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One of the most intractable challenges currently facing agricultural systems is the need to produce sufficient food for all to enjoy a healthy balanced diet while minimising impacts to the environment. Balancing these competing goals is especially intractable because most food systems are not locally bounded. This study aims to investigate the likely impacts on production, profit and the environment that result from aligning food systems to a healthy diet, as defined by EAT-Lancet. For this, we consider two distinct areas of the UK, one in East Anglia and the other in South Wales. These two regions reflect different ecosystems and therefore differing specialisations in UK agriculture. We used the Rothamsted Landscape Model (a detailed agroecosystems process-based model) to predict soil carbon dynamics, nutrient flows and crop production for the dominant crops grown in these regions, and the IPCC inventory models to estimate emissions from six livestock systems. Two scenarios were considered, one in which the study regions had to meet healthy diet requirements independently of each other and another in which they could do so collectively. To map their production to healthy diets, both study areas require increases in the production of plant proteins and reductions in the production of red meat. While changes in production can feed more people a healthy diet compared to the business-as-usual state, the overall calories produced reduces dramatically. Emissions and leaching decrease under the healthy diet scenarios and pesticide impacts remain largely unchanged. We show that local infrastructure and environment have a bearing on how "localised" food systems can be without running into substantial constraints. Whilst isolation of the farming system to a regional level, as explored here, is unlikely to be practical, we nevertheless demonstrate that aligning agricultural production towards healthier diets can generate food systems with many associated benefits in terms of agroecosystems' health and resilience to shocks in the food supply chain. • Aligning regional production to a healthy diet requires changes in production. • Environmental benefits include reductions in GHG emissions and nutrient leaching. • Farming will likely be less profitable under these altered production scenarios. • Altering farming systems can allow more people to eat healthier. • Environment and infrastructure constrain how localised a food system can be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated the role of the state in the creation of democratic alternatives to private voluntary food sustainability standards (VFSS). Our study illustrates the complex relationship between civil society (in this case, the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) VFSS), private VFSS and state actors, and the supportive role played by the state in establishing a framework for a food governance system that delivers food according to the values of all stakeholders. The PGS system is an alternative for family farmers that was initiated by civil society organizations (CSO) to reduce certification costs and bring more autonomy to family farmers through its democratic governance structure (in contrast to other private governance schemes). However, the institutionalization and development of such a governance system (i.e. PGS), was supported due to the action of the state. One of the key contributions of this study is the proposed typology that can help to identify and assess how such governance systems are evolving (by assessing how mature the system is) and at the same time, pointing out areas where the state actors could further act to develop a more democratic governance system. These include institutional support, market institutionalization, demand creation, technical support, and financial support. Our findings show that a polycentric system of food governance can result in greater participation, transparency, and accountability compared to a governance system driven by private VFSS. These characteristics can help drive greater equity in the food system which may be the key to promoting a healthier and more resilient governance system. • Theorise how the state supports development of private food governance mechanisms • Develops a typology of the role of the state in alternative food governance system • Hybrid approach that embeds legitimacy and democratic principles into private food governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]