During an event co-hosted by Food Tank and the Danone Institute North America, panelists discuss ways to nourish people and the planet, while also dismantling systemic racism and inequity.

The discussion is part of Danone’s One Planet. One Health. initiative, which funds actionable, community-based projects across the United States and Canada. This year, the initiative will award up to five transdisciplinary teams whose projects help build sustainable food systems. Each team will receive a $30,000 grant to help design, implement, and evaluate their projects.

During the first session of the webinar, “One Planet,” Food Tank president Dani Nierenberg speaks with A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa) — the Director of Programs, Native Agriculture and Food Systems at the First Nations Development Institute — and Jose Oliva — the Campaigns Director at the HEAL Food Alliance.

Romero-Briones says the commodification of land, water, plants, and people has caused the connections between human and environmental health to be ignored. “When you measure things in individual units,” she says, “these relationships are then severed in ways that continue to play out in how people think about the system. And, in turn, the system is a cycle.”

“It’s not just about individuals,” Romero-Briones says, “It’s not just about our own health and our own pantry and our own table. We have to think in terms of community: what does your community look like, what kind of community are you part of? If you’re not part of one, find one. Because the only way we’re going to change the American food system, is to recognize that it’s not dependent on individual market behaviors — it’s dependent on community empathy, responsibility, and response.”

Read the full article about collective impact on food systems by Amy Martin at Food Tank.