The Earth Institute at Columbia University Global Food Forum 2008

Videos of Global Food Forum

2008-09-23T03:50:00.002-04:00

Videos from the event have been posted here:

http://www.earth.columbia.edu/flashvideos/Food_09-08/

5:45 – 6:00 PM CLOSING REMARKS AND NEXT STEPS

2008-09-16T17:46:00.001-04:00

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, wrapped up the meeting with some closing remarks. Some points that he addressed/raised:

The idea that there is a profit incentive doesn't mean you can't manage these issues. There are good reasons we have a market economy. We will need incentives, taxations and regulations. Markets don't solve problems of poorest people, because they don't have a market.

There are many tools to combine a market economy with health and nutrition improvements and environmental sustainability. Any effective market economy combines public action and the private sector. We have choices and that's what we should be talking about.

It's important that we understand the tools needed. Traditional knowledge cannot feed 6.7 billion people. Professor Sachs stresses the importance of technology. Modern technology and new science. Organic farmers would not be where they are without previous technologies. We need science, technology and major investments. Markets won't solve problems. Markets and capitalism could care less. The inflection point on climate change has already been reached. We need to make investments to address these problems. If there is a problem with capitalism, it's American-style capitalism.

What can be done for the "grown-ups" in the world?

The current financial crisis doesn't matter. We are not generous because we are not thinking. There are no enemies, only problems to be solved.

Big undernutrition problems are in Africa and South Asia. With technologies already developed, we can double or triple Africa's food production. The problem is that inputs needed (seeds and fertilizer) are beyond the means of people with no money. Africa can learn a lesson from Asian Green Revolution. Cannot work without public financing. Number one challenge is to bring the Green Revolution to Africa.

Still fighting the battle to get funding for African Green Revolution. Urges us all to become advocate for Green Revolution and encourage public funding.
Invites us to do things and not just talk about them. Encourages partnership with Millennium Villages Project. Crop yields have doubled or tripled without land reform or tenure, but only fertilizer and seed inputs.

Talked about the "Willet Transition" to healthier diet. A lot of people are consuming inexpensive calories at the expense of health. No one benefits from a global obesity epidemic. Again, he urges us to work on these at two levels, at policy level and with partnerships. Need a task force on the Willet Transition. How can the Millennium Villages be local food producers? What we learn in the Millennium Villages can be brought back to the U.S. Need to bring nutritionist and agronomist together in a serious way.
Need a country-scale work effort, thinking in particular of Hispaniola. There is no fertilizer available in Haiti. We have money available to move from food-aid to increasing production. On other side of Island, in Dominican Republic, there is a full-fledge obesity epidemic underway.

Research questions.

Can we transition to more organic farming method in different farming contextes like Africa?
Is what we are seeing in obesity epidemics related to marketing, lack of regulations or choices?
The potential role of agro-biotechnology, in particular with drought-resistant seeds. Consider GMO debate in specific context. Number one challenge in poorest part of world is water. Water is expensive. When rains fail, crops fail.

Technology is not simply a market phenomena. It's always been an interplay of public and private sector action. It's never markets alone. It's usually never governments alone. Need choices and healthy debate.

He challenges us to reconvene on these issues in the Spring.

4:15 – 5:45 PM PANEL IV: Advanced Technologies, Food Safety and the Role of Local and Organic Food Production

2008-09-16T16:33:00.008-04:00

Agro-biotechnology and other advanced technologies, and local and organic production play important roles in the global food system however each approach has distinct financial costs and benefits for both developed and developing countries. Organic systems raise particular concerns regarding scalability, relationship to rising food prices, and agricultural practices and yields whereas specific industrialization practices and technology, is a cause for concern amongst the world’s consumers not only for nutritional quality of foods but also food safety.

Moderator:
Sam Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc.

Panelists:
Martin Clough, Syngenta
Drew Goodman, Earthbound Farms
Marion Nestle, New York University
Gary Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation
Josh Viertel, Yale University

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Sam Fromartz kicked things off by saying the last panel got it all wrong! He said people often view organic as going backwards, but it can actually be quite innovative. He then introduced the other panelists within this context.

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Martin Clough is here to talk about advanced technology spectrum.

There are a whole range of technologies to meet issues and problems discussed today. Challenge is to integrate them and make them available.

Technology can have an impact. What roles can advanced technologies have?

Smart breeding of seeds.
Genetic markers enable to not just breed for yield, but can bring together yield properties and genes responsible for aroma and nutritional qualities.
Can create drought-resistant plants.
Can breed plants with higher yields of life.
Can introduce to control pests and diseases and increase storage life.
Can produce enzymes in plants that increase digestibility.

Huge environmental capabilities with these tools. All it requires is funding, from public and private. And it needs political will and policies and public perception.

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Drew Goodman is now introducing us to the benefits of Earthbound Farm’s large scale organic farming:

Keeps toxic and persistent chemicals out of the air, water, land, and food supply
Safer for farm workers as well as neighboring homes, schools, and businesses
Promotes healthy, balanced eco-systems, and biodiversity
Conserves water because organic soils hold water more efficiently, lessening run-off and erosion
Less danger to non-target species

With a mission to make healthy, organic food available to as many people as possible, Earthbound Farm’s 150 farmers are proving the viability of large-scale organic farming.

150 growers
40,000 crop acres on farms from 5 to 680 acres
Distribution in 50 states + Canada
Shipping 675,000 cartons per week

Feels that Earthbound is "Scale Neutral:" The principles of organic farming improve soil quality and protect the environment, whether practiced in a small or large operation.

Global warming benefit: If all 434 million acres of cropland in the US were managed organically, 1.6 billion tons of CO2 would be sequestered per year, mitigating close to one quarter of the country’s total fossil fuel emissions.

Earthbound Farm’s organic farming on 40,000 acres offers significant benefits and indicates what could be achieved.

Annually, Earthbound Farm’s farming:

Avoids the use of 13 million pounds of conventional agricultural chemicals
Conserves 2 million gallons of petroleum by avoiding the use of petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers

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Marion Nestle admits she is uncomfortable being on this panel. She sees these issues as social issues, not technology.

She is talking about how capitalism effects food security and nutrition. Unless we put checks and balances into systems, these solutions are band-aids.

Food and nutrition can be the entry-way into difficult social problems.

Obesity and food safety are social problems that demand social solutions.

Capitalism has no incentives for social solutions. It has every incentive to produce industrial foods, and genetically-modified foods.

Social responsibility is not the same as social development, as long as profit is part of the equation.

We need checks and balances and constraints. Regulation is good for business. If we had level playing field, we could do things a lot better.

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Gary Toenniessen agrees with Marion that the root cause of malnutrition is poverty. But poverty is rooted in lack of production. Gary calls himself the "second" Green Revolution guy, focused on rain-fed agriculture. Showed slide that showed relationship between public and private sector:

Then he presented some biotechnology opportunities:

Tissue culture ( e. g. pest & disease free bananas) is having significant impact.
Marker Aided Selection-- one of the difficulties is marking for different traits simultaneously. In East India (Jharkhand & Bihar) they introduced drought tolerant rice –with high yields with adequate rainfall and resilient to drought when rains fail.
Genetic Engineering (GMOs ). Beta-carotene-enriched Golden Rice combats vitamin A deficiency: two added genes.

He finished with this light-hearted comic that demonstrates some of the threats:

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Josh Viertel is speaking from the perspective of the Yale Sustainable Food project and also as a soon to be president of Slow Food USA.

He stresses the importance of understanding the relationship between land and food by demonstration within the Yale Sustainable Food project.

One way they educate is in dining halls. He is talking, tongue-in-cheek, about the integrated prevalence of Coca-Cola in the Yale dining hall.

Then he stressed the importance of finding out what's needed before you jump in to help. This makes private-public partnerships hard. Private industry is driven by profit.

Can malnutrition challenges be strategic business opportunities? Should everyone be trying to become part of the solution?

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PANEL DISCUSSION:

Martin Clough sees Syngenta partnerships with small farmers as a win-win situation, profitable for both Syngenta and farmers.

Gary Toenniessen: what worked in Asia with the Green Revolution, won't necessarily work in Africa. The strategy in Africa is now to concentrate on breeding at local levels to adapt to their particular agro-ecosystem. Kenya along has eight different agro-ecosystems. A lot of the research needs to be done in the public sector. If there is money to be made from the seeds, we should encourage the profit to be made by local companies.

