Podcasts about nutrition security

In this episode  of the Visible Voices podcast, I speak with nutrition expert Dr. Jen Cadenhead about the critical distinction between food security and nutrition security. The discussion centers on the transformative approaches New York City has implemented in their school lunch programs and why school meals often provide the healthiest options for many children. Jen Cadenhead PhD is Research Assistant Professor and Executive Director, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy at Columbia University. She is a leading researcher in nutrition science, with particular expertise in how dietary patterns affect health outcomes among cancer survivors. Her advocacy work focuses on improving nutrition education and food quality in public institutions, especially schools. Jen shares insights from her research on diet's impact on health outcomes, particularly among cancer survivors, and makes a passionate case for policy changes and educational initiatives that can create healthier food environments in schools and communities. Key takeawaysNutrition security extends beyond mere access to food, focusing on nutritional quality and health outcomes New York City's school lunch program stands as a model for innovation, including the elimination of fried foods For many children, school meals represent the most nutritionally balanced options they receive The food system heavily influences individual choices, highlighting the need for structural changes Revival of home economics education could provide essential cooking skills for healthier lifestyles Research links ultra-processed food consumption to increased mortality risks Demographic factors significantly impact dietary patterns and related health outcomes Effective nutrition education serves as a powerful preventive tool against chronic diseases Systemic policy changes are essential to create environments that support healthier eating habits If you enjoy the show, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating on Apple or a

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.Welcome to the final episode in a special four-part series from Health Affairs on the intersection of food, nutrition, and health. This special series compliments the release of a theme issue on food, nutrition, and health, which is currently available to read.In this episode, Health Affairs' Jessica Bylander and Ellen Bayer speak with Heather Thomas from the nonprofit A Place to Stand about her Narrative Matters essay from the issue, "A Different Type of Hunger."The essay explores Thomas' experience fighting to access and maintain food benefits in the US as a mother of six whose family is food insecure.Order the Food, Nutrition, and Health Issue. Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Developing local solutions to complex issues is foundational to global change. When it comes to food insecurity and health services, we recognize the need for local solutions at scale. Joining the show today from Rwanda is Isabelle Kamariza who is the Founder and President at Solid'Africa. She comes on the show to share with us who Solid'Africa works alongside the Rwandan government to improve nutritional outcomes for hospital patients, students and others in the community. We cover a lot of ground in this episode and learn what it looks like actually achieve sustainability when doing work in challenging contexts. Support the Show Through Venmo - @canopyintl Podcast Sponsors The M.A. in Global Development and Justice program at Jessup University prepares students to work across the nexus of justice, community development, and peacebuilding. Learn More About The MAGDJ Online Program Join Camino Quest for a spiritual pilgrimage with other pilgrims on the ancient and amazing Camino de Santiago in Spain. Visit Camino Quest Online Resources and Links from the show Solid'Africa Online Rwanda Inc. by Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond Conversation Notes Isabelle's journey from feeding the homeless in Belgium to feeding the masses in Rwanda The influence of Matthew 25 and how it compels us into action The power of prayer in starting a ministry to the sick The intersection of healthcare and nutrition insecurity in Rwanda Going from farm to fork (and eventually on to fertilizer!) in making sustainable change The role of social enterprise in building sustainability The value of government regulation and partnership in establishing a nonprofit in Rwanda (it's harder than starting a business!) Social change through community education The Rwandan trajectory from tragedy to case study in development Theme music Kirk Osamayo. Free Music Archive, CC BY License

Nutrition security alongside food security will ensure healthy and active lives. Achieving nutritional security is being achieved through nutrition-sensitive farming, diversified food production and community sensitization.  Nate Blum is an agricultural expert and the CEO of the Sorghum United Foundation, dedicated to advancing human and animal health, as well as climate-smart agriculture. www.sorghumunited.com

Caree Cotwright, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture, explains the concept of nutrition security on a new episode of Add Passion & Stir. “Nutrition security is everyone in our country having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food, but also food that is optimal for their health and wellbeing,” she says. “If we want to achieve health equity and make sure that everyone has a just opportunity to be as healthy as possible, we have to focus on [health] inequities and disparities so that everyone can thrive.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025Today, Trump rescinds Biden orders and signs a slew of new executive orders; 24 states and cities have sued over Trump ending birthright citizenship; Trump's interim chief overseeing Capitol riot cases has begun dropping cases; Trump has pardoned just about all of the January 6th insurrectionists; Senators have received an affidavit from Pete Hegseth's sister in law warning about his volatile and abusive nature; the Supreme Court declines to hear a Republican voter suppression request from Montana; Trump has removed the first woman Coast Guard commandant without cause; the Episcopal Bishop of Washington urged Donald Trump to show mercy to marginalized communities at the inaugural prayer service; and Allison delivers your Good News.Thank You Naked WinesGo to NakedWines.com/DAILYBEANS with the code AND password DAILYBEANS for six bottles of wine for $39.99.Thank You HomeChefFor a limited time, HomeChef is offering you 18 Free Meals PLUS Free Dessert for Life and of course, Free Shipping on your first box! Go to HomeChef.com/DAILYBEANS.Guest: Jen RubinThe Contrarian | Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen | SubstackBlue Sky - The Contrarian - @contrariannews.org Blue Sky - @jenrubinStories:WATCH: Episcopal bishop asks Trump 'to have mercy' on LGBTQ+ communities and immigrants (PBS | YouTube)Senators receive affidavit containing new allegations against Pete Hegseth, who denies the claims (Julie Tsirkin, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Courtney Kube | NBC News)'We don't have a statement': Massive pro-Trump police union ducks comment after J6 pardons - Raw Story (Matthew Chapman | Raw Story)24 Democratic states and cities sue over Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship (Devan Cole, Kara Scannell, Priscilla Alvarez, Tierney Sneed | CNN Politics)UPDATED: Adm. Linda Fagan Removed as Coast Guard Commandant (Heather Mongilio | USNI News)SCOTUS Declines to Hear GOP Request in Montana Voter Suppression Lawsuit  (Democracy Docket)Good TroubleUrge President Trump and Congress to Prevent Cuts to SNAP and Protect Nutrition Security Programs! | SF Marin Food BankWatch DutyWatch Duty Fire Public Safety Information (App)Cal FireIncidents | CAL FIREHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good NewsThe Los Angeles Equestrian Center Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Substack|Muellershewrote, Twitter|@MuellerSheWrote, Threads|@muellershewrote, TikTok|@muellershewrote, IG|muellershewrote, BlueSky|@muellershewroteDana GoldbergTwitter|@DGComedy, IG|dgcomedy, facebook|dgcomedy, IG|dgcomedy, danagoldberg.com, BlueSky|@dgcomedyHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/Patreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

Dr. Don and Professor Ben talk about the risks from rinsing your turkey in the sink. Dr. Don - risky ☣️ Professor Ben - risky ☣️ 1: Non-Canonical First Episode — Risky or Not? Food Safety Consumer Research Project: Meal Preparation Experiment Related to Poultry Washing A brief history of chicken washing Should You Wash Chicken? Nutrition Security and Food Safety in Rural Texas - College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources Merch — Risky or Not?

African Agri Council CEO, Ben Leyaka on Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security, with the aim of the day being to uncover the underlying advantages obtained from investing in resilient food systems. Ben also looks ahead to the African Agri Investment Indaba from 18-20 November in Cape Town.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this weekend's episode, three segments from this past week's Washington Journal. First, Hamline University professor David Schultz discusses the role so-called "generational politics" is playing in the presidential campaign – and how the "baby boom" generation is no longer dominating American politics. Then, an update on the investigations into the Secret Service and the assassination attempt on former President Trump with Ellen Gilmer, Senior Reporter for Bloomberg Government. Plus, with concerns about food safety on the rise – a conversation with Barbara Kowalcyk Director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are over 13 million kids heading back to school this month in the U.S. that are living with hunger. Please be inspired by two episodes from our 2022 series on Food is the Most Important School Supply. Hear directly from kids affected by hunger and teachers and school administrators witnessing hunger in the classroom, as well as changemakers from federal, state, and local government that are making sure kids get fed at school. These changemakers include:Dawn Amano-Ige, the First Lady of HawaiiDr. Sara Bleich, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the USDADr. Miguel A. Cardona, United States Secretary of EducationJohn Giles, the Mayor of Mesa, ArizonaJennie Gordon, the First Lady of WyomingLevar Stoney, the Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, andTom Vilsack, United States Secretary of AgricultureWe hope you are moved and inspired to fight childhood hunger. Go to nokidhungry.org to learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Food – it's the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet and it's foundational to human health. So much so that leaders across the economy are uniting the power of food to drive health. It's a new category of innovation called Food is Health and the nation's 2nd largest health insurer, Elevance Health, is investing in this area. Dr. Kofi Essel, Food as Medicine Director at Elevance Health, joins today to talk food preventing, managing and treating disease. Poor diet is one of the leading risk factors for decreased quality of life and premature death. A former pediatrician, Kofi talks about food as medicine being great healthcare and social drivers of health being critical to what happens within the four walls of a doctor's office. He also stresses the importance of thinking beyond those experiencing food insecurity to nutrition security – ensuring access to the right types of food for their overall health. The innovative intersection of human health and food is headed for a revolution – and digital is a big piece of that. Kofi gets into Elevance Health's role in this space and bridging the gap between nutrition supply and demand. As he speaks on hunger as a pervasive problem in the United States, Kofi talks about the innovative solutions that will be needed – and that includes the AgriNovus HungerTech Challenge – designed to create digital solutions that increase access to food and nutrition. How will we know if food is health is making a difference? Kofi talks health outcomes data, costs of healthcare and thinking about nutrition equity no matter your location.

Food – it's the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet and it's foundational to human health. So much so that leaders across the economy are uniting the power of food to drive health. It's a new category of innovation called Food is Health and the nation's 2nd largest health insurer, Elevance Health, is investing in this area. Dr. Kofi Essel, Food as Medicine Director at Elevance Health, joins today to talk food preventing, managing and treating disease. Poor diet is one of the leading risk factors for decreased quality of life and premature death. A former pediatrician, Kofi talks about food as medicine being great healthcare and social drivers of health being critical to what happens within the four walls of a doctor's office. He also stresses the importance of thinking beyond those experiencing food insecurity to nutrition security – ensuring access to the right types of food for their overall health. The innovative intersection of human health and food is headed for a revolution – and digital is a big piece of that. Kofi gets into Elevance Health's role in this space and bridging the gap between nutrition supply and demand. As he speaks on hunger as a pervasive problem in the United States, Kofi talks about the innovative solutions that will be needed – and that includes the AgriNovus HungerTech Challenge – designed to create digital solutions that increase access to food and nutrition.  How will we know if food is health is making a difference? Kofi talks health outcomes data, costs of healthcare and thinking about nutrition equity no matter your location. 

