ABSTRACT
Policy-makers are under pressure to change the food system. Evidence has mounted from across the scientific disciplines, yet stubborn gaps exist between evidence and reality. Food systems are unsustainable, despite the evidence suggesting new directions ought to be in train. This chapter discusses how and why evidence-policy-reality gaps remain. It explores various theories: that this is the result of policy-makers’ failures; that the policies are out of date; that the “wrong consumers” resist change and will not accept what is in their best interests; that over-powerful corporations have too much power; and that failures are simply the result of sheer complexity. The Great Food Transformation now widely agreed by science to be necessary will only occur if the realities of the food system are acknowledged. More attention on what evidence might be useful to policy-makers and consumers would help.
