Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org VIEWPOINT Nutrition education in the Anthropocene: Toward public and planetary health Jennifer Lynn Wilkins * Syracuse University and Cornell University Submitted February 20, 2020 / Published online May 4, 2020 Citation: Wilkins, J. L. (2020). Nutrition education in the Anthropocene: Toward public and planetary health. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(3), 59–69. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.093.026 Copyright © 2020 by the Author. Published by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems. Open access under CC-BY license. Abstract need to ensure that such competencies are ad- Nutrition education has traditionally focused pri- dressed in course content. Advocates need to be marily on food and nutrition knowledge, motiva- vigilant to ensure that sustainability, food systems, tions, and skills that facilitate behavior change. This and community aspects related to nutrition and essay argues that while this content remains an es- diet are incorporated into policy. The relevance of sential foundation for nutrition education, is it no nutrition education will depend upon the degree to longer sufficient. In the Anthropocene—the cur- which this shift is successful. rent distinct geological period during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and Keywords the environment—the goal of nutrition framework Anthropocene, Diet, Food Skills, Health is twofold: public health and planetary health. This Outcomes, Nutrition Education approach requires that competencies in food sys- tems, agriculture, and policy be included in the ed- Disclosure ucation and training of food and nutrition The views expressed in this reflective essay are those of the education practitioners and researchers. Academics author and not necessarily the views of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) or its members. The author is the current president of SNEB. * Jennifer Lynn Wilkins, President, Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior; Professor of Practice Emeritus, Author Note Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, Syracuse This reflective essay was adapted from the presidential address University; and Courtesy Professor of Practice, Division of presented on July 29, 2019, during the business meeting at the Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University; 115 Orchard Place; 52nd Annual Conference of the Society for Nutrition Ithaca, NY 14850 USA; +1-607-227-7259; [email protected] Education and Behavior in Orlando, Florida. Volume 9, Issue 3 / Spring 2020 59 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org Introduction: Urgency ulated and attracted strong support, ultimately were As president of the Society for Nutrition Educa- not enacted (Rich, 2018). So, here we are. tion and Behavior (SNEB)—the only professional As David Wallace-Wells makes abundantly organization focused solely on nutrition educa- clear in Uninhabitable Earth (Wallace-Wells, 2019)— tion—I have an ongoing preoccupation with the his no-holds-barred account of what we can expect role of practitioners, academics, researchers, and as climate change progresses—we are in for a policy advocates in today’s health and ecological whole lot of pain and suffering unless radical contexts. Last summer, as my term as president of changes are made in all aspects of our lives, public SNEB was about to begin, I prepared remarks for policies, and economic systems. According to cli- the presidential address I would give at the upcom- mate experts, our window of opportunity to avoid ing annual conference. I felt a deep sense of re- the 2-degrees centigrade global temperature in- sponsibility and opportunity, not to mention crease that scientists believe would spell catastro- urgency. My sense of urgency no doubt was inten- phe (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sified by the heatwave that had settled stubbornly 2018) is closing fast. in the U.S. Northeast, where I live, and throughout My sense of urgency is also exacerbated by a large swath of the rest of the country. As I re- what is happening to the natural world overall. In peatedly pressed “save” to retain my changes, the May of 2019, the United Nations released a policy- mercury reached the predicted 97 degrees Fahren- makers’ summary of its Global Assessment Report on heit and the heat index, thanks to the region’s typi- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Intergovernmental cal humidity, was well on its way to north of 105 Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Eco- degrees. system Services [IPBES], 2019), which is consid- Simultaneously, across the Atlantic much of ered to be the most comprehensive assessment of Europe was experiencing record high temperatures global nature loss to date. The report’s bottom line (Henley, 2019), setting new, all-time national heat is that one million of Earth’s known eight million records in four countries. So, it was difficult (if not species are threatened with extinction. The report impossible) to ignore the first cause of my feeling details how “human actions threaten more species of urgency: climate change. Viewing it through the with global extinction now than ever before,” and lens of nutrition education, I grew disheartened by suggests that “around 1 million species already face how little has been done on a cooperative and extinction, many within decades, unless action is global scale to address this issue. This is dishearten- taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiver- ing, as well, because of steadily mounting evidence sity loss” (IPBES, 2019, pp. 16–17). and agreement among scientists globally that “it is In an earlier paper published in Science, Rodolfo extremely likely that human influence has been the Dirzo and colleagues describe what they termed dominant cause of the observed warming since the “defaunation” in the Anthropocene and credit hu- mid-20th century” (Intergovernmental Panel on mans with the cause: “We live amid a global wave Climate Change, 2013, p. 17). The implication is of anthropogenically driven biodiversity loss: spe- that changes in human activity are essential to solv- cies and population extirpations and, critically, de- ing this crisis. clines in local species abundance. Particularly, Maddeningly, solutions to climate change were human impacts on animal biodiversity are an un- at hand when I first learned about the “greenhouse der-recognized form of global environmental effect” in the 1970s as an undergraduate in the change” (Dirzo et al., 2014, p. 401). (then) Food and Nutrition Program at Huxley Col- These planetary perils—climate change and lege of the Environment at Western Washington species extinction—are increasingly seen as inter- University. I remember well the original Earth Day twined with poor nutritional health globally in all in 1970 and the excitement and hope surrounding its forms, including obesity, undernutrition, and it. But sadly, efforts to achieve meaningful policy other dietary risks. The Lancet Commission report change, energy regulations, and controls on green- from February 2019 claims that three pandemics house gas (GHG) emissions that were clearly artic- (obesity, undernutrition, and climate change) “rep- 60 Volume 9, Issue 3 / Spring 2020 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org resent The Global Syndemic that affects most peo- ucation already have many tools for addressing cur- ple in every country and region worldwide” (Swin- rent trends and contribute in meaningful ways to burn et al., 2019, p. 791). These pandemics con- solutions. The field of nutrition education is well- stitute a syndemic, or “synergy of epidemics,” be- positioned to lead improvements in diet quality, cause they co-occur in time and place, interact with and this action would not only help achieve better each other to produce complex sequelae, and share health outcomes for individuals and families, but it common underlying societal drivers” (Swinburn et would also help combat climate change, address al., 2019, p. 791). The report suggests that “the ma- syndemics, and put the brakes on the rapid decline jor systems driving The Global Syndemic are food of nature. As I reflected with the SNEB member- and agriculture, transportation, urban design, and ship, while it may seem that we’re all doomed, land use” (Swinburn et al., 2019, p. 791). practically every report of our dire environmental It should be obvious that the lines connecting situation ends with a message of hope and predicts these drivers to food and nutrition issues—such as a reversal of dire trends if we act. The question fac- access to healthy food, food composition, and the ing the food and nutrition education field is, will food supply—are short indeed. A growing body of we act? And how will we? evidence conveys threats to and damage of natural If the nutrition education field is to remain rel- ecosystems, how the poor will suffer the most, and evant in a time of dramatic ecological change, it how the current lack of political will to act exacer- needs to lead or at least engage in efforts to pro- bates the situation. The question practitioners in mote food-related behaviors that enhance both hu- the nutrition education space have a responsibility man and planetary health. After all, food (and to grapple with is, “What does food and nutrition