Plant-Based Diets for Succulence and Sustainability (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)

This collection takes an interdisciplinary look at how the transformation towards plant-based diets is becoming more culturally acceptable, economically accessible, technically available and politically viable. We offer strategies for achieving sustainable food systems without having to forgo succulence, sensuality and sacredness of food.

Shifting food systems is one of humanity’s biggest challenges and greatest opportunities. This book explores adaptable and health-promoting plant-based diets, which by their nature can support nourishing environmental, social, ethical, political, and economic outcomes. In this book, detailed descriptions are provided of what constitutes a healthy plant-based diet and active lifestyle. Readers are invited to engage with a community of practitioners delving more deeply into strategies for transitioning societies to greater succulence and sustainability. Throughout the first section of the book, environmental challenges and opportunities for reversing climate change are highlighted as our most urgent action. The focus then turns to global food systems and the intersections that are undermining human and animal health. The final section offers preventative approaches and encourages reorienting systems of law, economics and education to exemplify integrity, coordination, coherence and compassion.

This book will be of interest to students and academics, as well as policy professionals in all fields engaging with complex issues and systems analyses. It will be of value to those working in health services, policy development, agriculture, economic development, and social change as it provides steps to enhance well-being, pathways to increase jobs in the green economy, and practical ideas to reverse greenhouse gas emissions. It may also be a superb guide for individuals and families looking to become vibrant eaters and leaders.

Kathleen May Kevany is Associate Professor, Business and Social Sciences Department, Faculty of Agriculture, and Director of the Rural Research Collaboration at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.