What are food systems? Who participates in them? Do they change? How do we study them?

These are the questions that many groups who work in fields like nutrition, agriculture, public health, education, economics, environmental science, and urban planning have been asking for years, as global challenges like climate change, inequality, and health become more pressing and innovative solutions have become necessary.

The Tufts Food Systems Initiative then asked, as an international leader in many of these fields, surely Tufts must do research, sponsor organizations, and provide curricula on food systems, right?

Quickly, we found the answer is yes! Across all the schools, organizations, faculty, and students at Tufts, an amazing body of work is being conducted on food systems. All sorts of amazing things in the world of food systems were happening at places like the Fletcher School, Tufts Institute for the Environment, and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. However, it seemed like this work was disconnected and it was possible that students in the Friedman School interested in marine resource management might not have any idea that there is a Maritime Studies program at the Fletcher School.

Therein lies the work of this project; to pull together all the Tufts-wide work being done on food systems in one place, where faculty, students, and those outside the Tufts community can come to connect to it.

You will see pages on this site featuring activities, curricula, and organizations that seem to have nothing to do with food systems. Much of the information on this site is not directly related to food systems, but has to do with tangential fields, such as urban planning, international diplomacy, and basic science. The content of this site was intentionally collected to reflect the myriad of parts that make up food systems.

As leaders of the future, Tufts students and faculty will be part of the food systems transformations on the horizon. Feeding the growing global population equitably, healthfully, and sustainably presents an enormous challenge. Our team believes connecting the food systems work being done at Tufts is an important step toward meeting this challenge.