Dr. Caree Cotwright, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA, shares the many programs aimed at ending hunger for children in the United States. Get full information on the blog: https://thenourishedchild.com/blog

CGIAR SEMINAR SERIES Famines and Fragility: Making humanitarian, developmental, and peacebuilding responses work Co-organized by IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) 14:30 TO 16:15 CET JUN 11, 2024 - 9:30 TO 11:15AM EDT Globally, the number of people facing crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity has more than doubled since 2017. The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), which informs the Global Network Against Food Crises on where humanitarian and developmental assistance is most needed, reported 282 million people in 59 food crisis countries faced crisis-levels of acute food insecurity and more than 700,000 people suffered famine in 2023. These numbers have increased with the crises in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti. Conflict and fragility are major drivers of food crises, often compounded by weather extremes and economic shocks. Sound understanding of these drivers and of the structural factors underlying fragility is needed for timely and appropriate crisis responses and for preventative action. However, no one size fits all. Food crisis conditions and drivers vary greatly across countries, and crisis responders continue to face challenges to effective action along the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding (HDP) nexus. As the sixth policy seminar in the CGIAR series on Strengthening Food Systems Resilience, this seminar will take stock of what we know about key drivers of protracted food crises and persistent fragility and about the obstacles to successful HDP action. Speakers will discuss: recent trends in acute food insecurity and their causes; the severity and dynamics of acute malnutrition in rapidly developing food crises, with a focus on new methods of collecting evidence; building resilience to economic shocks in fragile, conflict-affected food crisis countries; and ways to adapt humanitarian assistance, social protection, and livelihood rebuilding programs for fragile contexts with vast numbers of displaced people. Opening Remarks Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI and Managing Director, Systems Transformation Science Group, CGIAR Hendrik Denker, Deputy Head of Division 123, Food and Nutrition Security, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Panel I - Protracted Food Crises: How to break the vicious circle of conflict, climate shocks and economic crises? Global Food Crises and Fragility: Trends and drivers Sara McHattie, Global Coordinator, Food Security Information Network (FSIN) Anticipating and Dealing with Food Crisis Risks: The role of preventative lending windows Sarah Simons, Program Manager, Partnerships & Quality Team, Agriculture and Food Global Practice, The World Bank Addressing Food Crises Through the Humanitarian-Development-Peacebuilding (HDP) Nexus: Challenges and opportunities Mia Beers, Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Panel II – Lessons for Research and Policy from Four Hotspots of Hunger, Famine, and Fragility Famine in Gaza: Questions for food crisis risk monitoring and preventive action in fragile and conflict-ridden contexts Rob Vos, Director Markets, Trade, and Institutions, IFPRI Methodological Innovations for Understanding Myanmar's Current Food Crisis and Post-Conflict Reconstruction Derek Headey, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI Sudan's Imminent Famine: What do we know and what can be done to prevent a major humanitarian disaster? Khalid Siddig, Senior Research Fellow, and Sudan Country Strategy Support Program Leader, IFPRI Moderator Charlotte Hebebrand, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, IFPRI More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/famines-and-fragility-making-humanitarian-developmental-and-peacebuilding-responses-work Subscribe IFPRI Insights newsletter and event announcements at www.ifpri.org/content/newsletter-subscription

Bob Harrington and Mitch Elkind discuss "food is medicine" initiatives and the challenges associated with conducting clinical trials. This podcast is intended for healthcare professionals only. To read a transcript or to comment, visit https://www.medscape.com/author/bob-harrington Health Care by Food Initiative https://healthcarexfood.org/ 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001031 Rockefeller Foundation Food is Medicine https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/initiative/food-is-medicine/ Targeted Scientific Research Projects to Demonstrate Effectiveness of 'Food Is Medicine' in Health Care https://newsroom.heart.org/news/targeted-scientific-research-projects-to-demonstrate-effectiveness-of-food-is-medicine-in-health-care Food Is Medicine: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001182 Medically Tailored Meal Delivery for Diabetes Patients With Food Insecurity: a Randomized Cross-over Trial https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-018-4716-z 'Food Is Medicine' Strategies for Nutrition Security and Cardiometabolic Health Equity: JACC State-of-the-Art Review https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.12.023 Current Landscape of Produce Prescription Programs in the US https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2022.02.011 Behavioral Nudges Are Used Widely to Steer Clinicians and Patients Alike https://doi.org/10.1056/CAT.23.0125 A Primary Care Agenda for Brain Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STR.0000000000000367# You may also like: Hear John Mandrola, MD's summary and perspective on the top cardiology news each week, on This Week in Cardiology https://www.medscape.com/twic Questions or feedback, please contact news@medscape.net

Clarence Ford speaks to Professor Stephen Devereux: NRF Research Chair of the Institute for Social Development at UWC. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this compelling episode of The Healthy Project Podcast, host Corey Dion Lewis welcomes Dr. Alison Brown, a distinguished public health nutrition and health disparities researcher. Dr. Brown shares her extensive insights into the critical intersection of nutrition, cultural humility, and health disparities. Here's what you can expect from this enlightening discussion:Show Notes:In this compelling episode of The Healthy Project Podcast, host Corey Dion Lewis welcomes Dr. Alison Brown, a distinguished public health nutrition and health disparities researcher. Dr. Brown shares her extensive insights into the critical intersection of nutrition, cultural humility, and health disparities. Here's what you can expect from this enlightening discussion:Introduction to Dr. Alison Brown: Learn about Dr. Brown's role at the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, her background in nutrition and health disparities, and what drives her dedication to addressing diet-related diseases.Cultural Humility vs. Cultural Competency: Dr. Brown discusses the importance of cultural humility in understanding and respecting diverse nutritional practices and why it's more appropriate than cultural competency in health care and research.The Impact of Culture on Nutrition: Discover how cultural background influences dietary choices, the significance of culturally appropriate food access, and the challenges faced by communities in maintaining their dietary traditions in the face of health issues like hypertension and diabetes.Food Insecurity and Nutrition Security: A deep dive into the definitions, impacts, and the importance of culturally relevant solutions to food insecurity, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.Addressing Health Disparities: Dr. Brown elaborates on the social determinants of health, including the historic and ongoing challenges of food apartheid, and the need for a multisectoral approach to improve nutrition and health outcomes.Innovative Programs and Solutions: Insight into the "food is medicine" movement, including produce prescription programs and medically tailored meals, and the potential for these initiatives to address dietary disparities with culturally appropriate interventions.Optimism for the Future: Despite the daunting challenges, Dr. Brown shares her hope for the future, emphasizing grassroots efforts, community partnerships, and the critical role of the younger generation in transforming the landscape of public health nutrition.Resources and Recommendations: Dr. Brown highlights valuable resources such as the DASH eating plan and other NIH initiatives aimed at promoting healthier eating habits.This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intricate layers of nutrition, cultural understanding, and health equity. Join us as Dr. Alison Brown offers invaluable perspectives and actionable advice for embracing cultural diversity in the pursuit of healthier communities.Connect with Dr. Alison Brown:LinkedinClosing Thoughts: Corey Dion Lewis wraps up the episode with reflections on the conversation's highlights and a reminder of the importance of culturally informed approaches to health and nutrition.Don't miss this insightful episode of The Healthy Project Podcast, where we explore the power of nutrition and cultural understanding in building a healthier, more equitable world. ★ Support this podcast ★

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

In this episode of the Healthy Project Podcast, host Corey Dion Lewis engages with Holly Freishtat, the Senior Director of Feeding Change at the Milken Institute, in a profound discussion about the transformative role of food in healthcare. Holly shares her extensive experience in the food system, policy making, and her work on pioneering food as medicine initiatives. Delve into how food prescriptions, medically tailored meals, and nutrition security are reshaping the landscape of healthcare and community well-being. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of nutrition, health policy, and community empowerment.Show Notes1. IntroductionWelcome and introduction of guest Holly Freishtat by host Corey Dion Lewis.Overview of the episode's focus on the role of food in medicine and health.2. Holly Freistadt's BackgroundHolly discusses her 25-year career journey in the food system, from farming to food policy.The passion driving her work in food and its influence on health.3. From Local Projects to PolicyInsights into Holly's work in Baltimore, addressing food access and policy.Evolution of her career towards health policy.4. COVID-19 and Nutrition SecurityDiscussion on the impact of the pandemic on nutrition security and food distribution.Efforts in Baltimore, including the distribution of produce boxes.5. Food as Medicine: Concept and ApplicationHolly elaborates on the concept of food as medicine.Different types of food prescriptions and their significance in healthcare.6. Scaling Challenges and SolutionsChallenges in nationwide implementation of food as medicine programs.Issues around policy, technology, and funding.7. Healthcare Provider PerspectivesInsights into how healthcare providers view food prescriptions.The importance of patient-centric approaches in healthcare.8. Nationwide Implementation: Current and Future StateHolly's perspective on the present and future of food as medicine initiatives across the U.S.Connect with HollyFeeding ChangeConnect with The Healthy ProjectLinkedinInstagramFacebookWebsite ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Repast, Michael and Diana welcome Dr. Caree Cotwright, the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service, USDA.  In her role at USDA, Dr. Cotwright leads a whole-of-department approach at USDA to advance food and nutrition security, which is one of USDA Secretary Vilsacks five core priorities.  Dr. Cotwright is on leave from her position as an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the College of Family and Consumer Science at the University of Georgia, where she has been since 2013.  She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Howard University before moving on to UGA, where she completed her master's and doctorate degrees in nutrition.  At the University of Georgia, she conducted early childhood obesity prevention research efforts focusing on youth ages 0-5 using innovative and multidisciplinary methods. Here, Dr. Cotwright notes how her personal background influenced her professional direction, and discusses the USDA's approach to food and nutrition security, scaffolded by the four pillars of (1) providing meaningful nutrition support from pregnancy to birth and beyond; (2) working to connect everyone in this country with healthy, safe, affordable food sources; (3) developing, translating, and enacting nutrition science through partnership including the National MyPlate Strategic Partnerships, and (4) prioritizing equity every step of the way.  She focuses on two specific programs—Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, and the new summer EPT program, scheduled for roll-out in 2024—and how the USDA is working to make MyPlate a household symbol.   You can find Dr. Cotwright's UGA profile here.Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law. You can find more on the USDA's approach to nutrition security here. Learn about USDA's MyPlate initiative here.Follow the MyPlate Instagram at @myplate_gov.Or email pictures of MyPlate in the wild or MyPlate feedback to Caree.Cotwright@usda.gov. You can find the Repast episode with former Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, Dr. Sara Bleich, here.

