Jessica Fanzo, PhD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics

Contact

410-614-5380
jfanzo1@jhu.edu
People
  • Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics
    Berman Institute of Bioethics
    Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
    Dept. of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Director
    Johns Hopkins Global Food Ethics and Policy Program
    Food & Nutrition Security, JHU Alliance for a Healthier World

Jessica Fanzo, PhD is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University in the USA. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JHU Alliance for a Healthier World.  Her most recent book, Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?, was published by JHU Press in 2021.

From 2017 to 2019, Jessica served as the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and 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 World Food Programme, Bioversity International, and the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya. 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.

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 the impact of transitioning food systems on healthy, environmentally sustainable and equitable diets, and more broadly on the 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.

Research Interests

  • Linkages between agriculture, the environment and climate, and health to improve food systems and environments, diversity and quality of diets and nutrition outcomes
  • The importance of regaining food security and agriculture-based livelihoods in post-conflict regions through better governance and food policy
  • The emerging area of equitable, ethical, and sustainable diets and food systems

Education

  • Ph.D., Nutrition, University of Arizona
  • Stephen I. Morse Postdoctoral Fellow, Immunology, Columbia University

Recent Publications

  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/s41562-021-01257-8
  2. 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. Asseng S, Palm, CA, Anderson, JL, Fresco, L, Sanchez, PA, Asche, F, Garlock, TM, Fanzo, J, Smith, MD, Knapp, G, Jarvis, A, Adesogan, A, Capua, I, Hoogenboom, G, Despommier, DD, Conti, L and Garrett KA (2021). Implications of new technologies for future food supply systems. The Journal of Agricultural Science 159 (5-6), 315–319. doi:10.1017/S0021859621000836
  5. 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.
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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.
  9. 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. 1-27.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01204-5
  10. 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.
  11. 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 21stcentury: 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.
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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
  19. Caron, P., van Ittersum, M., Avermaete, T., Brunori, G., Fanzo, J., Giller, K., Hainzelin, E., Ingram, J., Korsten, L., Martin-Prével, Y. and Osiru, M. (2021) Statement based on the 4 TH international conference on global food security–December 2020: Challenges for a disruptive research Agenda. Global Food Security, 30, p.100554.
  20. Bell, W., Coates, J., Fanzo, J., Wilson, N. L., & Masters, W. A. (2021) Beyond price and income: Preferences and food values in peri-urban Viet Nam. Appetite, 105439-105439.
  21. 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 Food2, 396–403. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00299-5
  22. 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
  23. 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.
  24. 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
  25. Barnhill, A., and Fanzo, J. (2021). Nourishing Humanity without Destroying the Planet. Ethics & International Affairs, 35(1), 69-81. doi:10.1017/S0892679421000046
  26. 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
  27. Fanzo, J. (2021) Achieving equitable diets for all: The long and winding road. One Earth, 4(4): 470-473. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.03.007
  28. Innes, G. K., Markos, A., Dalton, K. R., Gould, C. A., Nachman, K. E., Fanzo, J., … & Davis, M. F. (2021). How animal agriculture stakeholders define, perceive, and are impacted by antimicrobial resistance: challenging the Wellcome Trust’s Reframing Resistance principles. Agriculture and Human Values, 1-17.
  29. 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.2020.262
  30. 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.
  31. 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/pone.0243825.
  32. 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.
  33. Fanzo, J. (2020) Cooperate to prevent food-system failure. Nature 588: S57. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03444-5
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. 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: 100466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100466.
  37. Fanzo, J. (2020). Food and Climate. Health Affairs 39(12): 2211. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.02011
  38. 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
  39. Bene, C., Fanzo, J., Haddad, L., Hawkes, C. Caron, P., Vermeulen, S., Herrero, M. and Oosterveer, P. (2020). Five priorities to operationalize the EAT-Lancet Commission Report. Nature Food. 1(8): 457-459.
