while finding hunger solutions, we must also consider the urgent threat of global climate change. the problem is complex, as the food system is both a leading cause of climate change and an industry deeply impacted by its effects.

relieving both of these problems simultaneously is a difficult task. luckily, there are many ways to build a healthy and sustainable diet, and many innovations at our fingertips to help get us there. the following “win-win” plant-powered solutions serve both human health and the environment and have use across a variety of contexts. if applied on a global scale, these innovations could help lead a path toward healthful, sustainable food systems in the future.

1. swapping protein

it is well-known that meat, particularly livestock meats, have some of the largest carbon and water footprints of all foods, representing 14.5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (ghg). red and processed meats also have been linked to increased risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease. but there are other ways to consume protein. plant-based proteins including legumes, nuts, and whole grains are far less carbon- and water-intensive than animal proteins and offer plenty of health benefits, including lower rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. a shift from meat to less processed plant proteins will remain important moving forward.

2. focusing on whole plant foods

fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains are all micronutrient-dense foods, filled with powerful plant compounds, including cancer-fighting flavonoids and heart-friendly plant sterols. their high levels of dietary fiber provide fullness while lowering the risk of various chronic diseases, such as stroke, hypertension, and diabetes. fruits and vegetables vary in their water and carbon use, but are generally far less harmful to the environment than animal-based foods, especially when planned according to ideal growing seasons and delivered to consumers locally whenever possible.

3. algae as food

although algae have been consumed by humans for thousands of years, large scale adoption of algae as food has not taken off fully. however, it should. algae could offer sustainably sourced protein and vitamin b-12, an essential micronutrient primarily found in animal-based foods, offering a valuable source of nutrition for those shifting toward a sustainable plant-based diet. algae also could be considered as an alternative to seafood as a source of dha and epa while helping decrease the current harm caused to the oceans by overfishing. the humble plant also contains a large amount of iodine, a mineral that ranks among the leading micronutrient deficiencies in the world. scaling up nori (dried green and purple laver) and red algae production is worth considering for planetary and human health.

4. biotechnology

biotechnology (such as the use of genetically modified organisms, commonly known as gmos) is a powerful tool that may offer solutions to various malnutrition-related problems. for example, biotechnology can be used to address many micronutrient deficiencies of public health concern, including vitamin a, iodine, iron, and zinc, all of which already have been implemented into staple crops such as rice and proved effective in reducing rates of deficiencies. also, biotechnology has helped create more sustainable and resilient crops better equipped to deal with an increasingly unpredictable climate, dwindling water supplies, and extreme weather events, and offers potential to decrease reliance on harmful pesticides.

5. hydroponics and fortification

hydroponic farming (also known as vertical farming) allows for the cultivation of large amounts of plant-foods, and is uniquely adaptable in urban settings, thereby slashing fresh food mileage and emissions in areas of high demand but little agricultural landscape. in addition to its high productivity and efficient water usage, hydrophobic farming offers opportunities for plant-food fortification, offering an additional way to combat micronutrient deficiencies and encourage fresh, plant-based food consumption at a larger, less resource-intensive scale.

6. replacing sugar crops with more diverse plant crops

consumption of added sugar is associated with increased rates of obesity, diabetes, and dental caries, and offer little nutritive value besides calorie density. high-fructose corn syrup (hfcs), often found in soft drinks and packaged foods, is also associated with elevated risks of cardiovascular disease. sugar and hfcs-full products are cheap, highly accessible, and supported by subsidies and tariffs. as a result, much land is devoted to corn production, limiting land available for other crops and threatening agricultural diversity. ending sugar subsidies and replacing them with other fruit and vegetable subsidies could benefit human health and encourage crop diversity, expanding the variety of plants we grow and consume, which is important for long-term agriculture and dietary well-being.

