Imagining a habitable planet through food and health

Abstract

Background and objectives Whether and how it might be possible to imagine a habitable planet through food and health. Methods Reflection on childhood happenstances, sociodemographic circumstances, educational opportunities, persons of influence and lifetime experiences insofar as they might have shaped a view of the past, present and future world as the sole rational home of us all. Confirmation of these notions by personal, kindred, and other contemporary records and publications. Results The need to live with uncertainty and an appreciation of connectedness with things animate and inanimate; and for this to be belief, identity, reason and professional imprimatur. That these things have unwittingly informed a near lifetime of interest and enthusiasm for how food and health systems are best served by socioecological approaches. Conclusions That we are socioecological beings with a destiny dependent on reconciling ourselves, as earthlings, as to how well we keep our place in the cosmos habitable. To that end we must dream and work. Prologue of the Dreamer An indelible event in my formative years was a teachers report. Whether the reason or not for the charge, I had skipped a grade and found I could get through the assigned work in the next grade ahead of schedule, with time to spare. The report said that I had limited life prospects since I was a dreamer. When I ultimately graduated in medicine, I arranged with the school to establish an annual award for creativity. I wanted no role in the way this would be done. After 3 years of deliberation, a teachers' panel resolved that the award should be based on a student initiative which demonstrated imagination and innovation. It was what I would have wanted as a student of the same school. Now and again I return to the school to share the joy that the awarded students experience at recognition of their creativity. My privilege now is to be a teacher, doctor and parent investing in present and future generations, given to dreaming and imagination.