Marion Nestle: health messages on food are not necessarily for the benefit of consumer, but can be misleading marketing messages to sell the food. In the case of beta-carotene in rice, there are fat requirements in diet needed to process it into vitamin A.

Gary Toenniessen: ultimate objective is have balanced diet. Fortification and supplementation are great, but we still have vitamin A deficiencies.

Sam Fromartz asks Drew Goodman what the experience is like of conventional farmers switching to organic. Drew Goodman says it's not about conventional or organic, but coming up with the best system to accommodate the consumer.

Raj Patel asked a question about a world bank report, whether the way to feed the world is to own their own food system?

Gary Toenniessen: Land reform, in particular land reform that gives rights to women is important.

Josh Viertel: stressed the importance of owning agricultural knowledge.

Gary Toenniessen: by necessity Rockefeller was funding techniques that did not require non-organic methods, biggest funder of organic farming in Africa. These methods did not usually spread because of necessary labor inputs. Need to get away from "either or" and look at ways to combine and integrate technologies.

The question was asked, where should we start?

Martin Clough: Fundamental education and availability of skilled people and knowledge-sharing.

2:30 – 4:00 PM PANEL III: Environmental Sustainability and Food Supply and Distribution, Food Supply and Distribution

2008-09-16T14:34:00.011-04:00

There are significant issues around how to make food supply and distribution systems environmentally sustainable, in terms of the use of water, nitrogen, land, and chemical herbicides and pesticides. Key questions arise concerning the impact of potential environmental measures on health and the consequences of environmentally sustainable food production on food prices.

Moderator:
Justin Gillis, New York Times

Panelists:
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Niels Christiansen, Nestle SA
Cheryl Palm, NASA / Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Cynthia Rosenzweig, Columbia University
Sara Scherr, Ecoagriculture Partners

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Justin Gillis is opening the panel and introducing the speakers.

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Lester Brown is bringing attention to the water table, using Saudi Arabia and India as examples. Policies in expanded irrigation and well-drilling have led to falling water tables. 15% of India is being fed from well-water that will soon be going dry.

World water use peaked in 2000. The issue looms large given the amount of over-pumping.

We are also faced with melting glaciers. The fastest ice-melting in the world goes in the Himalayas. This represents the largest projected threat to food security. China and India are largest grain producers and depend on this water.

Rising temperatures are also having a huge impact on crop yields. For each one degree rise (Celsius) in temperature, we get a 10% decline in agricultural production.

Ministries of energy might have more of an impact on food security than ministries of agriculture.

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Cynthia Rosenzweig is discussing climate change and agriculture, looking at the world food crisis as a case of climate change.

Since 2003, world maize and wheat prices have nearly doubled. The price of rice has jumped to unprecedented levels. Dairy products, meat, poultry, palm oil, and cassava, among other agricultural commodities, have also experienced price hikes. Food riots in Egypt and Haiti; 37 countries in critical need of food

She presented this graph that showed the correlation between oil prices and food prices:

The indirect climate change effect of Biodiesel:

Almost all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 went to bio-fuels production (World Bank 2008)
In the United States, as much as one third of the maize crop goes to ethanol production, up from 5 percent a decade ago, and biofuel subsidies range between US$11-13 billion a year.
Increased biofuel demand in 2000-2007 is estimated to have contributed to ~30 percent of the weighted average increase of cereal prices.

Future climate change will further threaten agricultural production (Parry et al., 2004)

She is presenting a graph of the predicted food outputs as opposed to actual graph above.

Goal: Improve characterization of climate risk for agriculture at both regional and global scales by an order of magnitude for use by policymakers and integrated assessment modelers.

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Cheryl Palm is focusing on Nitrogen.

We have dramatically changed the inputs of active nitrogen into the world:

She presented data on nitrogen balance in Netherlands and Rwanda. In Netherlands we have too much, leading to pollution, in Rwanda we have too little, leading to lack of food.

Two examples of Eutrophication she presented:

Either too much or too little leads to environmental problems. There are solutions.

The African Green Revolution is a good opportunity to get it right.

Only one percent of sewage is treated.

How do we get right policies and political will?

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Niels Christiansen is speaking on food availability and how it depends on environmental sustainability.

If we were to use water and land efficiently, then we would have plenty.

Three focuses at Nestle:

Nutrition
Water
Rural Development

Nestle helps farmers to be more productive and also more environmentally responsible. For example:

Ensuring training of over 85,000 farmers in India milk district
Training 6,000 lady livestock workers in Pakistan
In Ethiopia they are saving water through improved post harvest techniques of washing coffee cherries
In China they are using biogas (out of cow manure, milk district): avoid water pollution and provide free gas to farmers.

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Sara Scherr is speaking on agricultural landscapes and ecosystem services. Need to reconceptualize agricultural landscapes, stressing the importance of getting to a level of integration.

Where the rubber hits the road is what happens in ecroagriculture landscapes. Optimistic at how clever people can be when presented with a problem, but how do you make these solutions scalable?

She presented two examples of this problem-solving.

1. In the Mississippi watershed, high levels of Nitrogen are destroying landscape. To make transformative change:

Multi-stakeholder landscape planning
Re-vegetating the watershed
Mobilizing factors

2. The Kikuyu escarpment in Kenya is second example. How to conserve forest and reduce poverty simultaneously?

Again, multi-stakeholder planning
Coordinated technical and market assistance
Farmer capacity development

Lessons learned:

It is essential to have multi-stake-holder processes.
Recognize farmers leading role in ecosystem services and strengthen their capabilities
Mobilize inter-disciplinary technical support and research
Pursue market development with a landscape perspective
Coordinate agricultural, and environmental and rural development policies and programs.

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Justin Gillis kicked off discussion on global warning. Who are winners and losers?

Cynthia Rosenzweig: Need rigorous testable projects that are integrated across sectors. When you look at projections of global warming, contrary to what they expected, the most negative effects were in low latitudes. These systems are already closer to biological limits and already experience more water stress. But eventually mid-latitudes will be effected. Need new studies to see where these inflection points are.

Justin Gillis asks the panel what will a lower-carbon agricultural system will look like?

Lester Brown: Shift of energy resources is a necessary. Energy required for food (blueberries from New Zealand being flown to the UK) equals that for transportation needs. Predicts that we will see an increase in "failing states." Need to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2020. Food security is bottom line.

Sara Scherr: Ask food production sector to play their part and think about these climate issues. Need to take into account carbon and watershed subsidies.

Justin Gillis: Is organic farming the history of agriculture or is it luxury for privileged?

Cheryl Palm: Many organic systems are based on a build-up of nitrogen. If you have systems with too little nitrogen, they need to be jumpstarted with fertilizers. Not optimal for organic farming.

Lester Brown: If we did not replace nutrients, then this would lead to depletion. Need mineral fertilizer to keep the system we have going.

Sara Scherr: Depends on soils. Need to partition fertility strategies and find relative solutions. Significant portion could be farmed in a organic manner or mostly organic way.

Justin Gillis: Are we fated to see water/food refugees?

Lester Brown: Water situation getting worst year by year. 150 billion tons a year of over-pumping of water. Most of good cropland is already being used. If we need to feed increase, need to increase productivity. This involved a lot of research in past with agriculture. Haven't seen a lot of this with water. The same coordinated efforts in agriculture need to be applied to water systems. Need more water-efficient crops. Corporations need to recycle water indefinitely. Need to also look at residential water use, move on from "flush and forget" system. Rather than "think outside the box" need to not acknowledge that there isn't a box in the first place.

2:00 – 2:20 PM PACIFIC HEALTH SUMMIT SYNOPSIS

2008-09-16T14:22:00.003-04:00

Navigating the Nutrition Labyrinth.

Joanna Rubinstein, chief of staff to Jeffrey Sachs is introducing Claire Topal, from the Center for Health & Aging, The National Bureau of Asian Research, who is giving a summary on the recent Pacific Health Summit, which took place earlier this summer.

First she is stressing the importance of coordination of efforts. The goal of the Pacific Health Summit is to connect science, industry, and policy for a healthier world. Every June they invite top decision-makers in science, policy, industry, medicine, and public health to Seattle to discuss how to realize the dream of a healthier future through the effective utilization of scientific advances combined with appropriate policies for prevention, early detection, and early treatment of disease.

