ABSTRACT
Food and diets have become problems in the twenty-first century. This might sound strange. Sustainability is just shorthand for the environment alone. The sustainable diet challenge was identified in academic terms in the 1980s by Joan Dye Gussow and Kate Clancy in papers outlining the need for dietary guidelines to consider diets not only for public health but also for preserving natural resources. Sustainable diets can be dismissed as restrictive, controlling, rolling back the joys of untrammelled choice, implying the unwelcome charms of a nanny corporation or state. Sustainable diets are a vehicle for planetary and social justice. On top of the health and environmental problems, the modern food system is also a source of considerable social injustice – both globally and within countries and localities. Food production and distribution contribute huge economic value both at national and international level, the distribution of that value is not even.
