Nicolas Bricas is the director of the UNESCO Chair on World Food Systems at Montpellier SupAgro and CIRAD, the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions. In this role, he leads research programs and training sessions on Sustainable Urban Food System and policies in France and Africa. He is also a member of the IPES-Food panel and an expert in the socio-economics of food systems. His main research interests are in the effects of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and liberalization on food systems and food styles in Africa and Asia.Damien Conaré is the Secretary General of the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems at the International Centre for Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences (SupAgro) in Montpellier, France. He works to increase and disseminate academic and empirical knowledge on world food systems, and particularly urban food systems, while emphasizing their diversity, their dynamics, and their human and environmental impacts from the standpoint of sustainable development.Marie Walser is Project Manager at the UNESCO Chair in World Food at the Agro Institute, Montpellier SupAgro. Walser is an agricultural engineer with research interests in world agricultural food systems and their environmental and human impacts.

The Ecology of Food presents food as a ’total social fact’, as 'an encounter with the world… the entire world’. It situates food at the intersection of a range of social, cultural, economic, political and environmental potential inflection points, and as such seeks to install in readers a well informed enthusiasm for food systems transformation. This is a hopeful text in a time of many challenges.

• Preface: The Phagic DimensionIntroduction: Food and All Its Dimensions Part 1. Food as Relationship Chapter 1. Food as a Link with OurselvesChapter 2. Food as a Link with OthersChapter 3. Food as a Link with the BiospherePart 2. Dynamics of Contemporary Food Systems Chapter 4. The Origins of Industrial Farming Chapter 5. The Industrialization of the Food SupplyChapter 6. Changing Food HabitsChapter 7. The Limits of Industrialized Food SystemsPart 3. Food and EcologyChapter 8. Why an Ecological Approach to Food? Chapter 9. Decompartmentalizing Knowledge on FoodChapter 10. A Commitment to Food System Transformation Part 4. Discussing the Watchwords of Sustainable Food SystemsChapter 11. Should Food Production be Doubled to Feed the World?Chapter 12. Fortified Foods to Fight Malnutrition?Chapter 13. Would You Like Some More Protein?Chapter 14. The Fight against Food WasteChapter 15. Food Aid to Fight Food Precarity?Chapter 16. Should We Return to Cooking and “Homemade” Food?Chapter 17. Taking a Step Back from Local Production Chapter 18. Active Consumers as Drivers of Change?Part 5. An Ecology of Food to Transform Food SystemsChapter 19. Citizen Initiatives and How to Scale ThemChapter 20. Towards New Company Models?Chapter 21. The Roles of Training and Research Chapter 22. Food in Politics Conclusion: Food is an Encounter with the World … The Entire World BibliographyIndex