What would it take to achieve a genuinely food-secure world—one without hunger or malnutrition, where everyone gets to consume the right quantity and quality of food to live a healthy, active, and productive life? Bringing about such a future requires transforming how our food is grown, managed, and distributed. From production to consumption, food systems must be sustainable, halting environmental degradation and even repairing the damage we have previously done.

This book provides an accessible guide to making healthy diets from sustainable food systems available to all. Glenn Denning bridges the divisive worlds of science, policy, and practice. He synthesizes the most relevant literature and shares personal perspectives and insights gained over four decades working in more than fifty countries, coupled with the real-world experience of hundreds of leading experts. Universal Food Security lays out key priorities—sustainable intensification, market infrastructure, postharvest stewardship, healthy diets, and social protection—and presents how to achieve food systems transformation.

Denning identifies the education and development of practitioner-leaders as the critical trigger of change. Universal Food Security informs and inspires those leaders—acting on their own and with others through institutions—to achieve a food-secure world. This book is an ideal handbook for students and practitioners looking to transform our food systems at all levels.

"The strength of the book lies in the extraordinary experiences relayed as first-hand stories...there is no one else who brings this degree of high-level experience and influence to the table." - The Developing Economies

"Timely and well written...[this] important book is a call to all of us as well as for students and practitioners looking to transform our food systems and assist humanity at all levels." - The Irish News

"This book, from the director of SIPA’s MPA in Development Practice, allows students to understand how the current food and climate crises are intertwined, and why geopolitics can aggravate them. Using science and evidence, it teaches us how to find a solution to these global challenges." - SIPA’s Top Summer Reads

"But beyond the roadmap, Denning reminds us that the engine driving this transformation is practitioner-leadership, underscored by education and development. This book stands as a testament to the potential for meaningful change when individuals and institutions commit to reshaping our world, making universal food security not merely a dream but a tangible and sustainable reality." - Politics Today