Every year they focus on a specific theme, this year it was The Global Nutrition Challenge: Getting a Healthy Start.

Policy can be approached as an experiment. Need to simultaneously put changes into place and evaluate changes, and be willing to change them.
We need partners whose efforts and respective strengths can make more of an impact than we ever could alone.
Partners need to trust each other if are ever going to get something done. Trust is key.

Examples of some committments made at summit:

Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust are committed to do an analysis of the food industry.
Japan's ministry of health is going to make every effort to integrate nutrition into broader health agenda.
Nigel Crisp, Chair of the International Taskforce of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, is committed to making sure that nutrition is critical part of training for health workers.

Two quotes that the summit ended on:

"We must not be asking for leadership, we must show leadership." -(Jay Naidoo, Chairman of GAIN)
"We must not blame complexity for inaction." -(Maria Cattaui, Petroplus Holdings)

To read the full report from the meeting:
http://pacifichealthsummit.org/downloads/2008%20Summit/2008%20Summit%20Report.pdf

1:00 – 2:30 PM BUFFET LUNCH, The Cleaver Co.

2008-09-16T13:25:00.000-04:00

We are breaking for lunch, which is being provided for by The Cleaver Co., New York's preeminent green caterer founded by Mary Cleaver, a pioneer in the sustainable food movement.

11:30 – 1:00 PM PANEL II: Addressing the Double Burden

2008-09-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

The double burden of obesity and chronic undernutrition, which arises from urbanization, demographic shifts, and changing dietary patterns, affects as many as two billion people around the globe. It also places particular demands on food and public health systems and will require a well-crafted response from local farmers and the global food industry. This panel will examine some of the important questions around these issues.

Moderator:
Raj Patel, Author of Stuffed and Starved

Panelists:
Tom Arnold, Concern
Barry Popkin, Carolina Population Center
Marie Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute
Paulus Verschuren, Unilever
Walter Willett, Harvard University

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Raj Patel is opening the panel, by saying the reason we have a food crisis is not because of a shortage of food but because of poverty. He is introducing the panelists.

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Tom Arnold is giving a historical perspective of the double-burden. We face a lot of the same issues now, but in addition we have the issue of climate change. The food problem has become a political problem and a security problem.

Can we see this food crisis as an opportunity?

Some positives:

Developing a broader and deeper consensus on the framework in which:

Agriculture and rural development needs higher level of prominence.
Understand that food security is not nutrition security.

New forms of partnerships are emerging.

Some negatives:

Money has not come through.
It will be harder to solve this crisis under the financial crisis we are under. Needs to be more burden-sharing, in particular from oil companies.

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Barry Popkin is now giving the Average Annual Changes in Under- and Overweight Prevalence, in China and Vietnam in the 90s:

It's a complex issue of both undernourished and overweight people, at times in the same household.

What are the commonalaties?

Breast-feeding certainly for undernutrition, possibly for overnutrition – complex set of issues that relate partially to the food industry side.
Proper weaning food and proper growth pattern –increasingly is seen as important for adult health and certainly for stunting, undernutrition in Africa and South Asia. Question of healthy protein rich, supplements vs empty calories starchy staple gruels—no food industry role.
Clean, sanitary water supply and environment – offsets need for caloric beverages.
Adequate maternal nutritional status – South Asia major issue linked with low birth weight.
Farming systems: need to get back to legumes, cheaper protein sources, coarse grains and reduce milling.

We have a dilmma. In India, increased bmi (body-mass index) is leading to diabetics or pre-diabetics.

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Marie Ruel is now giving a talk on Fostering Synergies between Agriculture, Health & Nutrition.

Global integration – across national borders – of production, processing, marketing, retailing and consumption of agricultural and food items has led to the double-burden.

We need to encourage collaboration between agriculture and health:

Will the Global Food and Fuel Price Crisis Reduce the Pace of the Nutrition Transition?

Health problems presented by the nutrition transition will easily get forgotten.
Assumption: return to more traditional diets.
But who will reduce meat, dairy, fruit & vegetable consumption?
What cheap foods will be available for the poor? Soft drinks (Mexico in the 90s), processed meat or snack foods.
Given fuel prices, need for convenience: snack, ready-to-eat foods become even more attractive

What is the way forward:

Orient national policy frameworks to promote synergies between agriculture and health
Join efforts on problems: that require joint solutions and for which there are tangible solutions, amenable to change (E.g. fruit and vegetable schemes: bringing producers directly to poor consumers or public procurement (schools, hospitals)
Need local solutions but with a global and national policy framework that creates incentives for better collaboration.

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Paulus Verschuren is addressing the double burden, stressing that we need to link business and the public sector to benefit both.

Corporate philanthropy is NOT a solution:

Cheque book approach is not sustainable/scalable.
Malnutrition challenges are strategic business opportunities.
Integrate economic and social issues in business agendas.

Partnerships are inevitable:

None of us is as smart as all of us ( Tex Gunning – former Unilever GVP SEA). Need to work together to find solutions that are sustainable and scalable.
Bridge the gap what we do alone today and can do tomorrow together.
Move from isolated projects to system change initiatives

Double Burden deserves a single approach:

Bring better nutrition balance in product offerings.
Develop coherent behavioural change programmes.
Create local solutions that fit community needs and wants.

We need to bring under and overnutrition into one single approach. We need to experiment, learn and adapt.

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Walt Willett is now stressing diabetes as an indicator of the overall health system. There are four main dietary factors:

Soda and sugar-sweetened drinks contribute directly to obesity and also to diabetes by virtue of their high glycemic loads.

The Global Industrial Diet:

Refined starch
Sugar, especially beverages
Trans fat
Few vegetables

Add to this inactivity (television) and it becomes the perfect recipe for type 2 diabetes. It's a disease that can be easily treated with simple life-style choices, "The Global Quality Diet":

Whole grains
Low sugar (soda = tobacco)
Nonhydrogenated vegetable oils
Legumes, nuts, poultry, fish, dairy
Some vegetables

And then add to this walking and biking and exercise.

The question is how do we get from the industrial diet to this global quality diet?

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QUESTIONS FOR THE PANEL:

Raj Patel is asking a question about political will and consensus. Why do we face the double-burden?

Tom Arnold: We can explain the burden of obesity and undernutrition individually, but the question is how to explain the connection? In both cases we need to put more emphasis on prevention. In regards to political will and food aid, we need to get away from the vested interests.

Barry Popkin: We're not talking about hunger and obesity co-existing, but the persistence and increase in obesity. We've had a globalization and modernization of food system. Mass media has had an impact. There's a lot of pieces around technologies and other areas that are hard to understand and we shouldn't point fingers at one thing (like soda) without understanding how all pieces fit together.

Paulus Verschuren: There is a gap in knowledge and offerings. Food industry has an important role to play in bridging this gap.

Walt Willet: Reiterates what others said about the multi-faceted nature of the double-burden. But in addition he brings up marketing forces. Marketing is ratcheting up and children becoming more and more vulnerable.

A Q&A then ensued. Derek Yach asks, what can we do to in marketing to kids and product labeling?

Paulus Verschuren: Need to divert marketing efforts to educational programs to change behavior in a positive way.

We are now breaking for lunch...

11:15 – 11:30 PM Doctors Without Borders and Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition’s Starved For Attention Meeting Synopsis

2008-09-16T11:37:00.000-04:00

Nutrition Security and the Importance of Diet Quality.

Buddhima Lokuge, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

Dr. Unni Karunakara, the deputy director of health for the Millennium Villages project, is introducing Buddhima Lokuge, who is giving a summary of the Starved for Attention Meeting, held the week before by Doctors Without Borders/MSF.

Malnutrition is an issue of poor diet quality. To address malnutrition, we need to look at effective nutrition interventions to promote healthy development.

Malnutrition hotspots:

The “Window of Opportunity” for improving nutrition is very small… pre-pregnancy until 18-24 months of age.

Nutrient-rich foods are more expensive, so as prices rise, poorer populations tend to purchase less nutritious food. He also provided some graphs demonstrating the importance of having meat in a child's diet.

