Jessica Fanzo
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program
About
Jessica Fanzo, PhD is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics and was Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. She holds appointments in the Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at Hopkins’ Alliance for a Healthier World.She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Global Food Security Journal and leads on the development of the Food Systems Dashboard, in collaboration with GAIN. From 2017 to 2021, Jessica served on the Food Systems Economic Commission, the Expert Panel for the Cornell Atkinson Center’s Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation report, the Global Panel of Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition Foresight 2.0 report, and the EAT-Lancet Commission. She was also the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and Team Leader for the UN High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition.Before coming to Hopkins, she has also held positions at Columbia University, the Earth Institute, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the UN World Food Programme, Bioversity International, and the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya.Jessica has worked as an advisor for various organizations and governments including DFAT, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), PATH, the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), USAID, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).With twenty years of research and program experience working in the field in sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, and the United States, her area of expertise focuses on how transitioning food systems are impacting people’s access to healthy, environmentally sustainable, and equitable diets, and more broadly on the food-related livelihoods of people living in resource-constrained places.Jessica has a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Arizona and completed a Stephen I. Morse postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University. She was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation’s Sustainable Diets Prize in 2012 for her research on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health.
Refereed Journal Articles
1. Sovacool, B, Newell, P, Carley, S, and Fanzo, J. (2022) Equity technological innovation, and sustainable behavior in a low-carbon future. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01257-82. Fanzo, J. C. and Downs, S. M. (2021). Climate change and nutrition-associated diseases. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 7(1), 1-2.
3. Fanzo, J. (2021). Make this food moment meaningful: A call to the scientific Community. Global Food Security Journal (31): 100597.
4. Gaupp, F., Ruggeri Laderchi, C., Lotze-Campen, H., DeClerck, F., Bodirsky, B.L., Lowder, S., Popp, A., Kanbur, R., Edenhofer, O., Nugent, R. and Fanzo, J. (2021). A Framework to Guide a Transformation towards a Healthy, Nature-positive and Inclusive Food System. Nature Food.
5. Marshall, Q, Fanzo, J, Barrett, C, Jones, A, Herforth, A, and McLaren, R (2021) Building a Global Food Systems Typology: A New Tool for Reducing Complexity in Food Systems Analysis. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 5: 482-495. DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2021.746512
6. Singh BK, Arnold T, Biermayr-Jenzano P, Broerse J, Brunori G, Caron P, De Schutter O, Fan S, Fanzo J, Fraser E, Gurinovic M. (2021) Enhancing science–policy interfaces for food systems transformation. Nature Food. Nov 3:1-5.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00406-6
7. Sumaila, UR, Skerritt, D, Schuhbauer, A, Villasante, S, Cisneros-Montemayor, AS, Sinan, H, Burnside, D and 289 additional authors (2021) WTO must ban harmful fisheries subsidies. Science 374(6567): 544-545.
8. Brouwer, I.D., van Liere, M.J., de Brauw, A., Domingues-Salas, P., Herforth, A., Kennedy, G., Lachat, C., Omosa, E.B., Talsma, E., Vandevijvere, S., Fanzo, J., Ruel, M. (2021) Reverse thinking: taking a healthy diet perspective towards food systems transformations. Food Sec. pp. 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01204-5
9. Fanzo J, Haddad L, Schneider KR, Béné C, Covic NM, Guarin A, Herforth AW, Herrero M, Sumaila UR, Aburto NJ, Amuyunzu-Nyamongo M. (2021) Rigorous monitoring is necessary to guide food system transformation in the countdown to the 2030 global goals. Food Policy. Oct 1;104:102163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102163.
10. Fanzo, J, Rudie, C, Sigman, I, Grinspoon, S, Benton, TG, Brown, ME, Covic, N, Fitch, K, Golden, CD, Grace, D, Hivert, MF, Huybers, P, Jaacks, LM, Masters, WA, Nisbett, N, Richardson, RA, Singleton, CR, Webb, P, and Willett, WC. (2021) Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: A report from the 22nd annual harvard nutrition obesity symposium. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, nqab315, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab315 In Press.
11. Barrett, C.B., Fanzo, J., Herrero, M., Mason-D'Croz, D., Mathys, A., Thornton, P.K., Wood, S., Benton, T.G., Fan, S., Lawson-Lartego, L. and Nelson, R., (2021). COVID-19 pandemic lessons for agri-food systems innovation. Environmental Research Letters. 16 101001.
