friends, family, and peers about nutrition issues. Many people are unaware of the issues, and educating people about nutritious food options, federal assistance programs, and food policy can help promote more sustainable food systems.
3. Find out where food comes from. When you go to a restaurant or grocery store, you can ask where the food comes from. For example, you can ask about the source of fish to determine if the food was sustainably harvested from the ocean. When consumers show interest in sustainable foods, restaurants and stores may try to support sustainable food sources.
4. Celebrate cooking with others. When you cook your own food, you are more likely to use fresh ingredients and avoid highly processed, pre-packaged foods. If you celebrate cooking with others, especially kids, you have an opportunity to talk about nutrition. Cook with family members or host a cooking class at the local community center or church. These small actions can go a long way to fight malnutrition in your community.