7. widespread use of low-water, highly nutritious fruit crops

there are many low-resource, weather-resistant, food-bearing plants that are not widely used now. for example, the moringa oleifera, shown above, is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree native to tropical south asia. it produces high volumes of nutritious fruits and edible leaves, and its kernels can be used to produce oil. artocarpus altilis (‘breadfruit’), is another hearty, fast-growing species of flowering tree that produces edible fruits rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals, and requires little fertilizer or pesticides. while these plants and others like them already are used in some areas to alleviate malnutrition, more widespread use is worth exploring.

solving global hunger in a sustainable way will be a real challenge. however, starting with little “win-win” solutions can help guide a path forward to create a more sustainable, nutritious future for all. from algae to breadfruit to biotechnology, focusing on expanding innovations and taking full advantage of the power of plants can lead to improved planetary and human health moving forward.

for about 80 percent of the world’s populations, however, insects are an important protein source and a regular part of the diet. some see edible insects as an untapped food source for communities suffering from chronic malnutrition. one such individual is valerie stull, a graduate student at the university of wisconsin-madison.

“i don’t think there is any one panacea for all of our environmental and global health challenges, but i do think that insects represent an underutilized, underexplored food resource that has the potential to be revived and help protect the environment,” she said of the 1,900 edible insect species worldwide.

“i mean, think about how long we’ve been cultivating livestock, domesticating livestock,” she pointed out, “we haven’t yet done that with insects. we’ve domesticated silkworms, we’ve domesticated honey bees, you know, and a few other species but we really haven’t put that much energy into it compared to other animals.”

stull leads the research collaborative mighti, or the mission to improve global health through insects. mighti investigates how farming edible insects can increase food security while protecting environmental resources.

farming insects requires few resources, takes little effort and time, and could provide a reliable protein source year-round. some insects can be reared on agricultural byproducts, such as corn leaves, and many farmable species emit low levels of greenhouse gases, like methane and ammonia.

“the most exciting thing to me was the fact that you don’t have to have access to land or even electricity to be an insect farmer,” stull enthused, “you could do this if you were living in a rural area, or an urban area with very limited resources.”

stull speaks from personal experience, having raised mealworms under the kitchen sink of her one-bedroom apartment. she grinds them into a protein powder or roasts them, and likes their nutty flavor.

her research is based in zambia, which faces pervasive food insecurity and drought. there, insects are commonly gathered from the wild as a traditional part of the diet.

while insects are a great source of protein and fatty acids, stull says foraging for insects is not always sustainable. the most sought after edible insects are often only prolific during certain times of the year, and unregulated wild-harvesting sometimes leads to cutting down trees.

in countries like zambia that experience food insecurity, insect farming could dramatically improve nutrition. additionally, it could create economic stability because insect farming is inexpensive, more reliable than other protein sources in times of drought and does not require transportation from farm to market. it seems like a perfect solution, but stull cautions against taking a paternalistic approach to communities suffering from food insecurity.

“if you try to implement insect farming strategies you need to be very aware of the cultural and social implications of doing so,” she said. “we tried to better understand peoples’ relationship with edible insects currently because the practice of consuming insects, entomophagy, is much more nuanced than you would think.”

stull uses the mealworm as an example. “it’s very resilient, very productive; they’re prolific breeders, and they’re highly nutritious, easy to process into a powder,” she said. “mealworms can be eaten by people, fed to fish, fed to poultry.”

adding to their allure, producing a pound of mealworms requires less than a gallon of water, which is ideal for drought-prone areas, and hardly emits greenhouse gases. in comparison, producing one pound of beef requires 2,000 gallons of water and emits 100 times the amount of greenhouse gases that mealworms do.

farming mealworms in zambia seems like a perfect solution to combat malnutrition, but the reality is more complicated.

as it turns out, mealworms are not currently part of the zambian diet. they prefer termites and other insects.  

termites are nearly impossible to farm because of their complicated, partially underground life cycle. termites also produce a lot of methane, a greenhouse gas. but just because the mealworm is a more sustainable, secure food source than the termite does not mean that teaching farmers to raise mealworms would be feasible. farmers must first accept mealworms as a food source and agree to farm them. if there is no interest, the program is unsustainable.  

stull emphasized that “a long-term solution is to develop some of these insect farming systems in tandem and in partnership with local farmers.” farming systems must be developed such that “you’re learning from them and they’re learning from you.”