12. Golden, C.D., Koehn, J.Z., Shepon, A., Passarelli, S., Free, C.M., Viana, D.F., Matthey, H., Eurich, J.G., Gephart, J.A., Fluet-Chouinard, E., Nyboer, E.A., Lynch, A.J., Kjellevold, M., Bromage, S., Charlebois, P., Barange, M., Vannuccini, S., Cao, L., Kleisner, K.M., Rimm, E.B., Danaei, G., DeSisto, C., Kelahan, H., Fiorella, K.J., Little, D.C., Allison, E.H., Fanzo, J., and Thilsted, S.H. (2021). Aquatic foods to nourish nations. Nature (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03917-1
13. Tigchelaar, M., Cheung, W.W.L., Mohammed, E.Y., Phillips, M.J., Payne, H.J., Selig, E.R., Wabnitz, C.C., Oyinlola, M.A., Frolicher, T.L., Gephart, J.A., Golden, C.D., Allison, E.H., Bennett, A., Cao, L., Fanzo, J., Halpern, B.S., Lam, V.W., Micheli, F., Naylor, R.L., Sumaila, U.R., Tagliabue, A., and Troell, M. (2021) Compound climate risks threaten aquatic food system benefits. Nat Food 2, 673–682 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00368-9
14. de Pee, S., Hardinsyah, R., Jalal, F., Kim, B.F., Semba, R.D., Deptford, A., Fanzo, J.C., Ramsing, R., Nachman, K.E., McKenzie, S. and Bloem, M.W., (2021). Balancing a sustained pursuit of nutrition, health, affordability, and climate goals: exploring the case of Indonesia. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. nqab258, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab258.
15. Zhang, X, Yao, G, Vishwakarma, S, Dalin, C, Komarek, AM, Kanter, DR, Davis, KF, Pfeifer, K, Zhao, J, Zou, T, D’Ororico, P, Folberth, C, Rodriguez, FG, Fanzo, J, Rosa, L, Dennison, W, Musumba, M, Heyman, A and Davidson EA. (2021) Quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent priorities among nations. One Earth 4(9): 1262-1277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.08.015.
16. Schneider KR, Fanzo JC, Haddad L, Moncayo JR. (2021) Global health has a stake in the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit. Lancet. Sep 8:S0140-6736(21)02047-X. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02047-X. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34508655.
17. Covic, N, Dobermann, A, Fanzo, J, Henson, S, Herrero, M, Pingali, P and Staal, S. (2021). Al hat and no cattle: Accountability following the UN food systems summit. Global Food Security, Volume 30, 100569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100569
18. Carducci, B., Oh, C., Roth, D.E., Neufeld, L.M., Frongillo, E.A., L’Abbe, M.R., Fanzo, J., Herforth, A., Sellen, D.W., and Bhutta, Z.A. (2021) Gaps and priorities in assessment of food environments for children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. Nature Food 2, 396–403. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00299-5
19. Mondal, P., DeFries, R.S., Clark, J., Flowerhill, N., Arif, M., Harou, A., Downs, S.M. and Fanzo, J. (2021) Multiple cropping alone does not improve year-round food security among smallholders in rural India. Environmental Research Letters. 16: 065017 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac05ee
20. Fox, E.L., Davis, C., Downs, S.M., McLaren, R. and Fanzo, J. (2021) A focused ethnographic study on the role of health and sustainability in food choice decisions. Appetite, p.105319.
21. Ghosh-Jerath, S., Kapoor, R., Ghosh, U., Singh, A., Downs, S. and Fanzo, J. (2021) Pathways of climate change impact on agroforestry, food consumption pattern and dietary diversity among indigenous subsistence farmers of Sauria Paharia tribal community of India: A mixed methods study. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5, p.174. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.667297
22. Barnhill, A., and Fanzo, J. (2021). Nourishing Humanity without Destroying the Planet. Ethics & International Affairs, 35(1), 69-81. doi:10.1017/S0892679421000046
23. Marshall Q, Bellows AL, McLaren R, Jones AD, and Fanzo J. (2021) You Say You Want a Data Revolution? Taking on Food Systems Accountability. Agriculture. 11(5):422. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11050422
24. Fanzo, J. (2021) Achieving equitable diets for all: The long and winding road. One Earth, Cell. 4(4): 470-473. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.03.007
25. Fanzo J, Shawar YR, Shyam T, Das S, and Shiffman J. (2021) Challenges to establish effective public-private partnerships to address malnutrition in all its forms. Int J Health Policy Manag. 1-12. doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2020.262anzo.
