ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the global governance of sustainable diets by focusing on the UN agencies, civil society, and the food industry as major governance actors. Drawing on literature from international organisations, we briefly trace the evolution of the United Nations agencies’ attempts to define and integrate sustainable diets into existing programmes and recommendations for healthy diets. We describe efforts by international civil society groups and social movements to influence domestic governments to take action on sustainable food systems. We summarise the ways that corporate actors influence governance of food systems (e.g., international public policy and trade) and govern themselves through supply chains. We demonstrate a change towards a broader conceptualisation of sustainable food systems. We conclude by recommending that sustainable diets practitioners be aware of the favoured language of sustainable food systems at the global level and work towards coherent, multisectoral approaches to policy alongside food democracy.
