ABSTRACT
Many recent public health nutrition recommendations have urged a shift to plant-based diets and a reduction in animal foods, with the dual aims of improving human health and reducing greenhouse gas contributions. The Ecological Determinants of Health (EDoH) provide a conceptual framework for sustainable diets that are responsive to local ecosystems, culturally appropriate, and support food security. EDoH are constitutive features of the biosphere, such as water, air, food, and soil systems, that support life on earth and human health. We suggest three ways in which agri-food policy and practice could shift: 1) By promoting the well-being of all species through a system for appraisal of the impact of food production systems on ecosystems; 2) by rooting food systems in more proximal foodsheds, allowing ecosystem-responsive diets to flourish in particular geographic areas; and 3) by making way in Euro-Western society for a new relationship with nonhuman nature that understands human health and nutrition to be intrinsically connected to the biosphere and all its lifeforms. This new relationship has the potential to support decolonisation of agri-food systems and move towards food sovereignty.
