We all need to eat. Every day. But many of the things done in the name of ‘feeding the world’ actually prevent flourishing, cause ecological breakdown, and accelerate the collapse of prevailing economic and social arrangements. To keep our bodies alive and well, we are doing things that make it hard to stay alive and well.

Food systems – the interconnected webs of people, other living beings, knowledge, activities, and exchanges that coax edible substances from the earth and deliver them to our bodies – have the tremendous potential for good and for harm.

Today, getting food is pretty easy for folks with funds. It is available on store shelves and restaurant menus everywhere. It can be ordered up and delivered to your door. But behind all this convenience is a whole lot of complexity. Once you start wondering about where food comes from, it gets tough to make sense of sustenance. But doing so is could not be more important. Our lives, as well as our capacity for belonging, and even the prospects for life on Earth depend on it.

There are all kinds of “solutions” on offer to make farming, the food sector, and even our personal foodways more sustainable. Legions of well-intentioned people are trying address hunger, climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, social injustices, and local economic revival through their work in food systems. Many of these interventions have promise — but only if they can be enacted relationally.

Focusing on the kinds of relationships we want to cultivate through food will make more positive change than any single sustainability strategy, dietary prescription, or silver-bullet solution enacted transactionally.