In today's episode, we welcome Dr. Sara Bleich, a leading policy expert and researcher who specializes in the prevention of diet-related conditions, food insecurity, and racial inequality, as she discusses the critical issues driving inadequate nutrition in underserved populations. We'll explore how access to healthy food options plays a pivotal role in disease prevention and consider the policy changes necessary to combat food insecurity. Sara Bleich is a Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a policy expert and researcher who specializes in diet-related diseases, food insecurity, and racial inequality with more than 180 peer-reviewed publications. Previously Sara served in the Biden Administration as the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “But one of my main messages for you all is that these are problems that are almost entirely preventable.” “I would just really think about how you can in your day-to-day life or in your professional life, how you can facilitate those linkages and raise awareness about the importance of the federal nutrition assistance program.” On This Episode You Will Learn: Poor Diet and Food Insecurity in Underserved Populations Key Factors that drive Poor Diet Relationship Between Income, Food Access, and Poor Nutrition Responsibilities During Biden Administration Main Takeaways of Paper (Co-Author): "Food Insecurity and Diabetes: Overview of Intersections and Potential Dual Solutions" Connect with Yumlish! Website Instagram Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Connect with Dr. Sarah Bleich! Website Twitter LinkedIn --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/yumlish/message

Our guest today is Dr. Caree Cotwright, director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture. Dr. Cotwright is leading a USDA-wide approach to advancing food and nutrition security in the United States. Part of her responsibility includes the charge from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to make MyPlate a household name. MyPlate is the official visual reminder of the US government to make healthy food choices from each of the five food groups. Now, this turns out to be a tall but important order. About a quarter of US adults have heard of MyPlate, according to a recent survey. Interview Summary You came to USDA while on leave from the University of Georgia (UGA) where, by the way, you were the first Black woman in the Department of Nutritional Sciences to earn tenure. Congratulations for this, and please know how much I appreciate the important role that you've played in our field. So, let's start with discussing what drew you to food policy and what makes you excited about your role in public service at USDA? I am really excited about this role because it's just a privilege. When I think about the fact that USDA has the title or has a position for the director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, I get excited about that. It's been a privilege to work on advancing all of the things that have come about because of the White House Conference. I came to nutrition policy really in a kind of a roundabout way. I was working on my master's at UGA and I was doing an internship at the Center for Science and the Public Interest (CSPI). At that time, I was wanting to write on the Nutrition Action Health letter, but they had someone who was mentoring in nutrition policy and that someone was Margo Wootan. She kind of took me under her wing and helped me to learn about what nutrition policy was.  After completing my master's and my PhD, I did my postdoc, and then did a RISE fellowship at the CDC. I was working on disseminating policy around early care and education obesity prevention policies and just really to understand the keen role that policy plays in the advancement of nutrition and policies in general. That was really eye-opening for me. I knew that during my role at University of Georgia as a faculty member that I would focus on both policy and intervention. I've had such a wonderful experience of being able to use different creative approaches, but also using policy. Some of those approaches have earned me the opportunity to talk to a variety of communities in different ways, including having a TED Talk. It's just been a joy to do this work. You've had so many interesting experiences and I could see how you'd be passionate about food policy after spending time at CSPI, especially with Margo Wootan. There aren't many people that know food policy like she does. But one thing I wanted to ask you about is one of the highly novel part of your work and your approach to nutrition has been to incorporate the creative arts, including storytelling. Tell us about this if you would. Storytelling has always been near and dear to my heart. When people ask me about that question, I've been doing it since I was about five years old when I was asked to come and give the commencement speech for my nursery school. I wasn't afraid, it was fun for me, and I just said, "Wow, this is really something that I can do." I enjoyed connecting and engaging with others. As I think about my work, I know that telling stories and using creative approaches to meet people where they are helps us to promote a variety of topics. Of course, it's kind of entertainment education, but using these approaches is a catalyst to get people interested in what we're doing. We know we're competing with so many things that pull people's attention now.  Some of the things that I've done are I have a play about nutrition for young children, I have a hip hop song. I tell stories even in my speeches because I know that when I can connect, people will remember that story. And that's so important. Through my work, I promoted the Child and Adult Care Food program. I worked on the SNAP-Ed program at University of Georgia. We've done creative things like having skits and have enough care to call Healthy Bear that the children relate to. Even in some of our work that I've been blessed to have and had the privilege to work with Robert Wood Johnson Healthy Research to have social media and to use all of these approaches, but to use it to promote health and use it to promote healthy messages and messages specifically about nutrition. That creativity and those approaches are things that I bring to my current position in thinking about how do we engage the public, especially as we continue forward with advancing nutrition security and health equity, as well as making MyPlate a household brand? I love that creativity. I think back on memorable speeches I've heard or talks I've listened to and things, very often, it's the stories that you remember. The fact that you're recognizing that, appreciating that, and perfecting it, I think is really impressive. I'm glad to learn a little bit more about that. Let's talk now about your federal service at the CDC. This was another experience that I know helped shape your interest and your passions and your desire to return to public service at USDA. That's a wonderful question. It was such a wonderful opportunity to come to CDC at a time we were on the cusp of really thinking about how do we develop and disseminate policy related to obesity prevention for our youngest children, age zero to five. I had just finished a postdoc in community-based participatory research at Morgan State University working with Head Start children. At the time when I got to CDC, we had former First Lady Michelle Obama working on Let's Move! One of the key initiatives was Let's Move! Child Care. We modeled the initiative and the work we were doing related to policy on the work of an outstanding researcher. Her name is Dr. Dianne Ward. Not only was she an outstanding researcher, she became a mentor, colleague, and friend of mine. I just have so much admiration for the work that Dianne Ward did and the trailblazing efforts that she did to advance policy in the early care and education setting related to obesity prevention, but also in equity.  So we were working on these things and my task was to go around to stakeholders all across the country and make sure that they understood what we were saying. So again, bringing in that community engagement and the training that I had, I said, "We can't just put this on a website and say, 'Hey everybody, you should go out and do this.' We have to go in and teach people and train people and explain it." Fortunately, my mentor there, Dr. Reynolds and Heidi Blanck, they agreed. I was able to go out and help to disseminate the policy, and again, it gave me such a strong and firm understanding of how to really relate.  I'll tell you just a quick story. At the time, I didn't have kids, Kelly, and we were talking about these obesity prevention policies and we said, "Okay, no screen time for children under two," and those things. It wasn't until I had kids and I thought, "Well, how do you do that?" Because it has to be realistic and you have to think about how these policies work on the ground. As I talk to childcare providers, as I talk to stakeholders, as I talk to people working at the state level across the country, we help gain an understanding for just how these policies will go into place and gain support for policy implementation because we can't do the work without the people who are working on the ground level. Two things I want to make note of that you just said. First is if it's easy to to talk about how children should be fed and learn about food until you have them, and then all of a sudden, it gets a lot more complicated, I know. But the other thing I'm grateful that you did was to pay tribute to Dianne Ward. Many of our listeners may know she was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and recently passed away. There are people all over the country in the world who were just broken hearted by this because she was such a dear friend and colleague to many of us, and just a completely inspired researcher who wanted to make a difference in the world and really did. It's not surprising that she touched you and your professional career in such positive ways and that's true of a lot of us. I'm really happy that we were able to talk about her for a moment. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity. Let's talk more about your current position at USDA now. Can you tell us what your primary responsibilities are and what your vision is for your work ahead? Yes. My primary responsibilities are to advance the work of food and nutrition security and health equity. I know that's a part of my title, but we really are working to make sure that people are able to get access to the food they need. Our definition is that nutrition security means that everyone has equitable access and consistent access to healthy, safe, and affordable food that is optimal for their wellbeing. We do this at USDA through four pillars. We think about having meaningful support for nutrition and nutrition education, making sure that people have access to that healthy, safe, and affordable food, making sure that we work through collaborative action through partnerships, and then making sure that we prioritize equity every step of the way.  When you think about USDA and the programs that FNS has and the programs that we are working on in our mission area, we have lots of opportunities to advance nutrition security because our work is just so closely related. I work very closely with our programs and I work a lot with our stakeholders, both internally and externally, to make sure that people are aware of the work that we're doing. But not only that, that we are leveraging things like the historic White House Conference, making sure that we have lots of commitments from people all over. We've had over $8 billion of commitments. But making sure that with our stakeholders and our partners, that we lean into new creative approaches that will help us to reach our goals. We have some really big goals to end hunger, to improve nutrition, physical activity, and to reduce diet-related diseases and disparities. We are holding ourselves accountable and making sure that we're getting the word out and making sure that we're partnering in very meaningful ways.  A part of my larger vision is a part of the secretary's vision, which is to make MyPlate a household brand. We think about what does that mean? We want to make sure, you said early on that about 25% of Americans are aware of this tool, but we want to make sure that not only are they aware, but they use the wonderful resources that are attached to MyPlate because it is our federal symbol for healthy eating. It's heartening to hear about your vision and to understand the kind of progress that's being made to advance food and nutrition security, and also to specifically leverage some of the commitments that were made at the White House Conference. In addition to what the federal government can do, are there things that individuals can do like our listeners, for example, or the ways they can help? Yes, and I'm so glad you brought up your listeners because that's so important. So every voice matters. And so all of our actions add up collectively. I've heard up from some wonderful, wonderful people in West Virginia and Oklahoma, just all across the country. When I go out and speak and I tell people, "You have to help me with this mission of making MyPlate of household brand." They sent me back things that they're doing. Creative things like setting up kids farmers' markets, popup markets in places like hardware stores that don't traditionally do that. But they will set it up and let a farmer come in and set up a popup shop, and then they provide the tokens through some of our wonderful programs like SNAP-Ed and FNA. When we think about these creative solutions where there are already existing things, but we're solving a problem, we're solving that access problem. Just thinking about that and making sure that we are all collectively working together, we want to hear from you. We want to hear from you. I always give out my email. It's caree.cartwright@usda.gov. We want to hear from your ideas. We also have our pillar pages on our website. If you just look at nutrition security at USDA, we have our pillar pages so you can learn more. But we also have a very short video where we're talking about the work that we're doing and highlighting that work, and a blog that is attached to that. So again, if you're wanting to promote efforts that we're doing, that's a very quick synopsis and a short way to get it out there to people to spread the word and increase awareness about all of the wonderful things that we're doing to advance food and nutrition security. I never thought of my hardware store as a place to learn about nutrition, but why the heck not? Let's talk about MyPlate a little bit more. What's your role and how are you going to go about trying to make MyPlate a household name? It's a very multi-pronged approach. My role is to bring those creative approaches. One of the things I love about this position is that it's a culmination of so many of the things that I've already been doing. Using my creativity, thinking about the equity focus, and working with our Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. They're a wonderful team. They've already been doing wonderful things on MyPlate but helping to amplify that work and helping to get it out there so we make it a household brand. We have a multi-pronged approach where we'll be using social media. I told you I was able to use that in my research. Not only that but doing things where we're celebrating the great work that people are doing around MyPlate. Like for example, I know in Oklahoma, they had a wonderful day at the capitol and the lieutenant governor was working with students to put food in the right MyPlate categories and making sure that people are aware of them. There are artists making songs about MyPlate. And so, making sure that we are making the public aware of what we're doing. With this multi-pronged approach, we'll be doing listening sessions. We're hearing from people about what can we do better? What do you really like? Are here things that we can change? Really hearing from the community on that level. Then, also thinking about industry and how can industry partner to promote MyPlate and promote those food categories so that people have an understanding of MyPlate and the branding of the icon. Making sure that people recognize MyPlate and the icon and are knowledgeable about the resources that we have. I'm really excited about doing partnerships because this is a one USDA approach. We're going across all levels to make sure that we get the word out about MyPlate. And we do have a MyPlate national strategic partnership with partner organizations all over the country that are already helping us to do this work. We want to attract new partners, to have new partners to come in, and lean in to help us to amplify MyPlate and all the wonderful resources for the public. I'm assuming it's pretty easy to find out about MyPlate online, is that right? It is. It's myplate.gov. It is very simple. All of our materials are branded with that, but it's very simple. You can remember MyPlate, you can remember our website. So it's myplate.gov. You can go directly there and find all of our wonderful resources, and we'll be having more, as I said, on social media. I don't want to forget this point too as well, Kelly. There are cultural adaptations. When I'm out in the field, people ask me about, what about for my culture? What about for the things that I eat? How is MyPlate relevant to that? What I love about MyPlate is that it's so adaptable. During our listening sessions and the work that CNPP is doing, we are working to address that as well. Again, meeting people where they are, having them understand that your cultural foods are healthy foods too, and how do we use MyPlate to guide our healthy choices when we're making our meal choices. Again, you look at the plate, half the plate is fruits and vegetables and that can be from a variety of sources and a variety of cultures and preparations and lots of different foods. And so we want to make sure that people are understanding that and that we get the word out there. Bio Dr. Caree Jackson Cotwright serves as the Director of Nutrition Security and Heath Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In this role, Dr. Cotwright leads a whole-of-Department approach to advancing food and nutrition security. She also serves as one of two Departmental representatives on accelerating action on the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health goals to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce diet-related diseases and disparities and implementing the corresponding National Strategy. Her work includes building public awareness of USDA's actions to advance food and nutrition security, as well as collaborating and building partnerships with key stakeholders to maximize our reach and impact. Dr. Cotwright is on leave as an Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences in the University of Georgia's College of Family and Consumer Sciences' Department of Nutritional Sciences. Her research centers on promoting healthy eating among infants through age five-years-old with a particular focus on accelerating health equity among historically underserved populations via community-based participatory research and focusing on developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining best practices and policies in the early child education setting. She has developed a variety of innovative interventions, which use theater, media, and other arts-based approaches. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and secured over $1M in grants focused on obesity prevention and health equity from Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the USDA. From 2010-2013, she worked as an ORISE Research Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, where she was highly engaged in the early care education elements of the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative dedicated to helping kids and families lead healthier lives. Dr. Cotwright holds a PhD in Foods and Nutrition and Community Nutrition and MS in Foods and Nutrition both from the University of Georgia and a bachelor's degree in Biology from Howard University and is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. She lives in Athens, GA with her loving husband and adorable three daughters.  

