Canadians are failing to balance reasonable food consumption with sufficient and sustainable production.

The modern agricultural system is producing more and more food. Too much. The cost is enormous: excess nutrients are contaminating air and water; soil is being depleted; species loss is plunging us to the sixth extinction; and farmers are racking up debt, increasingly vulnerable to economic and climatic shifts.

Plus, too much food is being consumed. Two-thirds of health-care costs in Canada can now be attributed to chronic diseases associated with unhealthy eating. And then there is the waste! Householders, along with food processors, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, are wasting 40 percent of the food produced.

A radical rethink is required. We need to move from excess to enough.