He gave an example of some solutions being used in Sri Lanka:

Comprehensive antenatal care
Promotion of exclusive breast feeding
Complementary feeding
Mega doses of Vitamin A
Growth monitoring & promotion
Health Promotion - child, adolescent and maternal
Supplementary feeding programme

In Mexico, conditional cash transfers are used as incentives for investments in nutrition, health and education of children:

A Nutrition Component included
Fortified foods for children and women
Nutrition education

He also talked about lipid-based Spreads/Ready-to-use foods

Outcomes and recommendations:

Diet quality: Ensuring children 6-24 months have a varied diet with nutrient dense foods, especially animal source foods, is essential to prevent malnutrition.
Nutrition safetynets: Many families in high burden areas do not have the resources to buy a nutritious diet for their children.
Nutrition programming: in high burden areas, the distribution of nutrient rich supplements to all children 6-24 months has a significant impact on malnutrition.

9:30 – 11:00 AM PANEL I: Agriculture Systems and Food and Nutrition Security

2008-09-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

It is imperative to ensure that there are adequate food supplies to provide food and nutrition security for the world’s poor, especially given increased vulnerability to hunger due to rising food prices and higher demand for food production. This panel will examine the effects of food supply and demand on agricultural productivity, considering questions such as how to provide food security in the current global context, the consequences of the demand for meat-based diets, and the role of indigenous crops in combating under-nutrition and hunger.

Moderator:
Andrew Martin, New York Times

Panelists:
Jerry Steiner, Monsanto
William Masters, Purdue University
Pedro Medrano, World Food Programme
Alice Pell, Cornell University
Pedro Sanchez, Columbia University

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Andrew Martin is kicking off the first panel, introducing the panelists.

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Pedro Medrano is giving first presentation on food and nutrition security. He is saying we have concentrated too much in the past on food security and not enough on nutrition. Interventions are not always based on who needs it but on political relevance. He argues that the most vulnerable should be protected and their access to food facilitated, while food production is stimulated.

Vulnerable groups:

Children under three years of age, pregnant and lactating women (biological vulnerability)
Families in poverty and indigence situation (socio-economic vulnerability)
Indigenous and afro-descendants (ethnic-cultural vulnerability)
Rural people and marginal urban (geographical vulnerability)

“The new face of hunger”

The urban poor
Small-scale farmers and pastoralists (net-buyers of food)
Landless
The rural poor
Orphans and vulnerable school children
HIV/AIDS patients
Refugees, displaced people

In addition to food production, we must think about food availability. Need to link immediate interventions with long-term interventions.

Opportunity to improve nutrition and food security in ways which better align emergency assistance with the need to build sustainable nutrition and other food security programs

Priority actions to respond to this food and nutrition crisis:

Food production is not enough
Vulnerable people needs should be assessed and protection systems should be strengthened
Interventions to develop new economic opportunities for the most vulnerable.
Promote agricultural production, linking existing markets to the poorest producers (i.e. WFP’s P4P program)
Social policy advice to governments to strengthen and to scale-up proved nutrition interventions (Lancet Series on Nutrition) targeting pregnant women and children 0-3 years
Ramp up existing and launch horizontal cooperation between countries, sub-regions and regions

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Alice Pell is speaking now on how to solve the hunger problem in rural areas. The food system is dynamic and complex. She urges a systems approach: If you make one change there will be a cascade.

We need to keep thinking about the "Food-based Malnutrition Solutions." She gives some field-based case studies.

She stresses moderation in meat consumption.

She presented a slide on livestock GDP as percentage of Agriculture GDP. It is getting increasingly difficult for pastoralists to survive. Need to think of ways to preserve pastoralist culture.

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Will Masters

So far, world prices are still relatively low …and yet food remains out of reach for the very poor.

Causes of the 2007-08 crisis might not be what you think:

It’s not… China and India. They are nearly self-sufficient, and changed little.
It's not ... Climate change (yet) or meat demand (yet). So far these have not outpaced productivity growth.
It is… partly an accounting illusion. Falling dollar created a large nominal price rise has real effects.
It is ... largely triggered by US and EU biofuels policy: Sharp rise in corn and oilseeds use, when stocks were low.
It is ... worsened by other countries’ policies: Many governments cut exports and bought more grain.

The key point in response is that policies to lower food prices are already the norm in poor countries, they are natural and inevitable.

"Can this wake-up call reverse 20 years of falling aid for food & agriculture?" Masters asks. Aid for agriculture is not rising in correlation to total foreign aid. More aid is being given for debt relief and health.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pedro Sanchez blames himself, as an agriculture researcher, in driving food prices down. He gives some possible solutions to the food crisis:

Eliminate hunger in Africa
Intelligent agriculture in Brazil
Policy change in the U.S.

Then he highlights some progress made in the Millennium Villages project.

It costs $77 to produce an extra ton of food with fertilizer and hybrid seeds. The price to deliver a ton of food far outweighs the cost to produce it using these interventions. He takes a look at value/cost ratios in the Millennium Villages, and finds that they are generally equal or better.

Dr. Sanchez then highlighted Malawi as the "first African Green Revolution." By encouraging government subsidies, Malawi saw maize production increases of 50%+ in 2007 and 2008.

Now he is talking about Brazil's energy and agricultural policies. From an agricultural point of view, they are becoming very efficient. They use locally produced grain, bran and silage. We should take a look at Brazil as an example.

Actions:

Solve the world hunger problem by 2020
Rational agriculture/energy policies in the U.S.
Get us off the high fat diets

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jerry Steiner doesn't believe there is one single thing you can do. It will be solved by a myriad of solutions, such as sensible diets. He is going to focus on one aspect, improving seed and agricultural production. Need to turn potential into reality, and protect and harness that potential.

If we take a look at U.S. corn, yields are up 26% in the last decade without increasing natural resources. It is essential that this increase in food production be translated world-wide, in a scalable manner, not just for food security, but for economic security.

To make this happens, we need to form unique partnerships in Africa. Farming is a risky business, we need to put together business models that take away downside risks.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

QUESTIONS OR THE PANEL:

Andrew Martin: What caused this turnaround in Malawi and who is responsible?

Pedro Sanchez: Political will and subsidies.

Jerry Steiner: Stressed the "show and tell" aspect of the Millennium Villages project and the choice for farmers to choose hybrid seeds.

Andrew Martin: What is the reality of funding? How do you get governments involved in funding?

Will Masters stresses that there is a common value for all. We have proven that money leads to increased returns. U.S. does it uniquely well.

Alice Pell: Increase prices leads to lower food and availability. Malawi can be source of food an have an open playing field.

Jerry Steiner: Need to look for public and private partnerships.

Pedro Medrano: At the end of the day it's a governance issue, and also a cultural issue. 80-90% of poor are of indigenous or African descent. Need policies to address these marginalized groups.

AM: What role does meat and protein-based diets have in this debate?

AP: Depends on what animals are being fed. Having them be direct competitors with humans is not desirable. She also stresses distribution in small quantities.

PS: We should not turn into vegetarians. Babies need iron and protein-dense foods, which is meat, but small quantities is okay. This can and should be done with grass-fed cattle.

A Q&A session ensued with more questions and discussions from the audience, including some commentary from Jeff Sachs about the importance of birth control and population control and how not enough money is being directed to the food crisis. He is stressing that the U.S. needs to change roles from simply being a food exporter to providing agricultural expertise and technology to countries in need. In regards to meat-consumption, we need to refrain from being anecdotal and come up with evidence-based approaches that take into account the overall food system.

9:00 – 9:30 AM KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Derek Yach

2008-09-16T09:33:00.000-04:00

Emerging ideas about how private-public collaboration could contribute solutions to the long-term food crises.

Jeff Sachs is introducing Derek Yach, who is to deliver the keynote speech.

Dr. Yach is stressing that the the food crisis is a nutrition crisis. We have one billion people that are overweight, and one billion under-nourished. We need to achieve optimal nutrition for all.

He is summarizing the state of the food crisis and the causes of it. The nutrition crisis is also related to the food crisis. Nutrition science has not received the support it needs. Emphasizes failed governance in nutrition systems.

He is also recapping progress made, and the achievements of many of the people in the room that we will hear from today.

Specific actions we could be engaging in:

Businesses need to be more connected, rather than acting individually.
More research needs to be done on improved seeds and technologies to improve yields and nutritional quality.
Businesses could use local sourcing in a ethically sound manner.
Retail changes can work with goverments to provide a balanced food basket available to consumers.
Programs to fortify staples and provide ready-to-eat therapeutic foods.
Need to incentivize companies to provide for complimentary feeding.
The demand for meat is in response to a lack of protein. We need to provide more sustainable alternate protein sources in addition to beef.
Governments need to give more incentives for businesses.