26. Bromage, S., Zhang, Y., Holmes, M., Fawzi, W., Sachs, S., Fanzo, J., Remans, R., Batis, C., Bhupathiraju, S., Fung, T. and Li, Y., (2020). A novel food-based diet quality score is associated with nutrient adequacy and reduced anemia among rural adults in ten African countries. Current Developments in Nutrition, 4(Supplement_2), pp.1381-1381.
27. Neelakantan A., DeFries R., and Fanzo J. (2020) Food security and livelihoods of post-resettlement households around Kanha National Park. PLoS One 15(12): e0243825. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243825.
28. Clark, M., Macdiarmid, J., Jones, A.D., Ranganathan, J., Herrero, M. and Fanzo, J. (2020) The role of healthy diets in environmentally sustainable food systems. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 41(2_suppl), pp.31S-58S.
29. Fanzo, J. (2020) Cooperate to prevent food-system failure. Nature 588: S57. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03444-5
30. Barrett, C.B., Benton, T.G., Cooper, K.A., Fanzo, J., Gandhi, R., Herrero, M., James, S., Kahn, M., Mason-D’Croz, D., Mathys, A., Nelson, R.J., Shen, J., Thornton, P., Bageant, E., Fan, S., Mude, A.G., Sibanda, L.M., and Wood, S. (2020) Bundling innovations to transform agri-food systems. Nature Sustain 3, 974–976. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00661-8
31. Herrero, M., Thornton, P. K., Mason-D’Croz, D., Palmer, J., Bodirsky, B. L., Pradhan, P., Barrett, C. D., Benton, T. G., Hall, A., Pikaar, I., Bogard, J. R., Bonnett, G., Bryan, B. A., Campbell, B. M., Christensen, S., Clark, M., Fanzo, J., Godde, C. M., Jarvis, A., ... Rockstrom, J. (2020). Articulating the impact of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Lancet Planetary Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S2542-5196(20)30277-1
32. Reardon, T., Tschirley, D., Liverpool-Tasie, S., Awokuse, T., Fanzo, J., Minten, B., Vos, R., Dolislager, M., Sauer, C., Dhar, R., Vargas, C., Lartey, A., Ahmed, R. and Popkin, B.M. (2021). The Processed Food Revolution in African Food Systems and the Double Burden of Malnutrition. Global Food Security. Volume 28: p.100466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100466.
33. Fanzo, J, Bellows AL, Spiker, ML, Thorne-Lyman, AL, Bloem, MW (2020). The importance of food systems and the environment for nutrition. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 113(1): 7-16. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa313
Books And Edited Books
1. Fanzo J (2021) Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet? Johns Hopkins University Press. Wavelength Series, Baltimore USA.2. Fanzo J and Davis C (2021). Global Food Systems, Diets and Nutrition: Linking Science, Economics and Policy (as part of a series book series on Agricultural Economics and Food Policy by Christopher Barrett. Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland.
Book Chapters
1. Fanzo, J. (2020) No Food Security, No World Order. Chapter 8. In: COVID-19 and World Order: the Future of Conflict, Competition and Cooperation. Eds: Brands, H and Gavin, F. Johns Hopkins University Press Pp 148-168.2. Fanzo, J. (2020) Feeding the World (Well): A Moral Imperative. Chapter 1 In: Feed the World Well: A Framework for Ethical Food Systems. Ed: Alan M Goldberg. Johns Hopkins University Press.pp 9-20.
In the News
Examining the trade-offs of palm oil production and consumption from a sustainable diets perspective: Lessons learned from Myanmar.
Jessica Fanzo wrote in Public Health Nutrition, 11/15
Food systems dashboard: A place to navigate food data.
Jessica Fanzo wrote for The Food Archive, 07/21
Outcomes and accountability: Measuring success of the summit process.
Jessica Fanzo participated in Devex webinar, 07/15
You can eat cicadas, but be careful if you have seafood allergies, FDA warns.
Jessica Fanzo quoted on CNET website, 06/04