“that’s just something that i personally think is really important but is a challenge because to work that way takes a lot more time,” she said.

it is a worthwhile challenge to face, considering the potential impact of insect farming. if stull’s collaborative project works in zambia, a country with low resources, a drought-prone climate, and a culture that does not view mealworms as food, how many other countries could this help? could this break a cycle of dependency on local organizations for survival? could low-income communities achieve economic stability if they had an independently produced and reliable food source?

perhaps in the future, with adequate research, these questions will have answers. in the meantime, edible insects present an unconventional avenue to ease malnutrition. no matter the gut reaction to insects’ hard, honeycomb eyes, long probing antennas, or callous, crusted exoskeletons, it is undeniable they are a worthwhile subject for exploration.

1. malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can lead to a lifetime of stunted growth — physically and mentally.

children with stunted growth are not only stunted physically, but cognitively as well. cognitive dysfunction from malnutrition is irreversible and leads to reduced school and work performance. unicef estimates that 150 million children around the world are affected by stunted growth. that is a large number of potential scientists, writers, artists, and leaders that society is losing due to this solvable problem.

2. 40% of food grown is wasted.

and that number doesn’t even include food wasted post distribution. food is lost on the field from inefficient harvesting, and damaged or lost during transit and on the market. we are growing enough food to feed 10 billion people, but we are only feeding 6 billion. 

3. increased temperature from climate change will affect crop efficiency.

productivity of crops is expected to drop with warmer temperatures. modern agriculture is a science, and the science of agriculture is changing with the climate. currently, researchers are looking into genetically modifying some crops to become more drought resistant.

4. conflict is the common denominator in hunger.

in areas where food insecurity prevails many times conflict is the barrier for transporting food. marked shifts from conflicts between states to internal conflicts create obstacles within the country for food distribution, and political disputes can deny certain populations access to healthy food. displacement from climate change will only further conflict in the future. 

5. we have to reframe the hunger story.

telling stories focused on hunger as a charitable act are getting old. reframing the story of hunger on engaging characters that gather empathy from readers is more likely to have a real impact. telling stories of economic loss from declines in productivity, stories of people fighting over rice starch because they can’t afford the real thing, and stories of local farmers and fishers directly effected by climate change has more of an effect than focusing on statistics.

what other important information did you learn from the conversation? you can rewatch it on facebook, and then share your own story!

eating healthy isn’t fair or equal.

when i was in 8^th grade i decided to change my life. i joined the club lacrosse team and became conscious of the foods i put into my body. by the time my junior year in high school began, i had lost more than 50 pounds.

since then, what i eat is a big part of my life. i think before i eat and focus on foods that are healthy and fresh. but not everyone in the united states lives with that luxury: 26 million americans can’t be picky about what they eat. they live in food deserts.

losing weight is already an incredibly hard task, even in the best of circumstances. imagine living in a city with no access to a car, low income and no supermarkets within more than a mile of your home. or, picture yourself living in a rural area with no access to a car, low income and no supermarkets within more than 10 miles from home. some may not even realize they live in a food desert, but will still feel the effects.

obesity is already a problem in america, but it’s an even bigger problem to those living in food deserts. they’re 11 percent to 19 percent more likely to be obese. in a culture that piles on pressure to be thin, it definitely isn’t an equal battle to healthy living.

i can’t imagine how much more difficult my struggle toward weight loss would have been with the added challenge of finding the healthy food necessary to lose weight.

it’s crucial to raise awareness of this hardship facing so many americans in their daily lives. before we make that quick judgment or comment on someone’s weight, think about what challenges they may be against. how can we promote a culture surrounding healthy bodies without making access to the resources necessary to achieve that end available to all?

take it from me: losing weight is a long and challenging process. not having easy healthy food increases that challenge exponentially.