Global action needs more than the cooperation of WHO and FAO, but needs wider range of players including NGOs and businesses.

The aim is to increase optimal nutritional for all within the context of sustainable development.

8:45 – 9:00 AM OPENING REMARKS by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs

2008-09-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

One of the world’s greatest challenges is to secure plentiful and healthy food for all, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. This challenge is under threat on many fronts: climate change, population growth, extreme poverty, the obesity epidemic, water scarcity, land degradation, the contentious role of bio-fuels, rising prices of fuel and fertilizer, and intense social conflicts and divisions over what constitutes a safe and sustainable food supply. There has never been a more urgent time for global cooperation on these issues. We will need cooperation not only across international borders but across key groups in each society, including farmers, consumers, scientists, industry leaders, ecologists, and government.

Jeffrey Sachs is kicking off the Global Food Forum by saying "we are going to lock the doors and solve the world's problems." He is stressing that there is no single dimension to the problems we face, which is to feed an ever-growing population. We haven't solved the basic problem of providing a healthy and secure food supply for the world in a sustainable manner.

We continue to have a profound nutrition crisis on the planet.
We face a profound food production crisis in many parts of the world. Africa has not seen a rise in productivity. India has seen a tremendous strain on it's resources since the Green Revolution. Production is threatened by climate change. There is a crisis of food quality. Not enough nutritional diversity.
World food system is the number one driver of global environmental crisis.
There is a crisis of technology and public acceptability and confidence. Genetically Modified Crops receiving a lot of criticism.
We don't have a locus of governance to address this crisis. Not enough governance leading to action and results.

This is why we are here.

8:00 AM CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, The Cleaver Co.

2008-09-16T07:59:00.000-04:00

People are gathering and mingling, enjoying breakfast provided for by The Cleaver Co., New York's preeminent green caterer founded by Mary Cleaver, a pioneer in the sustainable food movement.

Stay tuned as this live blog follows the progress of this meeting once it gets underway.

AGENDA

2008-09-11T06:33:00.017-04:00

***Please note: times listed are tentative and subject to change. ***

September 16, 2008

Columbia University, School of International Public Affairs
Kellogg Conference Center, 15th Floor

8:00 AM CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, The Cleaver Co.

8:45 – 9:00 AM OPENING REMARKS
Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Earth Institute at Columbia University

One of the world’s greatest challenges is to secure plentiful and healthy food for all, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. This challenge is under threat on many fronts: climate change, population growth, extreme poverty, the obesity epidemic, water scarcity, land degradation, the contentious role of bio-fuels, rising prices of fuel and fertilizer, and intense social conflicts and divisions over what constitutes a safe and sustainable food supply. There has never been a more urgent time for global cooperation on these issues. We will need cooperation not only across international borders but across key groups in each society, including farmers, consumers, scientists, industry leaders, ecologists, and government.

9:00 – 9:30 AM KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Derek Yach, VP, Global Health Policy, PepsiCo Inc.
Emerging ideas about how private-public collaboration could contribute solutions to the long-term food crises

9:30 – 11:00 AM PANEL I: Agriculture Systems and Food and Nutrition Security

It is imperative to ensure that there are adequate food supplies to provide food and nutrition security for the world’s poor, especially given increased vulnerability to hunger due to rising food prices and higher demand for food production. This panel will examine the effects of food supply and demand on agricultural productivity, considering questions such as how to provide food security in the current global context, the consequences of the demand for meat-based diets, and the role of indigenous crops in combating under-nutrition and hunger.

Moderator:
Andrew Martin, New York Times

Panelists:
William Masters, Purdue University
Pedro Medrano, World Food Programme
Alice Pell, Cornell University
Pedro Sanchez, Columbia University
Jerry Steiner, Monsanto

11:00 – 11:15 AM COFFEE BREAK

11:15 – 11:30 PM Doctors Without Borders and Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition’s Starved For Attention Meeting Synopsis
Buddhima Lokuge, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
Nutrition Security and the Importance of Diet Quality

11:30 – 1:00 PM PANEL II: Addressing the Double Burden

The double burden of obesity and chronic undernutrition, which arises from urbanization, demographic shifts, and changing dietary patterns, affects as many as two billion people around the globe. It also places particular demands on food and public health systems and will require a well-crafted response from local farmers and the global food industry. This panel will examine some of the important questions around these issues.

Moderator:
Raj Patel, Author of Stuffed and Starved

Panelists:
Tom Arnold, Concern
Barry Popkin, Carolina Population Center
Marie Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute
Paulus Verschuren, Unilever
Walter Willett, Harvard University

1:00 – 2:30 PM BUFFET LUNCH, The Cleaver Co.

2:00 – 2:20 PM PACIFIC HEALTH SUMMIT SYNOPSIS:
Claire Topal, Center for Health & Aging, The National Bureau of Asian Research
Navigating the Nutrition Labyrinth

2:30 – 4:00 PM PANEL III: Environmental Sustainability and Food Supply and Distribution

There are significant issues around how to make food supply and distribution systems environmentally sustainable, in terms of the use of water, nitrogen, land, and chemical herbicides and pesticides. Key questions arise concerning the impact of potential environmental measures on health and the consequences of environmentally sustainable food production on food prices.

Moderator:
Justin Gillis, New York Times

Panelists:
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Niels Christiansen, Nestle SA
Cheryl Palm, Columbia University
Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA / Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Sara Scherr, Ecoagriculture Partners

4:00 – 4:15 PM COFFEE BREAK

4:15 – 5:45 PM PANEL IV: Advanced Technologies, Food Safety and the role of Local and Organic Food Production

Agro-biotechnology and other advanced technologies, and local and organic production play important roles in the global food system however each approach has distinct financial costs and benefits for both developed and developing countries. Organic systems raise particular concerns regarding scalability, relationship to rising food prices, and agricultural practices and yields whereas specific industrialization practices and technology, is a cause for concern amongst the world’s consumers not only for nutritional quality of foods but also food safety.

Moderator:
Sam Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc.

Panelists:
Martin Clough, Syngenta
Drew Goodman, Earthbound Farms
Marion Nestle, New York University
Gary Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation
Josh Viertel, Yale University

5:45 – 6:00 PM CLOSING REMARKS AND NEXT STEPS:
Jeffrey D. Sachs

Participant Bios

2008-09-11T06:32:00.009-04:00

Tom Arnold

Lester Brown

Niels Christiansen

Martin Clough

Jessica Fanzo

Samuel Fromartz

Justin Gillis

Drew Goodman

Buddhima Lokuge

Andrew Martin

William Masters

Pedro Medrano

Marion Nestle

Cheryl Palm

Raj Patel

Alice Pell

Barry Popkin

Cynthia Rosenzweig

Marie Ruel

Jeffrey D. Sachs

Pedro Sanchez

Sara Scherr

Jerry Steiner

Gary Toenniessen

Claire Topal

Paulus Verschuren

Josh Viertel

Walter Willett

Derek Yach

Justin Gillis

2008-09-11T06:30:00.005-04:00

Justin Gillis is an assistant business editor at The New York Times, in charge of the paper's coverage of food, agriculture and energy. He joined the Times last year after a dozen years as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post, and before that, a dozen years at The Miami Herald. He grew up amid the onion farms of central Georgia and has been thinking, and intermittently writing, about agriculture and the food supply since high school. Justin believes one of the critical issues of modern times is the link between the energy problem and food production. He has been the primary editor of a series in the Times this year called The Food Chain, about the global food situation, and is also one of the editors responsible for the ongoing Times series called The Energy Challenge.

Jerry Steiner, Monsanta

2008-09-11T06:30:00.004-04:00

Jerry Steiner is Executive Vice President, Sustainability & Global Corporate Affairs, with responsibility to lead the company’s sustainability strategy and global corporate government, public and industry affairs, and develop value-added business with key food industry companies. Steiner has worked for Monsanto for over 25 years and been involved in biotechnology issues for more than a decade. Coming from a dairy farm family in New Holstein, Wisconsin, Steiner has deep roots in agriculture. After receiving a B.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1982, he worked in sales for Monsanto in Wisconsin and Texas, and various marketing and product management roles. In l992, Steiner received his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. From 1996-1998, Steiner led the Global Product Strategy group. He lived in Brussels for two years, serving as the general manager of Monsanto’s Europe/Africa business. Following this he led Monsanto’s Corporate Strategy group. In June of 2003 Steiner was appointed to his current position. He is actively involved in the industry as Chairman of the CropLife International Biotech Strategy Council and the Council for Biotech Information. He is a board member of The Keystone Center, Corporate Council on Africa and a member of the International Food and Ag Trade Policy Group (IPC). He is married to Denise Bertrand and they have two young sons. He is active in his church, Boy Scouts, and as a coach for youth sports.