In a world where malnutrition poses a significant threat to the growth and development of children, India takes center stage with its groundbreaking public investment in food and nutrition security. These investments are essential pillars for survival, prosperity, and stability, holding the potential to unlock demographic dividends. Today, we have the privilege of being joined by Dr. Sujeet Ranjan, Associate Director, Tata Trusts (Nutrition), as we delve into these critical issues. In this episode, we explore the pivotal role of sustainable food security in a nation's survival, well-being, economic growth, and stability, drawing upon the insights and expertise of Dr. Sujeet Ranjan.

Dr. Caree J. Cotwright, an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, was recently named the director of nutrition security and health equity for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cotwright talks with Rose about her new role and how the U.S. is addressing health equity, obesity and improving access to healthy food.Plus, Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate from the University of Georgia, discusses weather models that show Atlanta could experience its hottest temperatures in three decades this summer. Shepherd also talks about how people of color are disproportionately affected by climate change, summer heat and storms.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're looking at food waste and loss on an international scale. Did you know that over 1/3 of the world's food is lost or wasted? In low- and middle-income countries, over 40% of food loss occurs before a crop even makes it to the market. This food loss undermines efforts to end hunger and malnutrition. Wasted food contributes 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing this challenge is critical to global food security, nutrition, and climate change mitigation. Interview Summary   Norbert: Ahmed, let's begin with a question for you. Can you tell our listeners why USAID has decided to prioritize addressing food loss and waste?   Ahmed: Thank you, Norbert. Food loss and waste is increasingly a part of our global agenda, whether we are talking about food security and nutrition, economic growth, or climate change. As you mentioned, 30 to 40% of food produced is either lost or wasted throughout the farm to consumer supply chain. Many of USAID partner countries lose up to 35% of their food annually at multiple points. In the field due to spoilage and damage, while being transported or stored, and when it goes unused by consumers. Nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat are highly perishable and often lost due to bruising or spoilage, thus decreasing nutrient-rich foods in the market. These losses equate to one out of every four calories intended for human consumption, enough to feed 2 billion people. According to the World Resource Institute, just a 25% reduction in food loss and waste across the world would decrease the food calorie gap by 12%.   On the climate mitigation side, emission from food loss and waste create nearly 8 to 10% of all greenhouse gas emission. If food loss and waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter. The global food crisis requires us to think about accelerated pace of change, and in many ways food loss and waste is a low-hanging fruit. The investment in time and energy to grow it are already made. Now we are maximizing its benefit. There really is a huge opportunity. Food loss and waste is a triple win. It will improve nutrition and food security. It will improve income for small order farmers, but also for others all along the supply chain, so it can be a force multiplier for job creation. It is a great entry point for our agenda for improving opportunity for women and youth, so it has an equity component, and it is important for addressing climate crisis.   Brenna: Nika, turning to you. I understand that part of your role at USAID is to produce a podcast called "Kitchen Sink Food Loss and Waste." What was the rationale and objective of creating the podcast, and what are your plans for the future?   Nika: The monthly USAID "Kitchen Sink Food Loss and Waste" podcast was an idea born from the USAID community of practice to increase awareness and promote knowledge sharing among USAID staff, implementing partners, and development professionals. The podcast began with a 101 episode, explaining what food loss and waste is, why we should care, and how we can reduce it. We have episodes featuring experts speaking on technical topics ranging from the role of the private sector and youth in reducing food loss and waste, to solutions that include post-harvest handling innovations and cold chain. In a special December 2022 episode with USAID's Dina Esposito, Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, together with Senior Climate Advisor Ann Vaughan, the episode explores USAID's prioritization of food loss and waste, and the triple win opportunities inherent in food loss and waste programming, that engages women and youth while emphasizing nutrition.   We are now available wherever you listen to podcasts. Each episode has an audio-only format, as well as a video recording that can be found on YouTube. We hope to reach a wider audience, including organizations, private sector members, and individuals interested in reducing their own food loss and waste. We have some exciting upcoming episodes with different formats, including a food loss and waste storytelling episode with a dramatic reenactment similar to "This American Life," and case studies for missions.   Ultimately, it is our goal to increase the frequency of episodes to two per month, and to continue to feature high-level speakers and technical experts, including our inter-agency colleagues. The podcast has proven to be a great way to connect internally and externally, and has sparked excitement and interesting conversations. I love receiving emails from individuals I haven't previously interacted with because of their interest in the podcast. And we're always open to suggestions for topics and speakers, so I encourage anyone listening to reach out. The podcast is a new medium for us, and one that has not only been successful in raising awareness, but has also been quite fun to work on.   Brenna: Norbert and I have been doing this for a little bit, and it is really fun to talk to other people about food loss and waste, and thanks so much for sharing what you all are doing. It seems really fun to listen to a dramatic reading about food waste, so I'll have to watch for that in the future. Ahmed, turning to you now. Could you talk about what USAID is doing internationally to address food loss and waste and incorporate climate and methane mitigation?   Ahmed: Thank you for this question and I'm glad you asked it. At the UN Food System Summit last year USAID announced its commitment to address food loss and waste, including investing $60 million over five years in new research contributing to critical evidence-driven solutions to reduce food loss and waste. This includes support for Feed the Future, the US Government Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative led by USAID. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Post-Harvest Loss Reduction is working in with collaboration in Ghana to locally produce technologies that will thoroughly dry and safely store grains for future use. Technologies like this are critical as more than 750,000 metric tons of maize are lost each year to rot and disease across the country contribute to over half million metric tons of greenhouse gases. The Women Poultry Association has adopted these technologies to help them overcome those harvest challenges. With the proper drying and the storage of maize enabled by these technologies, farmers and association member, Josephine Evans, has been able to increase her flock of birds from 1000 to 50,000 over five years. Successes like these have helped farmers endure a historic climate change related maize shortage and continue providing animal source food to maintain food and nutrition security.   Additionally, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling has been doing some exciting work with youth in Kenya, linking youth groups with agro-dealers to incentivize youth to sell food loss and waste reducing imports such as hermetic bags and moisture meters to smallholder farmers who were underserved by existing input supply chains. The Innovation Lab and their Kenya partners worked with over 300 youth and did a randomized control study to look at what was most successful. Youth were given a small amount of imports, for example, bags to sell to farmers. Youth with existing assets like motorcycles or small businesses made net profit of $75 a month, while youth with less assets only made $10 more a month and were less successful in sale. Figuring out how to make sure we can help uplift youth at all income levels will be important. These examples highlight how food loss and waste initiatives can be beneficial for growing the income of women and youth along with improving nutrition.   Additionally, we also invested supplemental funds provided by the US Congress in response to the global food security crisis. Part of these supplemental funds were used to fund food loss and waste partnership facility. It's currently open for application by small and medium enterprises in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Niger and Tanzania. These countries have been hard hit by Russian invasion of Ukraine and have high-level food loss and waste. So this targeted and timely investment can make real difference. Through the market system partnership, food loss and waste partnership facility, businesses can apply for matching grants that will increase the uptake and scaling of technologies and management practices that reduce food loss and waste with any emphasis in nutrition.   As USAID continues to invest in food loss and waste effort, we'll continue to link our work to other sectors. Food loss and waste is not just a climate adaptation initiative but also an important knock in effect for a climate mitigation, especially as reducing food loss and waste reduces methane emission. I think this is one of the most exciting co-benefit that also gets the broader community and world excited about reducing food loss and waste. Methane is emitted when food brought in the field and transport at market which happens there is not proper storage and of course when food is wasted and thrown out by consumers or wholesalers. According to the IPCC, methane accounts for 30 to 50% global warming. The United Nation Environmental Unit estimates that food loss and waste is associated with methane emission near 50 metric ton per year. Additional measures like a shift to renewable energy and reduction of food loss and waste can reduce methane emission by 15% by 2030. So if we can cut methane emission, as called for by the Global Methane Pledge, by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030 which could eliminate over 0.2 degrees warming by 2050 and really buy us more time to deal with other gases that are contributing to climate crisis and making the world a more dangerous place.   Brenna: Thanks so much for sharing those opportunities with us, Ahmed and all the progress that's already being made in this space.   Norbert: Nika, let's turn back to you. What is USAID doing to keep food loss and waste as a development agenda priority?   Nika: Thanks, Norbert. Happy to share how USAID is ensuring that food loss and waste remains a priority. We recently launched a food loss and waste community of practice, which brings together our Feed the Future Innovation Lab research partners, private sector businesses, the World Bank and Foundations, along with USAID staff in DC and in our missions to exchange ideas, identify priority focus areas and advance new partnerships. We also have six food loss and waste, "upstander missions." So named because they will no longer be bystanders to food loss and waste, but are ready to take action to advance this agenda within their food security portfolios.   At last year's COP27 climate conference there was not only an agriculture theme day, there were also six pavilions on food and an important emphasis on food systems featuring several food loss and waste panels. COP28 will include even more focus on food systems, which will create exciting momentum for food loss and waste. We would love to see food loss and waste as a standalone session or initiative at COP 28.   The US government has joined The Food is Never Waste Coalition, working with Champions 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030 and to reduce food losses by at least 25% with a goal of creating more sustainable and resilient food systems. USAID engages with our inter-agency colleagues including USDA, EPA, and FDA to promote strategic engagement on food loss and waste issues. We have several exciting international food loss and waste workshops in the planning phase for this year.   Of course, we are trying to amplify our messages and promote knowledge management, including through the USAID Kitchen Sink Podcast and by hosting food loss and waste theme months on the Agrilinks website to share learnings and success stories. Country specific data can really help move the needle forward. We're excited to be working with IFPRI, who has done a deep dive on the economic impacts of reducing food loss and waste. While there are some caveats to the research, cutting food loss and waste in half in Nigeria, for example, could increase GDP by one to 2%, while decreasing poverty and hunger by 4.4%. That's huge and that will get the attention of finance ministers and other policymakers who are essential to making changes.   Norbert: Wow! Thank you for that response and I'm so impressed by the systemic view that you all are taking both in terms of looking across the food supply chain and how your agency works with other agencies across the federal government and also other international organizations. That's really wonderful work. I would like to learn a little more about the link between food loss and waste and the food safety agenda.   Nika: I'm glad you brought up the food systems approach because that is definitely an emphasis at the agency and food safety is of course, part of that. I joined the agency as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the food safety division. So, the linkages between food loss and waste and food safety are near and dear to me and as we say in the food safety division safe food is saved food. In a world where as many as 830 million go to bed hungry every night and 420,000 die from unsafe food every year, we cannot afford to lose food due to poor post-harvest management and contamination. Moreover, nutrient dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat are often highly perishable and lost due to bruising or spoilage, thus decreasing the availability of nutrient-rich foods on the market. Just a 25% reduction in food loss and waste across the world would decrease the food calorie gap by 12%. Improving cold chain logistics, storage facilities and food processing technologies can improve food safety and reduce food loss, improving agricultural led economic growth. Technologies to reduce food waste can also help improve food safety and shelf life. For example, practices or technologies that improve post-harvest handling and processing, transportation and cold chain can improve food safety and reduce food loss and waste due to spoilage. Food that is lost or unsafe cannot be sold. Leading to losses in revenue and impacts on food security and nutrition due to decreases in the amount of food available. Improving food safety systems improves food loss and waste efforts directly and indirectly while increasing access to nutritious food.   Bios   Nika Larian is a Food Loss and Waste Advisor in the Center for Nutrition within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Resilience and Food Security. Dr. Larian is passionate about the intersection of nutrition, food safety, and climate sustainability. Nika is the producer of the USAID Kitchen Sink Food Loss and Waste Podcast and Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Coordination Plan (GNCP) Food Safety Technical Working Group. Previously, she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at USAID, working as a Food Systems Advisor. Nika received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Kentucky in 2019. Her doctoral research explored the effects of environment pollutants on human health, namely diabetes and obesity. Working at USAID, she has provided technical assistance and policy guidance on US Government nutrition strategies and engaged with colleagues across the interagency. Ahmed Kablan is a Senior Science Advisor, Center for Nutrition/Food Safety Division/Bureau for Resilience and Food Security/USAID. Dr. Kablan manages several research programs in the area of Nutritious and Safe Foods that includes the Food Safety Innovation Lab, Post-harvest Loss Reduction Innovation lab. Dr. Kablan leads the Nutrition Center's efforts on Food loss and waste, food safety and nutrition research; member of the Interagency Risk Assessment Committee (IRAC), member of the Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research (ICHNR), member of the external advisory boards for the Partnership for Aflatoxin in Africa (PACA), the Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation lab, The Golden Rice & the Food Safety Innovation Lab. Dr. Kablan is a co-lead of the USAID Food Loss and Waste (FLW) community of practices, representing USAID on the UNFSS Food is never a waste Coalition and member of the interagency food loss and waste working group. Dr. Kablan leads the center for nutrition efforts on climate change and food systems and is a member of the USAID climate change technical working group and the USG Climate Change, Food Systems, Nutrition Security, and the Interagency Climate Change and Human Health Group (CCHHG) under the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Dr. Kablan has wide technical expertise in nutrition, food Safety, nutrition-related non-communicable diseases, double burden of malnutrition, metabolic syndrome, food safety & public health.  

