Everything about the way we make and consume food—from the food packaging, to the placement of products in the grocery store aisles, to the background music that plays as you browse—is the result of a carefully designed system.
Once we see the food system through this design lens, it appears ripe for innovation. Sixty percent of calories consumed globally derive from just four crops—wheat, rice, corn and potatoes—a shocking level of uniformity that makes our food system susceptible to crises like pandemics and extreme weather. We’ve already seen how swiftly store shelves can empty, how prices of staples can skyrocket, because of the tenuous, fragile links in the food supply chain.
But what if grocery stores carried truly sustainable food products designed to regenerate nature and build a more resilient food system? Products like pastas made with diverse ancient grains, plant-based alternatives to packaged snack foods, beer made from surplus bread, and juices from plants like foraged cactus—foods that are less resource-intensive, more resistant to shocks, and still delicious. What if consumers could make choices like they do now, based on taste, preference, and price, but trust that their choices had positive and sustainable impacts?
The Schmidt Family Foundation and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have previously collaborated with businesses to bring circularity to consumer goods, from drinkware to fashion. Each of these efforts required thinking about the full system and how to improve it. To bring sustainability to every part of the food journey, the businesses participating in the challenge prioritized ingredients that were diverse, low-impact, and upcycled.
While circular products are important, we need circularity built into the system itself. When you eliminate waste, you increase productivity and options. Healthy food choices, sources, and markets expand. Farmers have a new way to make money: Perhaps most importantly, when you put nature first, you increase long-term health of the soil, improving fertility and yield (which also drives higher profits). Plants, animals, and humans all benefit from a new kind of regenerative efficiency that plans for the future and protects planetary resources in a way conventional industrial food systems do not.
Systemic transformation requires all of us. We need bold leadership from business, policymakers, and the finance sector. Policy levers, including legislation and regulation, can provide the economic incentives food businesses need to invest in transforming the system. Small amounts of targeted capital can accelerate innovation and product development. Strategic philanthropy can bring great ideas from pilot to scale. And ultimately, manufacturers, retailers and consumers need to embrace and demand better options.
We have the resources for an abundant and resilient food system. Let’s use them.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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