FOR RELEASE: April 22, 1997
Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander, Jr.
Office: (607) 255-3290
Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: Larry Bernard 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Representatives from a dozen agricultural universities and
research facilities from around the world finished a three-day meeting
April 11 at Cornell University to hammer out details on an alliance to
improve diets worldwide.
If a memorandum of understanding is signed between all the institutions
within the next few months, the alliance could begin assembling
agricultural demonstration projects that show how food systems could be
improved -- a long-term boon to the food supply and the diets of hundreds
of millions of people worldwide. An agreement also would begin the process
of upgrading food-systems infrastructures and training within developing
countries.
"In both developed and developing countries, we need to change the way we
approach diet-related diseases. We take a medical approach to disease. It
works partially, but it doesn't work well. We need some different
strategies," said John Duxbury, Cornell professor and chair of the
department of soils, crops and atmospheric sciences, who is participating
in building this global alliance.
People in developed countries suffer from diseases such as cancer and heart
disease, while people in developing countries suffer from problems related
to micronutrient deficiencies, he said.
With several globally well-known institutions aligning with the same
food-systems message, policy-makers and scientists can implement a
food-systems education. Thus, the agronomists, nutritionists and health
scientists meeting at Cornell hope that a new international alliance for
food systems and health will help to solve such global problems as
micronutrient malnutrition and diet-related diseases.
In addition to Cornell, other universities looking at joining the
food-system health alliance include: Wageningen Agricultural University,
The Netherlands; University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada;
Agricultural Research Center, Egypt; The University of Adelaide, Australia;
The University of Sydney, Australia; Punjab Agricultural University, India;
The International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.; the
University of California at Davis; the University of California at Los
Angeles; and the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Plant, Soil and
Nutrition Laboratory.
The food systems approach to health and solving malnutrition was a recent
symposium topic at the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) meeting in Seattle in February. In a food systems approach to
health, diets are well-balanced with essential vitamins and minerals --
through the food and not through supplements.
In developing countries, five of the 10 leading causes of death are related
to poor diet and in developed countries, the populations have inadequate
vitamin and mineral intakes, which leads to impaired physical and
intellectual development, the scientists said.
Over the next 25 years, there will be 2.5 billion more mouths to feed and
the food will have to be more nutritious than it is now, the scientists at
the meeting said. More than a third of the world's children fail to reach
their physical growth and cognitive development potentials due to
inadequate diets. Malnutrition is thought to account for half of child
deaths.
As developing countries become more developed countries, disease patterns
typical of the developed world -- such as obesity and cancer -- begin to
emerge. Duxbury asks: "With a food-systems approach, can we avert the same
problems? I think so."
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