Jessica Fanzo

2008-09-11T06:30:00.000-04:00

Jessica Fanzo is the Nutrition Coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project of the Earth Institute of Columbia University and serves as a Nutrition Specialist for the MDG Centre for East and Southern Africa. Jessica received her PhD from the University of Arizona in Nutrition and became a Stephen I. Morse Fellow in Immunology at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Earth Institute, she was a Program Officer for the Medical Research Program at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation focusing on HIV/AIDS initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa as well as clinical research programs in the United States.

Gary Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation

2008-09-11T06:29:00.021-04:00

Gary H. Toenniessen is the managing director leading the strategic direction for the Rockefeller Foundation’s initiatives in agricultural development. Since joining the Foundation in 1971 he has served as the assistant director for the Natural and Environmental Sciences Division, assistant director, associate director and deputy director for Agricultural Sciences and director, Food Security. Most recently, he served as president (on a founding, interim basis) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a project of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Toenniessen is a writer and editor of numerous papers and books on biotechnology, agriculture and international food issues, many co-authored with other Foundation officers. He continues to develop ideas and theories on how the world’s growing population should be fed and how agricultural development can be an engine for economic growth. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Adolph E. Gude Jr. Award of the American Society of Plant Biology. Toenniessen has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Josh Viertel, Yale Sustainable Food Project

2008-09-11T06:29:00.020-04:00

Josh Viertel is a co-director and co-founder of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. In this role he has aided in directing Yale’s transition to a local sustainable food program, built and managed an organic farm on campus and worked to cultivate awareness and enjoyment of a meaningful food culture at Yale. Prior to his work at Yale, he started a small vegetable farm in Connecticut and taught at the Mountain School of Milton Academy in Vermont. He studied philosophy and literature and is an avid baker, fisherman, and farmer. Josh will leave Yale at the end of September to take up his new role as President of Slow Food USA.

Marion Nestle, New York University

2008-09-11T06:29:00.019-04:00

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003. She also holds appointments as Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She has held faculty positions at Brandeis University and the UCSF School of Medicine. From 1986-88, she was senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services and managing editor of the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health. Her research examines scientific, economic, and social influences on food choice. She is the author of three prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (revised edition, 2007), Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (2003), and What to Eat (2006). Her new book, Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, was published in September 2008. Her website is www.foodpolitics.com. Since May 2007 she has been blogging at www.whattoeatbook.com, and has been writing the Food Matters column for the San Francisco Chronicle since August 2008.

Drew Goodman, Earthbound Farms

2008-09-11T06:28:00.013-04:00

Drew Goodman is the founder, along with his wife Myra, of Earthbound Farm, the nation’s leading grower of organic produce. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer. Earthbound Farm was founded in 1984 when the Goodmans, recent college graduates and “city kids” from Manhattan, started farming raspberries organically on 2½-acre backyard garden in Carmel Valley, California. Today, Earthbound Farm organic produce is grown by 150 farmers on more than 40,000 crop acres and is sold in 78% of the nation’s grocery stores. In pursuit of its mission to bring the benefits of organic food to as many people as possible and serve as a catalyst for positive change, Earthbound Farm has grown to over $400 million in annual sales. Its efforts have significantly expanded the availability of organic produce in mainstream retail, which in turn contributed to growing interest is organic food in nearly every grocery aisle; sales of organic food have grown from $3.6 billion in 1997 to $18.8 billion in 2007. While sales of organic food represent about 3.2% of total food sales in the US, the percentage in fresh fruits and vegetables is twice as high at 6.6%. As Earthbound Farm has grown, the environmental benefits of its large scale farming have grown, as well, keeping about 13 million pounds of conventional agricultural chemicals out of the environment each year. Drew is an alumnus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies.

Martin Clough, Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc.

2008-09-11T06:28:00.012-04:00

Martin Clough has been with Syngenta and its predecessor since 1989, and was appointed President of Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. and Head of Biotech R&D in 2006. Before this, he held international leadership positions as Global Head of Bioscience and then Global Head of Biology and Logistics for Syngenta Crop Protection. He has also served in a number of senior research and development positions with international responsibility including Global Technical Manager for Syngenta’s insecticides and manager of the Asian Field Biology organization for Zeneca Agrochemicals. Martin holds a Bachelors degree from Birmingham University and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leeds Department of Pure and Applied Biology.

Samuel Fromartz

2008-09-11T06:28:00.010-04:00

Samuel Fromartz is a veteran business journalist and author of Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew. He began his career at Reuters news agency, working as a correspondent in Washington and as Deputy Business Editor in New York. Since he left Reuters, his freelance articles have appeared in Inc., Business Week, The New York Times, and many other publications. He began work on Organic Inc. in 2003, in part using proceeds from his sale of Whole Foods stock to fund his research. The month his book was published, Wal-Mart announced it was doubling its organic food products. He has talked widely about food in the media and at conferences and is currently a contributing editor on sustainability at the MIT Sloan Management Review. A native of Brooklyn, Fromartz lives in Washington D.C. with his wife and daughter and grows organic vegetables in a garden a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA Goddard Institute, Columbia University

2008-09-11T06:27:00.010-04:00

Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University. Her primary research involves the development of interdisciplinary methodologies by which to assess the potential impacts of and adaptations to global environmental change. She has joined impact models with global and regional climate models to predict future outcomes of both land-based and urban systems under altered climate conditions. Advances include the development of climate change scenarios for impact and adaptation analysis, and the application of impact models at relevant spatial and temporal scales for regional and national assessments. Recognizing that the complex interactions engendered by global environmental change can best be understood by coordinated teams of experts, Dr. Rosenzweig has organized and led large-scale interdisciplinary, national, and international studies of climate change impacts and adaptation. She co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and was the lead scientist on the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Climate Change Task Force. For the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, she was a Coordinating Lead Author on the Assessment of Observed Changes and Responses in Natural and Managed Systems. The results of this Assessment found that physical and biological systems on all continents and in most oceans are already being affected by recent human-caused climate changes, and that climatic effects on human systems are emerging. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. She leads the Climate Impacts research group at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, whose mission is to investigate the interactions of climate (both variability and change) on systems and sectors important to human well-being. Dr. Rosenzweig received her Ph.D. in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences from the University of Massachusetts in 1991. She earned an M.S. in Soils and Crops from Rutgers University and a BA in Agricultural Sciences from Cook College. She has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed scientific articles and authored or edited eight books.

Sarah Scherr, Ecoagriculture Partners

2008-09-11T06:27:00.009-04:00

Sara J. Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist whose career has focused on agricultural and forest policy in tropical developing countries. She is founder and President of Ecoagriculture Partners, an NGO that supports agricultural communities who manage landscapes both to increase production and incomes, and to enhance wild biodiversity and ecosystem services. She is a member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, and a member of the Board of Directors of The Katoomba Group and REBRAF-USA, and until recently the World Agroforestry Centre. Dr. Scherr was through 2005 the Director of Ecosystem Services for Forest Trends, an NGO that promotes forest conservation through improved markets for forest products and ecosystem services. There she worked to develop “payments for ecosystem services” including carbon sequestration, watershed protection and biodiversity conservation, including their potential benefits and risks for low-income communities. Dr. Scherr’s former positions include: Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; Co-Leader of the CGIAR Gender Program; Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and Principal Researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya. She was previously a Fulbright Scholar (1976), and a Rockefeller Social Science Fellow (1985-87). Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University. Dr. Scherr has published over 37 articles in refereed journals and 13 books, including Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (with Jeff McNeely) , A New Agenda for Forest Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Making Markets Work for Low-Income Producers (with Andy White and David Kaimowitz), and Farming with Nature: The Science and Practice of Ecoagriculture (with Jeff McNeely).

