Market pathways to food systems transformation toward healthy and equitable diets through convergent innovation

Abstract

Achieving food system transformation requires a deep understanding of the market mechanisms that underpin both the social benefits and the externalities of modern development. We examine how market dynamics affect the production and consumption of healthy and equitable diets in North America. Using causal loop diagramming, we show how three market feedback processes (industry capabilities, consumer category considerations, and systems and institutions) both constrain and enable food system transformation. Through behavioral-dynamic computational modeling, we demonstrate the ineffectiveness of isolated social or commercial interventions to achieve equitable access to nutritious foods across populations of varying socioeconomic statuses. Rather, self-sustaining transformations at scale require convergent innovations that bridge individual and collective action across typically siloed sectors, to achieve alignment between commercial, social, and environmental goals and activities. We discuss how this simulation-based analytical framework can inform policy for food system transformation, whether at the local, national, or global level.