Caroline Smith DeWaal, Deputy Director of EatSafe at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), joins Caitlin Welsh to discuss the centrality of food safety to food and nutrition security, and how it is often overlooked in global food policy frameworks. Ms. DeWaal explains how EatSafe became a Feed the Future project addressing food safety in traditional food markets in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Ms. Welsh and Ms. DeWaal wrap up the final episode of Reset the Table's second season discussing the relationship between climate change and food safety, and how this was addressed at the recent Codex Committee on Food Hygiene meeting in San Diego. 

Today, we continue our last episode's discussion around federal efforts to understand and combat food insecurity. We discuss policies and programs that provide nutrition assistance with Dr. Sara Bleich, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity. We'll talk about updates in nutrition assistance programs aimed at providing more equitable aid and the important role education and community engagement play in feeding America. 

Hunger is a reality, but it is also a solvable problem. While millions of kids face hunger everyday, we can make sure every kid gets the food they need to grow up healthy, happy, and strong. The second episode in Add Passion and Stir's series on why food is the most important school supply connects with changemakers from federal, state, and local government and community organizations that are working to solve childhood hunger in America. Their solution: making sure kids get feed while they are at school. The episode features: Dawn Amano-Ige, First Lady of HawaiiDr. Sara Bleich, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, USDADr. Miguel A. Cardona, Secretary of EducationJohn Giles, Mayor, Mesa, ArizonaJennie Gordon, First Lady of WyomingLevar Stoney, Mayor, Richmond, VirginiaTom Vilsack, Secretary of AgricultureSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives and policymakers at the local, state, and federal level are seeking solutions to myriad problems, including health workforce burnout, ensuring food security and maintaining safety-net services, and keeping schools safely open. This program looks at effective and emerging policies and practices around food and nutrition security. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38197]

8-10-22 AJ DailyExplore New Avenues at Angus ConventionAdapted from an article by Jera Pipkin, American Angus Association Drought-stricken Ranchers Hear From the Experts Adapted from a release by Kay Ledbetter, Texas AgriLife Communications USDA Invests Nearly $8 Million to Improve Dietary Health and Nutrition Security Adapted from a release by the USDA Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Journal. For more Angus news, visit angusjournal.net. 

This month on Repast, Michael and Diana talk with a very special guest, Dr. Sara Bleich, the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service, USDA.   Dr. Bleich is leading the department's work to counter food and nutrition insecurity in the United States.  In this episode, Dr. Bleich discusses the USDA's Actions on Nutrition Security, the difference between food security and nutrition security, health equity, structural racism, the upcoming historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, and much more.Dr. Sara Bleich is on leave from her tenured position as a Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  She is a well-regarded public health policy expert specializing in food and nutrition policy and the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. Her research centers on food insecurity, as well as racial injustice within the social safety net. Dr. Bleich holds a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia University.In the first year of the Biden administration, Dr. Bleich served as Senior Advisor for COVID-19 in the Office of the Secretary. In January 2022, she transitioned to her new role as the first Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at USDA.  She will elaborate more on this role today.  From 2015-2016, she served as a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration, where she worked in USDA as a Senior Policy Advisor for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services and with the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Initiative.  Michael T. Roberts is the Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.Diana Winters is the Deputy Director of the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy at UCLA Law.  For more on the USDA's Actions on Nutrition Security, see here.See here for Secretary Vilsack's address on the USDA's Actions on Nutrition Security.See here for the USDA's new blog series on nutrition security.Look here for information about the upcoming White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.  

