We are part of an intricate web of food producers, consumers and the people and systems that connect them, including grocers, truck drivers, local farmers, Big Ag farm workers, packing plant and livestock feedlot/slaughter house employees, fishery workers and more. As US consumers—living, eating and shopping within a settler/colonial capitalist system built on slavery, segregation and apartheid—we have a chance to use daily decisions to impact the food systems of which we are a part. These decisions have a direct effect on human health, environmental sustainability and social justice issues.

Starting small, with a willingness to see our own contributions to the larger issues, we can make a difference. What you do daily matters more than what you do once in a while. Start small and don’t try to do it perfectly. Be generous with what you learn, and with what you grow!

Here are some ways to to begin:

1. Build Relationships Within Your Food Network

Get to know three people who make, grow, distribute, transport, package or sell the food you eat. We are so disconnected from the food system that we are part of. Getting to know the humans who work directly to feed us can lead to a broader and ever-increasing awareness of how the food system works and what we can do to make it work better for more people and the planet.

Nearly 10% of the US workforce works in the food system (Rockefeller Foundation True Cost of Food Full Report, n.d.). Relationships with those who provide for us and serve us can lead to more mindful eating. When you know, for example, the farmer who grew the kale or raised and processed the pork you’re eating for dinner tonight, there’s a good chance you’ll feel some sense of gratitude when you sit down to eat. Perhaps this sense of connection will translate into more conscious decision making the next time you’re at the grocery store and it’s not necessarily as convenient or affordable to shop regionally or locally. Our choices can be cumulative. For those who have the privilege of choice at the supermarket, humanizing the work that goes into growing and raising food makes us better consumers, even when it comes at a cost to us.

Some ideas to get you started:

Take the time to talk to people at your local farmers market, ask about the growing season, what other markets they sell at. Even introverts can strike up a conversation when there’s a goal of getting to know your food chain better.
Talk to the grocer at your local shopping market, especially in the produce department or the meat or seafood counters.
Consider those whose work is “hidden” behind your favorite treats, especially highly processed foods. Is there a local packaging plant, do you know anyone who works there? Is there a trucking company that delivers to your grocery store, do you know where they are based out of?
Share news of local food sources and resources with your neighbors and friends. Talk freely about food politics and small actions you are taking in your own household. People want tips from the people they know and trust. Be generous with what you know and learn!

2. Make Plants the Focus

Many of us have been trained to plan out meals around a meat choice of protein. The truth about meat’s environmental impact is well documented (Hilbeck et al., 2015; Springmann et al., 2018). Fortunately we have many other options for protein, and we don’t need to make it the focus of our meals.

Making plants a central part of your diet can be simple. Although adults on average need approximately 50 grams of protein a day (or more), most eating a modern Western diet focus on meat and processed meat to form the basis of a meal. To start bringing plants into focus, try considering other protein options, like legumes, nuts and seeds. There are also fermented plant foods with thousands of years of history, like tofu. Try to experiment with as many different proteins as possible each week (Messina et al., 2023).

3. Choose A Local Food Organization to Donate To or Volunteer At Monthly

Getting more involved with your own time and dollars brings political and social awareness. What issues are impacting folks in your community? What food policies directly affect people around you?

Here in the Pacific Northwest there are many organizations working on food justice, environmental stewardship, and foodways education. In Kitsap County alone there are many choices including:

Backpack Brigade (Fighting Hunger, n.d.)
KCFC (Kitsap Community Food Co-Op, n.d.)
Food Not Bombs (Kitsap Food Not Bombs, n.d.)
Bremerton Foodline (Bremerton Foodline, n.d.)
City of Bremerton Blueberry Park P-Patch (Blueberry Park P-Patch Garden | Bremerton, WA - Official Website, n.d.)

4. Share What You Know With a Child in Your Life

Depending on your specific life situation, your spheres of influence may be wide or somewhat narrow, but making a conscious decision to teach a young peppers in your life about sustainable food choices in an age-appropriate way can deepen your own understanding and connection with the foods you eat, and have an ever-widening impact as they grow and make their own decisions in life.

The options and inroads are endless, so just pick one idea that feels authentic and interesting to you, and invite them along. Try learning how to can or preserve food, or pull out a cider press in the fall. Try going on a taste adventure at the farmers market, or try a new recipe at home. Try setting up a counter top compost routine (for your yard or the yard waste container), or regularly donate to or volunteer at the local food bank.

Experiences and skills like these can set a foundation for better understanding our place and part in the wider food system. You might even learn a few things along the way!

5. Activity Work to Support Anti-Racism Food Work

Our food choices have more than just a nutritional and environmental impact. We can actively work to recognize a long history of injustices faced by marginalized communities, work to dismantle institutional racism, and promote and support those involved with antiracist food work. Find out about BIPOC farmers in your state, the organizations they are part of, and look for ways to support them. Locally processed artisanal foods are another way to support BIPOC small businesses, often found on the shelves of local food co-ops and farmers market stalls. (Black Farmer Fund, n.d.)

By supporting and amplifying marginalized voices, consumers can disrupt historic injustices. The work must happen at a policy level (National Black Food & Justice Alliance, n.d.), but it also can happen at a household level through purchasing decisions that shape the minds of our children and help recreate a vision of the future that is more just and inclusive. Reclaiming traditional food ways in another way to support these efforts. In our corner of the PNW the Suquamish Tribe is working to support access to fresh produce in their community as part of their larger Traditional Food & Medicine Program. (Anderson, 2024; Suquamish Traditional Food & Medicine Program | Facebook, n.d.).

6. Find Ways to Choose Quality Over Quantity

Choosing quality over quantity can help maintain a healthy level of caloric intake, but it also can contribute to reducing food waste and refocus your dollars on less meat consumption.

By eating less meat, but selecting meat from local sources practicing agro-ecology and humane treatment of animals, you reallocate your food budget towards supporting sustainable food sources rather than adding to green house gas emissions.

Quality over quantity also means paying more attention to your shopping choices: How much food waste do you produce a week? Are there ways to curb food waste before you buy, or as you plan your meals? Do you compost? Where can you switch to food that doesn’t come in plastic clamshell boxes?

Opting to buy only what you’re going to eat, and thinking about where your food waste goes—and sharing your ideas and resources with others—you can have a positive impact on the food system, one meal at at time (One Plate, One Planet | Stanford R&DE, n.d.).

7. Diversify Your Diet to Support Biodiversity Around the Globe and Beneath Your Feet

By eating a diversity of foods, especially plant foods, we can increase the biodiversity of this planet and reset the reliance on commodity crops by using our political and consumer voices.

Through the rise of the conventional industrial agriculture land use practices developed and intensified on a massive scale over the course of the last century (Banerjee & van der Heijden, 2023), soil health has suffered through: tillage and compaction, erosion, loss of trace element nutrients, toxic chemical pollution, and the death of microbial communities which are vital components of healthy soils.

Just as our gut biomes can become depleted (through harmful health practices and lifestyle, lack of access, poverty, systemic racism, etc.), so can our soils.

Agroecology recognizes farming’s impact on this relationship between soil health and biodiversity (Carlile et al., 2021); as farmland soil health is threatened through industrial agricultural practices, or revitalized/protected through regenerative farming practices (The Dirt on Climate Change: Regenerative Agriculture and Health Care | Health Care Without Harm (US & Canada), n.d.; The-Truth-About-Organic-Rodale-Institute.Pdf, n.d.).