  40. Raza, A, Fox, E and Fanzo, J. (2020) Food systems and children’s and adolescents’ diets: a conceptual framework. Global Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100436
  41. Hawkes, C, Downs, S, Fox, E and Fanzo, J. (2020) Child-centered food systems: reorienting food systems towards healthy diets for children. Global Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100414
  42. Murray, C. J., Aravkin, A. Y., Zheng, P., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., … & Abegaz, K. H. (2020). Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet, 396(10258), 1223-1249.
  43. Murray, C. J., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abbasi, M., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., Abd-Allah, F., … & Aboyans, V. (2020). Five insights from the global burden of disease study 2019. The Lancet, 396(10258), 1135-1159.
  44. Fanzo, J., Covic, N., Dobermann, A., Henson, S., Herrero, M., Pingali, P., & Staal, S. (2020). A research vision for food systems in the 2020s: Defying the status quo. Global Food Security, 26, 100397.
  45. Fanzo, J., Hood, A., & Davis, C. (2020). Eating our way through the Anthropocene. Physiology & Behavior, 222, 112929.
  46. Fanzo, J., Haddad, L., McLaren, R., Marshall, Q., Davis, C., Herforth, A., … & Miachon, L. (2020). The Food Systems Dashboard is a new tool to inform better food policy. Nature Food, 1-4.
  47. Bene, C, Fanzo, J, Achicanoy, H, Mapes, BR, Alvarez Toro, P and Bonilla Cedrez, C (2020) What drives the (un)sustainability of our food systems? A global analysis. Plos One. 15(4): e023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231071
  48. Downs, S. M., Ahmed, S., Fanzo, J., & Herforth, A. (2020). Food Environment Typology: Advancing an Expanded Definition, Framework, and Methodological Approach for Improved Characterization of Wild, Cultivated, and Built Food Environments toward Sustainable Diets. Foods, 9(4), 532.
  49. Ghosh-Jerath, S., Kapoor, R., Singh, A., Downs, S., Barman, S., & Fanzo, J. (2020). Leveraging traditional ecological knowledge and access to nutrient-rich indigenous foods to help achieve SDG 2: An analysis of the indigenous foods of Sauria Paharias, a vulnerable tribal community in Jharkhand, India. Frontiers in Nutrition, 7, 61.
  50. Ghosh‐Jerath, S., Kapoor, R., Singh, A., Downs, S., Goldberg, G., & Fanzo, J. (2020). Agroforestry diversity, indigenous food consumption and nutritional outcomes in Sauria Paharia tribal women of Jharkhand, India. Maternal & Child Nutrition, e13052.
  51. Fanzo, J., Drewnowski, A., Blumberg, J., Miller, G., Kraemer, K., & Kennedy, E. (2020). Nutrients, Foods, Diets, People: Promoting Healthy Eating. Current Developments in Nutrition. 4(6)
  52. Fanzo, J. (2020). The utilisation of wild foods in Mediterranean Tunisia: commentary on the identification and frequency of consumption of wild edible plants over a year in central Tunisia: a mixed-methods approach (Dop et al., nd). Public Health Nutrition, 23(5), 956-958.
  53. LBD Double Burden of Malnutrition Collaborators., Kinyoki, D.K., Ross, J.M. et al. (2020) Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017. Nature Med 26, 750–759.
  54. GBD Italian Collaborators. Monasta, L., Abbafati, C., Logroscino, G., Remuzzi, G., Perico, N., Bikbov, B., … & Ariani, F. (2019). Italy’s health performance, 1990–2017: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. The Lancet Public Health, 4(12), e645-e657.
  55. Fanzo, J (2019) Healthy and Sustainable Diets and Food Systems: The Key to Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2? Food Ethics. 4 (2), 159-174
  56. Duggan, C.P., Brennan, L., Christian, P., Fanzo, J. and Ludwig, D.S., 2019. Knowledge and debate in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: new sections, new science, and looking forward and outward. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 111(1): 1-3.
  57. Fanzo, J. and Davis, C. (2019). Can Diets Be Healthy, Sustainable, and Equitable? Current obesity reports, pp.1-9.
  58. Bridge Collaborative. (2019). Aligning Evidence Generation and Use Across Health, Development, and Environment. Current Opinion on Environmental Sustainability. 39: 81-93.
  59. Ahmed, S, Downs S and Fanzo, J (2019). Advancing an Integrative Framework to Evaluate Sustainability in National Dietary Guidelines. Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 25 September 2019
  60. Qin, Y. J., Pingault, N., Ricci, F., and Fanzo, J. (2019). Improved food environments for healthy diets and enhanced nutrition. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 18(7): 1652-1654.
  61. Byerlee D and Fanzo J (2019) The SDG of zero hunger 75 years on: Turning full circle on agriculture and nutrition. Global Food Security. 21: 52-59.
  62. Ghosh-Jerath, S., Downs, S., Singh, A., Paramnik, S., Goldberg, G. and Fanzo, J. (2019) Innovative matrix for applying a food systems approach for developing interventions to address nutrient deficiencies in indigenous communities inIndia: a study protocol. BMC Public Health. 19: 944.
  63. Shapiro, M.J., Downs, S.M., Swartz, H.J., Parker, M., Quelhas, D., Kreis, K., Kraemer, K., West, K.P. and Fanzo, J. (2019) A Systematic Review Investigating the Relation Between Animal-Source Food Consumption and Stunting in Children Aged 6–60 Months in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Advances in Nutrition. 10(5): 827-847.
  64. Sinharoy, S.S. and Fanzo, J. (2019) Ethical and human rights considerations related to access to anemia diagnosis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. (1): 239-248.

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