Cheryl Palm, Columbia University

2008-09-11T06:26:00.004-04:00

Cheryl A. Palm is Senior Research Scientist and Science Director of the Tropical Agriculture and the Rural Environment Program at the Earth Institute. She is also Science Director of the Millennium Villages Project. A prominent Tropical Ecologist, Dr. Palm was Senior Research Scientist of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Program in Nairobi, Kenya from 1991-2001. She has served on the faculties of North Carolina State University and Colorado State University. She has lived and worked in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Peru. She holds a PhD in soil science from North Carolina State University and an MS Degree in Zoology from the University of California at Davis. She is currently Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative which is dedicated to the science and policy of optimizing the use of N for agricultural production while minimizing the negative environmental effects. Dr. Palm’s research as an Agroecologist has produced the most extensive quantification of carbon and biomass losses from tropical deforestation and sequestration by alternative systems in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon, Indonesia and the Congo Basin. Her research on nitrogen cycling and crop production resulted in the quantification of the fertilizer equivalency values of organic sources such as leaves and manures. Presently, Dr. Palm is leading the environmental aspects of the Millennium Villages Project looking at tradeoffs between agriculture and the environment, a crosscutting project linking food, ecology, nutrition and health. In 2005 she was made a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. She is the Senior Editor of “Slash and Burn Agriculture: The Search for Initiatives.”

Niels Christiansen, Nestlé, S.A.

2008-09-11T06:25:00.010-04:00

Dr. Niels Christiansen is Vice-President of Public Affairs, Nestlé, S.A., based at their headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Minnesota and joined the Faculty of the Harvard University Nutrition Department in 1971, specializing in nutrition and mental development of children in developing countries. He first joined Nestlé in 1981 in Washington, D.C., and moved to Nestlé headquarters management in 1997. He was named Vice-President, Public Affairs in 2000, managing the public affairs of the company on a global basis. He serves as liaison with the World Health Organization for the Food & Beverage Industry Working Group , which is fostering collaboration industry-WHO collaboration on the Global Strategies in the area of Diet, Physical Activity & Health. He has also served as Chairman of the European Food & Beverage Industry's Taskforce on the same subject. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Cocoa Initiative, an industry-union-NGO Foundation working to improve working conditions in cocoa growing, and President of the International Infant Food Manufacturers.

Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute

2008-09-11T06:25:00.007-04:00

Lester R. Brown is president of Earth Policy Institute, an organization dedicated to building a sustainable future. Described by the Washington Post as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers,” Brown started his career as a tomato farmer. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science, he spent six months living in rural India, where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. Brown later became head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's International Agricultural Development Service. In 1974 he founded the Worldwatch Institute, leaving in 2001 to found the Earth Policy Institute. He has authored or co-authored over 50 books, the most recent of which is Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, and has received 24 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, a MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Walter C. Willett, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School

2008-09-11T06:24:00.009-04:00

Dr. Walter C. Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, studied food science at Michigan State University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 25 years on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices. Dr. Willett has published over 1,000 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease and cancer, and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press. He also has three books book for the general public, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, which has appeared on most major bestseller lists, Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less, co-authored with Mollie Katzen, and most recently, The Fertility Diet, co-authored with Jorge Chavarro and Pat Skerrett. Dr. Willett is the most cited nutritionist internationally, and is among the five most cited persons in all fields of clinical science. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.

Claire Topal, National Bureau of Asian Research

2008-09-11T06:24:00.007-04:00

Claire Topal serves as Senior Project Director for the Center for Health and Aging (CHA) at The National Bureau of Asian Research. She currently directs research, publications, and health policy labs for CHA and for the Pacific Health Summit. Her areas of focus include: health information technology and policy, nutrition, emerging infections and pandemics, and personal health. She received her A.B. in French and Studies in Modernism from Cornell University, and holds an M.A. in Pacific Asia Studies and Conflict Resolution from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Ms. Topal has worked in New York City, Paris, Shanghai, and Taipei. Her experience includes management consulting, journalism, teaching, and journal editing.

Paulus M. Verschuren, Unilever

2008-09-11T06:23:00.009-04:00

Paulus Verschuren is Senior Director of the Partnership Development Group. The mission of his group is to develop global nutrition and health partnerships creating social and business value - adding vitality to life for the beneficiaries of the partnership projects, our consumers and our employees. Paulus is presently Board member of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and chairman of the GAIN Business Alliance. Prior to his present position in Unilever, Paulus was Deputy Environmental Safety Officer in Unilever London and became later Director External Relations of the Unilever Health Institute following an external position as Executive Director of the International Life Sciences Institute – ILSI Europe. Back in Unilever he acted as Chairman of the Board of the ILSI Europe and member of the ILSI Global Executive Committee. Paulus Verschuren is Dutch, studied biology and started his Unilever career in 1981 as an animal pathologist researching the relationship between diet, health and disease. He is married and has three sons.

Marie Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute

2008-09-11T06:23:00.008-04:00

Marie T. Ruel is Director of the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute since 2004. She has worked for more than 20 years on issues related to policies and programs to alleviate poverty and child malnutrition in developing countries. She has published extensively in nutrition and epidemiology journals on topics such as maternal and child nutrition, agricultural strategies to improve diet quality and micronutrient nutrition focusing on women's empowerment, urban livelihoods, food security and nutrition; in the past years, she also led a global process to develop universal indicators of child feeding practices with the World Health Organization. She has served on various international expert committees, such as the National Academy of Sciences, the International Zinc in Nutrition Consultative Group, and the Society for International Nutrition Research. Her current research focuses on the evaluation and strengthening of social protection programs and targeted nutrition interventions to foster human capital formation. She also coordinates a Platform on Agriculture and Health Research, a global initiative aimed at promoting and coordinating policy research on the 2-way linkages between agriculture and health to foster synergies between the two sectors and enhance program and policy and program effectiveness in reducing livelihood, food, health and nutrition insecurity. Before joining IFPRI in 1996, she was head of the Nutrition and Health Division of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama/Pan American Health Organization (INCAP/PAHO) in Guatemala, where she worked for six years. She earned her PhD in international nutrition at Cornell University.

Barry Popkin, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

2008-09-11T06:22:00.008-04:00

Barry M. Popkin, has a Ph.D. in economics and is the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He directs the UNC-CH’s Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity and is the economist who works intensively in both the biomedical and social science worlds. He has developed longitudinal multilevel studies in many countries to study dietary change. More recently he developed the concept of the nutrition transition and used his series of cohort studies that focused on the factors underlying both dietary and physical activity/inactivity patterns and their effects on health. Again these are in both the US and globally. He is the PI of studies in both the US and abroad. He directs detailed longitudinal studies in China and Russia, initiated one in the Philippines that he no longer handles, and is involved in extensive research in Brazil, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, and several other countries. His US work includes a series of NIH grants to study how socioeconomic change linked with shifts in the built environment affect diet, activity and obesity in the ADD Health and a second 20-year long longitudinal study–CARDIA. Dr. Popkin serves on several scientific advisory organizations and is Chair, the Nutrition Transition Committee for the International Union for the Nutritional Sciences. He has published more than 275 journal articles in addition to numbers book chapters. He is author of a Penguin book The World Is Fat that will be released Dec 24, 2008.

Tom Arnold, Concern

2008-09-11T06:22:00.007-04:00

Tom Arnold was appointed Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest humanitarian organisation, in 2001. He was previously Assistant Secretary General with the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food, and was Senior Economist with ACOT, the Farm Advisory Service. At an earlier stage of his career, he worked for the European Commission on Agricultural Policy and on development programmes, representing the Commission for three years in the Ivory Coast and Malawi. He was Chairman of the OECD’s Committee of Agriculture (1993 – 1998). In 2003, he was appointed to the UN Millennium Projects Hunger Task Force, established by Kofi Annan to devise a strategy to halve world hunger by 2015. He is currently a member of the Irish Hunger Task Force, charged with proposing a strategy through which Ireland can make a distinctive contribution towards ending world hunger. He is a member of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) 2020 Advisory Council, and the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund’s (CERF) Advisory Group. At European level, he is Chairman of the European Food Security Group (EFSG), a network of 40 European NGOs engaged in food security work, and is Vice-Chair of the Trans Atlantic Food Aid Dialogue (TAFAD) – an alliance of American, European and Canadian NGOs working on the reform of international food aid. He was recently appointed to the Trust governing the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading newspaper, and to the Irish Government’s Commission on Taxation. Tom Arnold is a graduate in Agricultural Economics from University College Dublin and has Masters Degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain and Trinity College Dublin.