Poor nutrition is the leading cause of health issues in the United States, with nearly three in four American adults being overweight or obese, and obesity in children and young people being equally concerning. Today, we're talking with Dr. Sara Bleich, the new Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture. Dr. Bleich is leading the department's overall effort to tackle food and nutrition insecurity in the United States. Interview Summary   Sara, it's always wonderful to chat with you, and doing so in different roles that you've been in. So last time we spoke, you were doing full-time work as a professor at Harvard, and now you're in this vital position at USDA. I mean, personally, I can't think of anyone more capable and qualified for this kind of work. And so I'd like to begin by asking if you could explain the purview of your work at USDA.   I'd be happy to, and thank you. It's really kind of you to say that. And I do want to just underscore that for me, it really is an honor to have the opportunity to serve in this role and to help some of these populations that I care a lot about. And I do feel like so many folks in the public health community have been so generous with their time, their expertise, and have given really valuable feedback, so just really want to say thank you to those of you who are listening. You know who you are. You've really been a wonderful sounding board.   So in terms of my transition to federal government, at the start of the Biden administration, I took a leave. I was previously at the Harvard School of Public Health, this was in January of 2021, and I spent the first year as the Senior Advisor for COVID in the Office of the Secretary. And now, in the second year of the administration, I have this new hat, which you mentioned, which is serving as the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, and this is within the Food Nutrition Service. So what's really interesting for me is that both of these jobs are brand new to USDA, so it's been really fun to sort of craft them and have the opportunity to sort of start fresh and take on these new responsibilities in very important areas. Now, one thing that they both have reminded me of is just how much I love federal service. This is my second tour of duty in government, and I honestly thought, the first time around, that I wouldn't like it so much, but I have fallen in love with federal service, I really love working at USDA, it's such a fun place to work, and I think that's largely because it has such a broad and diverse mission, so it touches the lives of 330 million Americans every day. I don't know of another job where you can have that sort of impact. So for me, it's great to be back. It's great to have an opportunity to serve, and it's especially nice to be able to do it in a topic area that I have worked on in my professional life, from the academic side, for so many years.   The enormous impact that this federal work has is clear, from what you just said, and everybody knows this, and in any administration, the country really relies on the service of people like you who are willing to take on these important tasks, so I'd like to say how much I appreciate you doing that. So it's heartening to know that the USDA is making nutrition security a key priority, and it's noteworthy that the term food security has become food and nutrition security. Can you explain why this transition has occurred in terminology and how is nutrition security being operationalized?   Great question. Really glad you asked it, because we are hearing a fair amount of confusion about the concept of nutrition security itself. And then how does it differ from the longstanding efforts at USDA to address food insecurity. So let's start with, first of all, what is nutrition security? So the concept is designed, or aims, to help us better recognize the coexistence of food insecurity and diet-related diseases and disparities. So specifically, what nutrition security means is consistent access, availability, and affordability of foods and beverages that promote wellbeing and prevent disease, and in some cases, treat disease. And this is particularly true among racial/ethnic minority populations, lower-income populations, and rural and remote populations, which includes tribal communities. Now, at USDA, nutrition security builds on and complements our efforts around food security, but it's different in two distinct ways. The first is that it, it being nutrition security, recognizes that we're not all maintaining an active healthy life that's consistent with federal recommendations, and the second is that it emphasizes taking an equity lens to our efforts. So put simply, you can think of nutrition security as having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food. Now, many listeners may be aware of this definition, and may realize that it directly builds on the JAMA commentary by Dr. Dari Mozaffarian, my assistant, Dr. Sheila Fleischhacker, and Chef Jose R Andres, that came out a little over a year ago. So right now, what we're spending a whole lot of time doing, and that's why it's such a privilege to be on this podcast, is really trying to clearly articulate that definition of nutrition security to a broad range of audiences to really try to get everyone on the same page about what we're doing and how it is a complement to these long-standing efforts around food insecurity.   I'd like to explore this concept just a little bit more. So if you go back to when the country really started to take hunger seriously, in the 1960s, if the term security had been used back then, it probably would've been calorie insecurity, wouldn't it? There was an effort just to get food to people, irrespective of what it was, because they just needed to get more calories in them. But that's given way to a much more sophisticated concept that, if I'm hearing you right, not only do you want to get food to people, but the kind of food that specifically promotes health.   That's exactly right. So what we know right now about burden of disease in the US is that every year, about 600,000 people die because of diet-related conditions. Those are preventable deaths. So the burden of disease looks very different than it did 40 or 50 years ago. And so at USDA, now, what we're concerned about is not just giving people calories or food that fills up their fridge, but we want to give them calories or food that is also going to promote their health and their wellbeing, and that is the critical pivot, and the point that we're at right now, with all the messaging that we're doing, with how we're positioning the programs, and how we're prioritizing action as we move forward.   Sara, when we began the podcast, we talked about the very high rates of obesity in the country, and now you're talking about food insecurity, which people used to refer to as hunger, and a lot of people would see these as the opposite ends of the same spectrum, that they're somehow different and disconnected from one another, but they're not. Would you care to comment on that?   Food insecurity and obesity are definitely related. They often coexist. So we know, for example, that both food insecurity and excess body weight, which you can think of as obesity, they tend to be aggregated among historically disadvantaged populations. So communities of color, low-income populations. And because these two conditions coexist, it's really important to think about how do we use the power of the federal nutrition assistance programs to help move people out of food insecurity and toward nutrition security. And the power of the federal nutrition safety net is that it has a number of programs which are designed to do both. So, for example, if we look at SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formally known as food stamps, it helps about 41 million Americans - in fact, more than 41 million Americans, afford food each month. There's strong evidence which suggests that it pulls people away from food insecurity, so it lifts families out of hunger. But what we also know is that with the historic reevaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the calculation that underlies the size of the SNAP benefit that increased the benefit amount by 21%. This happened back in the fall of '21. What that does is, it puts healthy food within reach for so many participants who are on SNAP. So we view this change to SNAP, this reevaluation, which is the first permanent increase in over 45 years, we view this as core to our nutrition security efforts because it allows families to actually purchase food and put those foods within reach that are going to promote their health and their wellbeing.   Thanks for that explanation. So it sounds like some of your work lies at a very interesting intersection of two important priorities of the current administration. So on one hand, you have USDA Secretary Vilsack's goal of promoting and elevating nutrition security, which you've discussed, but also the President's goal of advancing racial equity. So what things are happening at this particular intersection of USDA?   Well, first I'll say this is an exciting time to be in government because there is so much focus on core issues that matter a lot. And so a key reason why the Secretary of Agriculture, which is Secretary Vilsack, the key reason why he is so passionately focused on nutrition security is really due to the pandemic, and the President's goal of advancing racial equity. So what we all know is that COVID-19 brought health disparities and the vital need for access to healthy food right up to the forefront. There's a study, which many listeners may be familiar with, which estimated that nearly two thirds of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States were due to four diet-related conditions: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure. And so for this reason, given the disproportionate impact of COVID, its impact on diet-related conditions, and we know that it really disproportionately impacted communities of color, equity is central to our work to promote and elevate nutrition security. And so just to keep us all on the same page, let me just quickly say what we mean by equity: everyone having an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life possible, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make. But when we talk about equity that also dovetails with considerations around the context in which we live. This means we also have to consider structural racism, and this is how we bring in the racial equity lens. So structural racism is not just individuals having prejudices, but it's also when racism gets produced and reproduced by laws and by rules. It becomes embedded in the economy, and so therefore, confronting racism requires that we don't just change how individuals think, but we also start to transform policies. In our efforts to build awareness around nutrition security, we are also making very concerted efforts to explain how structural racism is real, it reaches back to the beginnings of US history, and it stretches across our institutions and economy. So we emphasize that structural racism harms health in ways that can be described, measured, and dismantled. And this is a really important needle to thread as we think about nutrition security, because social disadvantage is not random. It has real roots that we need to acknowledge, and then address wherever possible. So for example, we know that there are disparities in diet-related conditions that have existed for decades, and those are associated with structural limitations to retail food outlets that sell healthier foods, among a whole host of other longstanding historical inequities. And this is where the work of nutrition security comes in, where we at USDA, and hopefully, all the listeners of this podcast, can really make a difference.   So I would challenge you all to lean in and ask yourself how can you be part of the solution. And maybe that's asking a critical research question, maybe it's trying to help connect eligible individuals with the federal nutrition assistance programs, but there are so many opportunities to promote and elevate nutrition security. And the key, going back to your question, is that the President cares about this, the Secretary of Agriculture cares about this. This is a window of opportunity to really make a difference in people's lives. And so I think that we really want to lean in as much as possible and take advantage of it.   This work is really important, so following up on something you just said about ways that people can engage with this process, so what kind of things are you seeing on the horizon, and what are the best ways for people who might be listening, to engage?   So I think it's going to depend on the lane that you sit in. If you're listening to this podcast and you're a researcher, I would ask yourself, "Given the data that I've collected, given the data that I plan to collect, could I do a secondary analysis that might help me understand some of the impacts of the COVID flexibilities that have happened during the pandemic?" For example, there was a temporary increase to the SNAP benefit, and then that became a permanent increase. There have been hundreds of waivers that have been issued which have made the programs more easily accessible. So for example, with WIC, you don't have to go in in person, you can do meetings over the phone. There are all sorts of things, all sorts of program modifications that have happened, and USDA doesn't have the bandwidth to do all that evaluation. So I'd say if you're a researcher, look at how your existing data, your existing portfolio, may be able to answer other important questions.   Second, if you are industry, or if you're somehow in the private sector, ask yourself, "What could I do to lean in on this?" For example, there is a waiver that's allowed, it's called the SNAP Incentive Waiver. Retailers can apply for this and it allows them to incentivize SNAP participants to purchase things like fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole grains that are in alignment with the dietary guidelines for Americans. This has been around for a few years, and it's a really nice way that retailers could take advantage of an existing waiver to try to help promote healthy eating purchases among SNAP participants. Which, again, covers about 41 million Americans each month. There are so many different ways to think about leaning in on this particular issue. And I would say that one of the things that we have really tried hard to do over the past several months is that we at USDA are trying to really clearly define our role. How we are trying to make a difference - with the hope that it makes it obvious how others can do complementary activities, because yes - we are investing tens of billions of dollars towards this portfolio. We are very serious about it. This is a top priority. But USDA alone cannot solve the problem of diet-related diseases and disparities. It is going to take a whole-government, if not whole-country approach. And so this is where creative ideas about how to make a difference, leveraging existing resources, is where many of you who are listening can make a difference.   Thanks for that. By the way, this focus on equity and this idea that the whole country can engage to help address these issues feels very optimistic, and just like there's hope for the future of really addressing these problems in a fundamentally different way. So back to your career: you've been in both academics and in federal service, as you mentioned earlier. So what makes you passionate about nutrition security as an issue, and do you have advice for people that might be interested in federal service?   I love questions like this, largely because when I was starting off my career, it would've been so helpful to hear what motivates people. So for me, my north star is that I've always wanted to help historically underserved populations, communities of color. How do I help them achieve a better quality of life? I'm from inner-city Baltimore. I have a twin sister and an older brother. My parents still live in the same house that I was raised in, and they were public school teachers, they're now retired, and when we were young, our family received food stamps, now SNAP, we received WIC, we received school meals. So I've always been very motivated to give back to the communities that have given me so much. And I think that our current reality is that every child and every person in this country doesn't have an equal opportunity to live a healthy life. And that's not the way that it should be. So every day, I am very, very motivated to ask myself what can I do to help push us in that direction, and push us in a meaningful way. I think the challenge is always, you can push hard but you want to push hard on things that are moveable, where you can actually make a difference. Because everything is all about timing and you want to just be very strategic about where you're going to make investments or put your energy in an area. Because this is where there's an opportunity. And I would say that if we can achieve nutrition security, it is going to change people's lives. Diet-related diseases are preventable. Hundreds of thousands of people a year don't have to die from them. And that's particularly true among communities of color. I think that many of you listening probably feel the same, but these are things that need to change. As I mentioned earlier, I do think we are at a moment where there's a window of opportunity to make a difference. And I would say, more practically, if you're interested in federal service, I would strongly encourage you to just throw your hat in the ring and apply. So you can either go through the career staff route, you could go through the political route. If you go through the career staff route, the Food Nutrition Service at USDA is going to be hiring about 450 people in the not-too-distant future, and that process has started, so I would look at usajobs.gov and see what looks interesting. And I would also consider some of the political jobs, thinking about different fellowships that would allow you to insert yourself. I never expected to love government so much. I never expected to come back again, this is my second tour of duty, but I have just absolutely loved it. And then personally, it's such a pleasure to be able to work on the programs that I was able to benefit from as a child. So for me, it motivates me. I find it very exciting. And I think that for those who are in research and that choose to spend some time in government, I truly think it will make you a better researcher, because what it will teach you is that not every important question is urgent, and what are the urgent questions on which you should really focus your energy.   Speaker Bio   Sara Bleich, PhD was named Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service in January 2022. Since joining the Biden-Harris Administration in January 2021, Bleich has served as Senior Advisor for COVID-19 in the Office of the Secretary. Previously, she served as a Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research centers on food insecurity, as well as racial injustice within the social safety net. She is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. From 2015-2016, she served as a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration, where she worked in USDA as a Senior Policy Advisor for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. Bleich holds a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia University.  

Part two of Clancy's conversation “Trauma-Informed Nutritional Security” is with Kristi Mollner. Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at Maricopa County Public Health and as a private contractor, Kristi has over 10 years of experience working with various government food programming and other child and community nutrition programs. In every part of her work, she centers trauma-informed care. For more podcast details, visit: https://fooddignitymovement.org/podcast/episode-108-trauma-informed-nutrition-security-part-2-a-todays-dietitian-spring-symposium-feature/ 

“Trauma-Informed Nutritional Security” is a term coined by the organization Leah's Pantry. We're lucky enough to have their Executive Director, Adrienne Markworth, on the show today explaining what that term means. Adrienne's work recognizes how stress affect everyone's health and behavior, avoids shaming folks for their choices and circumstances, and pushes for resilience.

