Global science and continental policy have converged on a similar ambition. The EAT–Lancet Commission set out what healthy diets from sustainable food systems would require, while the African Union's CAADP process has brought agriculture, nutrition and food systems into a shared framework of commitments and accountability. Yet ambition on paper and food on plates remain far apart. This lecture looks at the political processes through which change is enacted and at the main breaking points. Some are political: fragmented mandates, limited financing, and a policy–research interface where evidence and decision-making too often move on separate tracks. Others lie within the food system itself, in rapidly changing food environments, and in the exposure of all of this to climate and economic shocks. Drawing on experience working at that interface across national, continental and global levels, the lecture reflects on what has moved, what has not, and where the leverage for change now lies.