Pedro A. Sanchez, Columbia University

2008-09-11T06:21:00.013-04:00

Pedro Sanchez is the Director of the Tropical Agriculture and the Rural Environment Program, Senior Research Scholar, and Director of the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Sanchez was Director General of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya from 1991-2001, and served as Co-chair of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force. He is also Professor Emeritus of Soil Science and Forestry at North Carolina State University. A native of Cuba, Sanchez received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in soil science from Cornell University, and joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1968. His professional career has been dedicated to help eliminate world hunger and absolute rural poverty while protecting and enhancing the tropical environment. He is the author of “Properties and Management of Soils of the Tropics” (rated among the top 10 best-selling books in soil science world¬wide), co-author of “Halving Hunger: It can be done” and of over 250 scientific publications. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Agronomy, the Soil Science Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received the International Soil Science Award, the International Service in Agronomy Award and the Crop Science Society of America Presidential Award. He is a Luo elder with the name of Odera Akang’o in Kenya and is Chief Atunluse of the Ikaram in Nigeria. He serves on the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the National Academy of Sciences, the Board of Directors of Millennium Promise and of the Yara Foundation. Sanchez has received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, the University of Guelph, Canada and The Ohio State University and is the 2002 World Food Prize laureate and a 2004 MacArthur Fellow.

Buddhima Lokuge

2008-09-11T06:21:00.012-04:00

Buddhima Lokuge is a medical practitioner with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in New York. As US manager of MSF’s Access Campaign he coordinates nutrition related policy and advocacy for MSF in the US. Dr. Lokuge has field experience with MSF in India and in Afghanistan where he ran MSF’s malnutrition programs in the district of Ghazni. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization that has responded to nutritional crises since the 1970s and works to address malnutrition in more than 22 high burden countries. In 2007 MSF treated more than 150,000 children with acute malnutrition.

Raj Patel

2008-09-11T06:21:00.010-04:00

Raj Patel is a writer, activist and academic, currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, a researcher at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. He has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University, has worked for the World Bank and WTO and been tear-gassed on four continents protesting against them. He was recently invited to share his views on the global food crisis in testimony to the US House Financial Services Committee. He regularly writes for The Guardian, and has contributed to the LA Times, NYTimes.com, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Observer. He works in support of the international farmer, farmworkers and landless worker movement, La Via Campesina. His first book is Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.

Pedro Medrano, World Food Programme

2008-09-11T06:20:00.009-04:00

Pedro Medrano Rojas was appointed Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for Latin America and the Caribbean in December 2004, after having served as the WFP Representative to India. The WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger and the world’s largest humanitarian organization. It serves by providing food assistance that saves lives in emergencies and by helping the neediest among the poor to achieve self-sufficiency. Every day WFP provides food for 86.1 million people in 80 poor countries across the globe. The WFP directs its assistance to poor people who cannot move ahead on their own: the victims of wars and natural catastrophes, families afflicted by HIV/AIDS and orphans who have lost their parents as a result of this pandemic and school-aged children in poor communities. The Programme is headquartered in Rome (Italy). Between 1995 and 1997, Mr. Medrano was President of the World Committee on Food Safety, where he presided over the preparations for the World Food Summit held in November 1996 in Rome, Italy. He had previously served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Chile to the FAO, the FIDA and the WFP in Rome, beginning in 1993. Between 1990 and 1992, Mr. Medrano was Chilean Ambassador to El Salvador and Belize. Prior to his appointment in the Chilean Foreign Service, he worked for the WFP in El Salvador in the period 1988-1990 and at the FAO in 1984-1990. Earlier, Mr. Medrano occupied several other posts, including Chief of Staff at the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture; Professor of Economic Policy at the School for Juridical and Social Sciences at the University of Chile; and Assistant Executive Secretary at the Jacques Maritain International Institute, in Rome. Mr. Medrano holds a degree in Juridical and Social Sciences from the University of Chile and has undertaken post-graduate work at the University of Bonn (PhD c) in the Federal Republic of Germany and at the Catholic University of Louvain La Neuve (MA) in Belgium. Mr. Medrano was born in Iquique, Chile in 1946.

Alice Pell, Cornell

2008-09-11T06:20:00.008-04:00

Alice N. Pell, a professor of animal nutrition in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, became the Vice Provost for International Relations at Cornell in July of this year. Since 2005, she had been the director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), a university-wide center that initiates and supports programs that contribute to improved global food security, sustainable rural development and environmental conservation. A cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Professor Pell taught English, history, development studies and geography in Botswana as a Peace Corps volunteer. She then earned a master's degree with an emphasis on international education and development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She subsequently received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in animal nutrition from the University of Vermont, where she was a faculty member until she came to Cornell in 1990. Her current research focuses on African farming systems.

Hugh Grant, Monsanto Company

2008-09-11T06:19:00.010-04:00

Hugh Grant is chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Monsanto, a company 100 percent devoted to agriculture. Monsanto is focused on applying innovation and technology to help its farmer customers increase yields while conserving more precious resources including water and energy. Under his leadership, Monsanto has increasingly relied on building partnerships to achieve commercial, environmental and social humanitarian goals. Today, Monsanto has platforms in large-acre crops, including corn, cotton and oilseeds as well as small-acre crops with its vegetable-seeds business. Monsanto’s established seed brands, including DEKALB, Asgrow, DeltaPine, Seminis and DeRuiter, and its biotechnology products, including Roundup Ready soybeans, corn and cotton, Bollgard insect-protected cotton and the YieldGard family of insect-protected corn products, have established the company as a leader in the agricultural seed-and-trait industry. Additionally, the company’s Roundup products remain the world’s No. 1 selling herbicides. Mr. Grant joined the former Monsanto as a product development representative for the company's agricultural business in 1981. Since 1991, he has served in a variety of management positions, most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Born in Larkhall, Scotland, Mr. Grant earned a bachelor’s of science degree in agricultural zoology with honors at Glasgow University. He also earned a post-graduate degree in agriculture at Edinburgh University, and a master’s of business administration at the International Management Centre in Buckingham, United Kingdom.

Will Masters, Purdue University

2008-09-11T06:19:00.008-04:00

Will Masters is a Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. He is co-editor of the journal Agricultural Economics, and author or co-author of several books including Economics of Agricultural Development (Routledge, 2006) and Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Africa (World Bank, 2008) as well as dozens of scholarly articles. At Purdue, he teaches a graduate course in Agricultural Policy and an undergraduate course in Economic Development, and maintains a portfolio of research projects funded by the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other donors. Before joining the Purdue faculty, Prof. Masters attended Deep Springs College (1979-81), then graduated from Yale University (1984), and received a Ph.D. from the Food Research Institute of Stanford University (1991). He has also been a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe (1988-1990), a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2000), a visiting professor at Columbia University (2003-04), and a consultant to various organizations. He is chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees for Deep Springs College, and serves on advisory committees for the X Prize Foundation and the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa. Contact information and publications are available at: www.agecon.purdue.edu/staff/masters

Andrew Martin, New York Times

2008-09-11T06:00:00.002-04:00

Andrew Martin covers the food and beverage industry for the New York Times, where he has most recently participated in a series of stories on the global food crisis. Prior to coming to the Times in the fall of 2006, Mr. Martin was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune where he wrote about agriculture, food policy and Chicago politics. He was part of a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2001, and he was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in the 2002/2003 academic year.

Derek Yach, PepsiCo, Inc.

2008-09-11T05:51:00.003-04:00

Derek Yach is Vice President of Global Health Policy at PepsiCo where he leads the Global Human Sustainability Task Force and engagement with major international policy, research and scientific groups. Previously he has headed global health at the Rockefeller Foundation, been Professor of Public Health and head of the Division of Global Health at Yale University, and is a former Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Yach has spearheaded efforts to improve global health. At the WHO he served as cabinet director under Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland. Dr. Yach helped place tobacco control, nutrition and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease prominently on the agenda of governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. He led development of WHO’s first treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and the development of Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. Dr. Yach is a South African national. He established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the South African Medical Research Council which focused on quantifying inequalities and the impact of urbanization on health. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles covering the breadth of global health issues. Dr Yach serves on several advisory boards including those of the Clinton Global Initiative, the World Economic Forum, the Oxford Health Alliance and Vitality USA.