Globalization has brought the world tightly together, and computer and information technologies have compressed time and space. The COVID pandemic ravaged economies, disrupted global supply chains, claimed many lives, stressed the over-crowded health systems everywhere, and destroyed numerous livelihoods. At the same time, it uncovered weaknesses and allowed the world a glimpse of a few opportunities. Now more than ever collective and cooperative action is needed to defeat emergent and cascading global crises. We outline ways the global food system can be fundamentally redesigned and restructured to actively tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, promote human health, and reduce food insecurity, improve the resiliency of communities while reducing the overall costs of the system to society. This can be achieved by reconnecting communities with local food production, by changing the way we grow food, design food products, and handle by-products and waste. Through a nexus approach to redesign and restructuring, we can create a less wasteful system by promoting a circular economy for food that provides key benefits for society and the environment by improving nutritional health, reducing the ecological footprint, securing access, mitigating risks of supply defaults, and generating local incomes and jobs that support cities and local communities.