Our guests today are Melissa Plugh-Prescott from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition on campus and Emily Siebert, a Program Assistant at Campus Rec with the Food Assistance and Wellbeing Program. We will be starting the conversation about food insecurity, it's growing concern among college populations and the impact it can have on one's wellbeing. Melissa will share research while Emily will share resources and bring awareness to the food pantry at Campus Recreation. Resources: Food Resources » Community of Care » Illinois Food Assistance & Well-Being Program – Campus Recreation (illinois.edu) Eastern Illinois Foodbank : Home (eifoodbank.org) Hours & Locations - WESLEY FOOD PANTRY (wesleypantry.org) ----- Want to connect with us? Leave us a voice message through our Anchor Homepage (anchor.fm/mckinley-health-center) or email us at mhcmarketing@illinois.edu. Also be sure to follow us on our social media pages for more health and wellness content. Instagram: @mckinleyhealthcenter (https://www.instagram.com/mckinleyhealthcenter/) YouTube: @McKinleyHealthCenter (https://www.youtube.com/user/MHCMcTV) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mckinley-health-center/message

What does "Food as Medicine" mean when it comes to improving nutrition security? Sidney Daigle from the Institute for Public Health Innovation and Brittney Drakeford from The Capital Market, a community-based farmers' market, share how hyper-local programs like Prince George's Fresh are helping our neighbors in the DMV have better access to healthy foods. Show Notes:  Institute for Public Health Innovation (institutephi.org) Food Equity Council: Prince George's County (pgcfec.org): focuses on creating policies and programs that support county residents in growing, selling, and choosing healthy foods. Prince George's Fresh - Institute for Public Health Innovation (institutephi.org) The Capital Market: The Capital Market is a farmers' market focused on building community and business opportunities for BIPOC residents in the 20743 zip code. Richard Rothstein: “The Color of Law" - Bing video

When it comes to initiatives from the United States Presidential  Administration things can become contentious. President Biden's signature initiative is the Build Back Better Plan, one in which he promised to the American people to help the middle class.Host Paul Lawrence Vann was competitively selected and was a Capitol Hill Fellow for a member of Congress, he was assigned to the U.S. House of Representatives. That's not all, Paul was enrolled in the legislative studies with the Georgetown University, Government Affairs Institute, he knows how Congress works because he worked on Capitol Hill for a year.What is the Build Back Better Plan?This framework will set the United States on course to meet its climate goals, create millions of good-paying jobs, enable more Americans to join and remain in the labor force, and grow the U.S. economy from the bottom up and the middle out.The Build Back Better Plan makes an investment in children and caregiving, this transformative plan offers universal and free preschool for all 3-4-year-olds, it represents the largest expansion of universal and free education in over 100 years. This plan makes the largest investment in child care in U.S. history, saving American families more than half of their spending on childcare.The Build Back Better plan provides the largest effort to combat climate change. This plan delivers substantial consumer rebates and tax credits to reduce costs for middle-class families shifting to clean energy and electrification.The Biden Administration's Build Back Better Plan also will provide the biggest expansion of affordable health care in a decade, it reduces prescription drug costs. The Plan also strengthens the Affordable Care Act and reduces premiums for nine million Americans.The Build Back Better Plan's most significant effort is to bring down costs and strengthen the middle class. It will make the single largest and most comprehensive investment in affordable housing in history and extend the expanded earned income tax credit for around 17 million low-income wage workers.The Build Back Better Plan is fully paid for: Combined with savings from repealing the Trump Administration's rebate rule, the plan is fully paid for by asking more from the very largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The 2017 tax cut delivered a windfall to them, and this would help reverse that—and invest in the country's future. No one making under $400,000 will pay a penny more in taxes.In the end, there is a likelihood the Build Back Better Plan will be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote in January. I believe President Biden's signature initiative will be passed and it will help the American people and our economy as a whole. Keep your eye out for this in early 2022 and call your member of Congress to get them to support the Build Back Better Plan.Tune in and listen to up to 168 episodes of Wealth Academy Podcast at https://bit.ly/3n84XSF      

The prison system ruptures families and relationships in a way that makes it harder for offenders to rehabilitate. Newly declassified documents show how the FBI tried to discredit Martin Luther King, Jr. at the time of his death. Food stamps don't make people healthier. Also, on today's show: unlocking letterlocking; the remarkable staying power of Lord of the Rings; how crabs can protect endangered reefs. (AP Photo/File)

Haley Rudolph, Sr. Development Director from the American Heart Association joins the podcast to tell us about the Hard Hats with Hearts event coming up on Oct 6th at Crane bay, downtown Along with her is Kurt Stahl, COO at Wurster Construction and the chair of Hard Hats with Hearts. Hard Hats with Heart is an industry-specific initiative from the American Heart Association set out to improve the cardiovascular health of those working within the construction industry. The campaign's focus is to integrate health, well-being and prevention solutions into the culture of the industry. It brings professionals together from across the construction and health care industries for an evening of networking and celebration. The driving mission of the AHA is to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Through initiatives such as Hard Hats with Heart, we continue to fund groundbreaking research, improve patient care, and help people lower their risks of cardiovascular diseases by focusing in on these 5 areas:1. Women's health2. Research including COVID-193. Tobacco and E-cigarette Cessation4. Controlling Hypertension and Chronic Conditions5. Healthy Living which includes Nutrition Security and Mental Wellbeing. The event is next week on Wednesday, October 6th from 4-7 pm at the Crane Bay Event Center. It is an exclusive event, but for those interested in attending, tickets can now be purchased for $500 a ticket on our event website www.heart.org/indyhhwh. Anyone interested in just supporting the cause can also make a donation through the same website. If you have any question or need more information from Haley or Kurt you can reach out to them at Haley.rudolph@heart.org and kurt@wursterconstruction.com A Perfect PromotionLiz Schawblschwab@aperfectpromotion.comwww.aperfectpromotion.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Patty's Contact: PattyKeaneRD@gmail.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/pattykeane/10:00 Partnership for a Healthier America12:00 Chronic Disease and Food Insecurity 12:35 Food Insecurity and Depression in Women 20:00 Childhood food management strategies 22:00 Report on the impact of food insecurity and hunger on children 31:00 Child Nutrition Reauthorization 33:40 Breakfast after the Bell 34:40 NM Appleseed 41:24 The Zuni Pilot of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program took place in 200641:42 NM Grown/Farm to School44:30 Study finds that school meals are the healthiest food kids eat48:25 Lunch Shaming49:10: The Universal School Meals Program Act 

