The paper, ‘A relational turn for sustainability science? Relational thinking, leverage points and transformations’ presents a compelling summary of the incipient relational turn in sustainability science. That piece and the reply and response that follow put forth important arguments about what relational thinking is and how it can infuse sustainability science research. We are grateful for this conversation, but also recognize that crucial intellectual contributions from the Global South require further treatment. In response to West et al’.s invitation to conversation, we offer a summary of a diverse body of scholarship and practice that informs sustainability science in subtle but clear ways: Latin American contributions. We first summarize a set of Latin American theoretical contributions to relational thinking relevant to sustainability science. We then offer examples of how relational thinking infuses everyday life in many Latin American contexts. We close with reflections on the importance of Latin American thinking for sustainability science and transformations toward sustainability.

To achieve a healthy sustainable food system globally, it is imperative to understand how local food systems can provide healthy and sustainable conditions. To explore, through the indigenous community of Caliata in the Ecuadorian highlands, the factors that support or hinder sustainable Andean food systems. We designed a participatory mixed-methods study in Caliata (Chimborazo, Ecuador) and an inclusive and transdisciplinary research process with constant member checking. The study combined culturally validated qualitative methods (n = 49), agroecology-based site analysis, and household surveys (n = 57), including a modified 48-h recall. We used the NOVA food classification system to categorize the diet according to levels of processing and analyzed categorical and numeric data to understand the interplay of parcel size, agrodiversity, and diet diversity. First, the agroecological space is defined by the stewardship of Pachamama (Mother Nature), a central role in Andean cosmovision, leading to trophic interactions and cycles characterized by a diversity of heterarchical social organizations and agroecologically useful species. Second, consistency was found in dietary patterns; all respondents consume their produce, fruits being the most popular snack (in a 24-h period, 70% reported an average of 2.2 servings), and two-thirds of households' consumption represent unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Third, gendered agriculture and population aging represent demographic challenges, while chronic health problems remain relatively infrequent compared with the general population. Fourth, food sovereignty is an ecocentric concept based on production, exchanges of seeds and produce, consumption of produce, and knowledge of how agroecological space is treated. This system represents a nutrient loop tied to a system of knowledge about how to care for soil, land, and the ecological community. Caliata provides important perspectives on linkages between diet, biodiversity, use of agroecological space, and rural–urban dynamics. This small indigenous community offers lessons for achieving both healthy ecosystems and food security.

Ancestral knowledge, centered in Mother Nature, is in the indigenous discourse and international forums. Caliata, a resilient community in Ecuador’s central highlands faces internal structural problems and external pressures. Nevertheless, it has retained an ancestral knowledge deeply integrated into a pre-Columbian system of cultivation terraces, agrodiversity, native crops, and natural cycles’ management, which combine to shape a viable agroecosystem. We describe Caliata’s agroecological landscape and community views to explore the sustainability cues that have assured food sovereignty, seemingly from ancient times. Our research provides insights that can be scaled-up from local to programs and policy aligned to planetary health.

Con base en el modelo de transición nutricional, se atribuye la prevalencia del sobrepeso y la obesidad, padecimientos ligados a las mayores tasas de morbilidad y mortalidad, a un proceso uniforme e inexorable en el que sociedades rurales, como las indígenas andinas, abandonan las dietas tradicionales y las prácticas agrícolas. Sin embargo, un encuentro impensado durante una intervención nutricional ofreció pistas para cuestionar dicho modelo. Mediante investigación cualitativa, desarrollada a lo largo de una década en la Sierra central de Ecuador, y entrevistas a líderes comunitarios, encontramos información que sugiere que las transformaciones agroalimentarias son heterogéneas, y están moldeadas por circunstancias históricas, geográficas y socioculturales. Varias familias indígenas andinas fusionan prácticas precolombinas, coloniales y actuales con una identidad revalorada, lo cual revitaliza los agroecosistemas y las dietas tradicionales. Este enfoque refleja resiliencia, resistencia y circularidad en la preservación de los sistemas agroalimentarios indígenas; una movilización comunitaria arraigada en estructuras socioculturales andinas, surgida de transformaciones socioculturales que reconocen el pasado para caminar hacia el futuro.

Con base en el modelo de transición nutricional, se atribuye la prevalencia del sobrepeso y la obesidad, padecimientos ligados a mayores tasas de morbilidad y mortalidad, a un proceso uniforme e inexorable en el que sociedades rurales abandonan sus dietas y prácticas agrícolas tradicionales. Sin embargo, un encuentro impensado durante una intervención nutricional ofreció pistas para cuestionar dicho modelo. Mediante análisis de investigación cualitativa desarrollada entre 2008 y 2015 en la Sierra central de Ecuador, y entrevistas a líderes comunitarios en 2016, encontramos información que sugiere que las transformaciones agroalimentarias son heterogéneas y están moldeadas por circunstancias históricas, geográficas y socioculturales. Varias familias indígenas andinas fusionan prácticas precolombinas, coloniales y actuales con una identidad revalorada, lo cual revitaliza agroecosistemas y dietas tradicionales. Este enfoque refleja resiliencia, resistencia y circularidad en la preservación de los sistemas agroalimentarios indígenas; una movilización comunitaria enraizada en estructuras socioculturales andinas, y surgida de transformaciones que reconocen el pasado como medio simbólico para caminar hacia el futuro.