Evidence-based Policy relies on strong data and measurements. So if you want to improve a development target like nutrition, you need to be able to measure that. But with fisheries and aquaculture, we often don't have the metrics we need to make sound policy decisions. This podcast is a part of a series on fisheries and nutrition and a movement to bring fisheries into international food policy and programming.   Interview Summary   Welcome to the Leading Voices in Food podcast. I'm Sarah Zoubek, associate director of the World Food Policy Center at Duke University. My co-host today is World Food Policy Center alum and Michigan State University, fisheries social scientist Abigail Bennett.   We've got another full house of guests today with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's ecologist and epidemiologist, Chris Golden and fisheries planning analyst, Nicole Franz at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.   So I'll just jump right in, garbage in and garbage out, is what I often hear researchers say when referring to making decisions based on bad data or essentially no data. In your view, what are some of the most important data and information gaps for fisheries and aquaculture, and then subsequently for developing policy that promotes their contributions to food and nutrition security.   Chris - One of the most interesting things is that as a society, we still don't know who is eating what and where. So we have all of this data on food production around the world. We have data on trade in many cases, but we don't really know who's eating things. What types of food they're eating, why they're eating it. And so all of these data are essential for us to understand food behaviors, nutritional status, and the emergence of sustainable food systems. Thinking about aquatic foods, we also have these same types of issues. Consumption data is really patchy. We also really don't understand how food is being distributed geographically within a nation by socioeconomic status, age group, or gender dynamics, we really struggle to understand how policies that increase aquatic food production or environmental changes that might shock aquatic food production, might have downstream effects on people's lives.   Nicole - Chris, you already pointed out really crucial gaps. So I would just like to compliment with two more. And the first relates to the nutritional value of diverse types of aquatic foods. Aquatic foods provide micronutrients and essential fatty acids, and obviously in a very different way between these different products. The nutritional value of a white fish filet is very different from the nutritional value of a portion of small dried fish that is consumed whole. And this small dried fish for example, is particularly important as part of the diet of large amounts of people, particularly in Africa, but also in Asia. So better understanding those nutritional values of the different aquatic food products can really make a major difference in ensuring that those who are most in need have access to highly nutritious and aquatic foods. For example, one way to use that knowledge and apply that information is through targeted school feeding programs.   A second data and information gap relates to the origin of aquatic food supplies. We often talk about catch about the production volume but there's less information currently available on the underlying production system. So who is catching that fish and what species is produced by what kind of production system. National catch statistics are usually not differentiating for example between large scale and small scale fisheries. But knowing these underlying production systems is really of crucial importance to inform food security and nutrition sensitive policies. Small-scale fisheries for example, they tend to fish a larger variety of species than industrial fisheries. And this variety then also tends to be consumed while what is coming from industrial fisheries, a good part of the catch is often not used for human consumption.   In 2012, the World Bank, FAO and WorldFish worked together on a study that was called Hidden Harvest: The Global Contribution of Capture Fisheries. And in that study, it emerged that half of the global catch in developing countries is in fact produced by small scale fisheries. Even more importantly, the study found that between 90 and 95% of the small scale fisheries landings are destined directly for human consumption. So this really provides a strong justification to understand what the underlying production system is, because it has policy implications.   Abigail - Nicole I'd like to ask you a little bit more about the Illuminating Hidden Harvest study that you mentioned and the kinds of data and metrics it uses to understand the contributions of small scale fisheries in particular to food and nutrition security.   Nicole - Thanks Abby. In fact, the Illuminating Hidden Harvest study was inspired by the 2012 Hidden Harvest study. It is expanding the scope to better capture the nutrition and food security aspects in relation to small scale fisheries. So we're partnering with WorldFish and with Duke University for the production of this Illuminating Hidden Harvest study. And this is an attempt to contribute to closing, or maybe at least narrowing some of the current data and information gaps by providing more evidence on how small scale fisheries in particular contributes to sustainable development. The methods we have developed consists in data that we collected from 58 countries and territories. We also have submitted a survey that was replied to by over 100 countries, and we're also drawing on existing global databases. So we're combining all of this information in order to better understand the contribution of small scale fisheries to sustainable development.   One of the things we're doing in the nutrition work is building on work that was conducted by Christina Hicks from Lancaster University to model the nutrient content from fish. This is also an attempt to model nutrient content more widely, and this should be helping to value catch in terms of nutrition rather than only in terms of economic value. The catches from small scale fisheries are really very valuable in terms of nutrient richness, especially in terms of calcium of iron and zinc. And these are three nutrients that are often lacking in the diets in particular in low and middle-income countries. So these findings are incredibly important from a policy standpoint because they're showing the need to secure small-scale fisheries production systems in the context of growing competition over access to water in coastal areas, but it really underlines the need to maintain those important food production systems that are servicing so much nutrients to in particular, the most vulnerable and marginalized parts of populations.   Within the Hidden Harvest study, we're also using an indicator of household proximity to fisheries to understand better how the consumption of fish supports the nutritional benefits of the consumers. And this has really helped to illuminate how important fisheries are for the diets, especially for some groups within the population, including children between six and 24 months, which is really critical window for nutrition. So having access to affordable nutritious aquatic food is fundamental and using this indicator of household proximity to fisheries, has really helped us to visualize how the benefits from small scale fisheries are distributed within a country.   Abigail - Thanks, Nicole, that's really exciting. How can listeners access the results when they're available or keep up with the study as it progresses?   Nicole - We have a website and we're also sending out newsletter and we're sharing how the study is progressing. And we are planning to release a study at the end of the year, and it will obviously be available online on the pages of the three three partner organizations, FAO, WorldFish and Duke University.   Sarah - Chris, you had mentioned various databases. Can you explain a little bit more how that's filling the data gaps for diet and nutrient considerations for fisheries and aquaculture? What are we measuring here?   Chris - There are so many different types of databases in different parts of the world being produced by different users and all of them are so important, particularly in the ways that they can be used together. I'm going to list the ones that I've used in my own work or am aware of. The Global Nutrient Database is jointly produced by FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization) and IHME (the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation). And it produces an integrated nutrient supply estimate for all foods that are produced with the expectation that they are being consumed at the national level. And so you have consumption data that is then matched under nutrient composition tables to understand approximately the nutrient supply at the national level. If you do some modeling to estimate how those national supplies are being consumed at sub national level across age and sex groups, you can actually make estimates of nutrient deficiencies at the national level. This becomes really important in terms of targeting what types of food interventions or nutritional interventions need to be undertaken at national scales.   There's also something called the Global Dietary Database based at Tufts University that has aggregated most of the world's 24 hour recall data considered to be the gold standard for dietary assessment and has aggregated all data that was conducted in nationally representative ways, I think it's for more than 80 countries, to understand how food items are consumed, how they're distributed sub nationally. And so the information within that, that allows us to have an idea of how the Global Nutrient Database might be disaggregated at sub-national scales.   There's also a database called GENuS, Global Expanded Nutrient Supply Database. This is a unique database in that it is completely open access, it can be found online in the Harvard Dataverse and it also produces nutrient supply estimates that uses the FAOs food balance sheet data, and then assigns nutrient composition data to the food balance sheet data and corrects for ways in which production might actually be translated into consumption.   The last thing that I'll mention is that we have recently developed something called the Aquatic Food Composition Database. We noticed how important the diversity of production systems of species, of the parts of fish that people were consuming and how little we knew about the nutrient value of those different parts of fish. And we went through a systematic scoping review of all of the data that was available in the peer reviewed literature. We went through all of the national food composition tables, and we wove that together into one integrated database and we called it the Aquatic Food Composition Database. And this has more than 3000 different aquatic food species, inclusive of both plant and animal source foods, an entire suite of different nutrients. From iron, zinc, individual fatty acids, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B12, etc. And then also classifies data based on whether it was wild, farmed, what geographical region it was produced in, and the part of the fish that is being tested. So whether it's the filet, the liver, a whole fish, whether it's dried or fresh. So any processing that is involved before the nutrient analysis was done. I think with all of these different methods, all of these different databases, putting together all of these data and disparate parts, and these unconnected databases will be incredibly important to understanding how we can create more efficient, more sustainable and more nutritious food systems.   Abigail - Chris and Nicole, you both laid an amazing amount of work out on the table. And it's really exciting because it does seem like the field is inching closer to being able to connect some of those dots and do some triangulation on some areas where there's some uncertainty and data gaps. And so yeah, I do want to circle back around to this initial question that we posed, which is so what is the significance of this work collectively for policymaking? What does this data enable us to measure about fisheries and agriculture and what are some of the implications for making better policy?   Chris - I think one of the things to look at is the way that the aquaculture industry is really revolutionizing feed. We know that aquatic foods on average are so much more sustainable and have a much lighter environmental footprint than a vast array of different forms of animal source foods. So when we put it in that context, to think about the way in which feed products that go into agriculture, which is the dominant form of environmental impact for most of them and the way that they're being completely transformed by these interesting tech companies, to look at ways that we can use plant feeds with adopted or generated nutrient profiles that really improve the ultimate end product of nutrition. I think that that is something to definitely keep a lookout for, that will have incredible policy impact in terms of developing sustainable food systems.   And so one of the things that my team has been looking at is the degree to which fisheries management and specifically marine protected areas, could actually serve as a nutritional intervention. Conservation as a process could actually be not only a biodiversity and an environmental intervention, but also a public health intervention. And so the idea that a marine protected area could rehabilitate a fishery, provide spillover and increasing access to seafood to adjacent communities, is something that I think is so exciting to really reframe that mentally. And then to see if we can actually quantify the benefits of conservation to human health.   Abigail - And Chris does that serve as even an additional justification for fisheries conservation? Is it useful in that sense as well to kind of reframe these things like that?   Chris - I think so, absolutely. I think the degree to which we can think of all of these different sectors as serving multiple different purposes of the resource. And so to think of fisheries exclusively in an economic sense, really undermines so much of its true value and might lead to mismanagement from a fisheries management standpoint.   Abigail – Nicole, I want to turn it over to you and ask the same question. What types of policies do you think might emerge from a lot of the work in filling data and information gaps?   Nicole - I fully agree with what Chris just mentioned, and I think hopefully one of the major results of better data and information is that there's more integrated analysis across different policy domains, such as fisheries and nutrition. It would really allow for more coherence also across new policies. For example, these broader livelihood dimensions that are coming from the fisheries are really emerging and are valued. So by having this data, the fishery sector will really gain more recognition because currently we see often that it's overlooked, it's not taken into account even in food security and nutrition strategies in many countries. So by having more evidence about these values and these multiple functions of aquatic food within societies, this really should help better policy making and help to optimize the outcomes of these different policies that are playing together in a more coherent way.   There are a number of new global policy processes and policy instruments developing, taking aquatic foods more into consideration. One example are the Voluntary Guidelines for Food Systems and Nutrition. These Voluntary Guidelines were endorsed earlier this year and they specifically include aquatic foods. And we also see now in the preparations for the UN Food Systems Summit, that aquatic foods is entering more and more the preparatory process of this UN Food Systems Summit. They often call it blue foods instead of aquatic foods. But we see now that the attention is growing and that the number of informal dialogues and the number of events are organized around that theme because there is this recognition, that aquatic food is really part of the system and it generates all of these health benefits, which ultimately play out positively for society.   Sarah – And now one final question. What are you most excited about that's on the horizon for aquatic, or as Nicole said, blue foods?   Nicole - I'm excited about this increasing recognition of aquatic foods, beyond the fisheries policy domain. And one example, there's the UN, they just released for the first time a discussion paper specifically on the role of aquatic foods in sustainable healthy diets. I think that that is really quite important. This paper sets out a number of recommendations on how aquatic foods are part of the solution to really building resilient food systems and sustainable, healthy diets. There's one recommendation that specifically calls to democratize knowledge, data, and technologies, and to co-create meaningful knowledge and usable innovations. And that recognition of the role of data and information in this report, I think is quite powerful. And I hope that it will really kick off more work and more attention, and also the possibility to bring together all of the existing knowledge. Chris mentioned before, there are so many databases already out there, there's so much information, but this might be an opportunity to really connect all of these better and build analysis around it, that then can really be the evidence base for policy making in the future.   Chris - I completely agree with Nicole, this increasing recognition of fish and aquatic food products, it is incredibly important to elevate this recognition of how undervalued aquatic foods have been in the global food system. And one of the things I'm most excited about is not only raising the profile of that, but also integrating it and linking it directly into the terrestrial food system. We can't any longer deal with these two things as separate entities. There are enormous feedbacks in terms of the forage fish that are then used as fertilizer or feeds in terrestrial food systems, and the ways in which terrestrial food production, then leaches into affecting our rivers and lakes and coastal water systems. We can't think of these things as detached. We have to think of them as one integrative and holistic food system. Sarah - I wanted to mention, Chris, the paper that you noted is called Recognize Fish as Food in Policy Discourse and Development Funding.

Fact-Checking Presidents, Nutrition Security, Dictator Faces, Women of Pan-Am, Lead in Pipes

On POWER Business with Tumisang Ndlovu, the CEO at Operation Hunger Sandy Bukula sheds light on nutrition security as a human right.      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Abebe Menkir has been breeding maize for over 20 years. He currently heads the maize breeding department at CGIAR-IITA. Menkir talks to Patricia Nanteza about the need to increase agricultural resilience in the face of climate change and global pandemics such as COVID-19. Maize, especially the orange variety, can provide the vitamin A necessary to boost immunity and also meet the body's energy requirements.

Our food systems are bankrupting our health systems, accelerating climate change and using natural resources in an unsustainable way. Most people agree they need to be transformed to change this. But how? Food systems are complex and offer many entry points for change. In addition, the data to describe food systems and their performance is scattered and not interoperable. In effect we are flying blind in our journey to change food systems for the better. The Food System Dashboard (https://bioethics.jhu.edu/research-and-outreach/projects/global-food/current-projects/the-food-systems-dashboard/ ), developed by GAIN and Johns Hopkins University in collaboration with iTech Mission, University of Michigan, and Euromonitor, responds to this challenge. It brings together extant data from public and private sources to help decision makers diagnose their food systems and identify all their levers of change and the ones that need to be pulled first. Following presentation of the Food Systems Dashboard, commentatotors will reflect on data and indicators as well as on implications for developing countries. Speakers - Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics; Director for Johns Hopkins Global Food Ethics and Policy Program, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) - Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) - Arun Kapuria, CEO, iTech Mission Discussant - Inge Brouwer, Associate Professor of Food and Nutrition Security, Wageningen University & Research, and A4NH Flagship Leader of Food Systems for Healthier Diets - Olivier Ecker, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI - Gina Kennedy, Theme leader, Diet Diversity for Nutrition and Health, Bioversity International Moderator - John McDermott, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

Food systems in developing countries are undergoing a rapid transformation shaped by global and regional events. But country actions will be critical in shaping future food system outcomes. Some countries are taking a systemic approach to assessing and acting on food system transformation—considering consumption and food environments, food supply and sustainability, health, and socioeconomic outcomes. This seminar ( http://www.ifpri.org/event/food-system-transformations-national-actions-globalized-world ) will introduce this approach, and representatives from Nigeria and Viet Nam will discuss the challenges, opportunities, and trade-offs they encounter in enabling food system actors in their countries. A panel will share insights into how food systems can develop in a healthy, sustainable, and equitable way. Overview -Transforming Food Systems for Healthier Diets: Supporting Actions at a National Scale -Inge Brouwer, Associate Professor of Food and Nutrition Security, Wageningen University & Research, and A4NH Flagship Leader of Food Systems for Healthier Diets Case Studies -Food System Transformation in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges for the Private Sector -Adebowale Akande, Senior Scientist, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) -Policy Actions Around Food System Transformation in Vietnam -Phuong Hong Nguyen, Research Fellow, IFPRI Panel -Stuart Gillespie, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI, and A4NH Flagship Leader, Supporting Policies, Programs and Enabling Action through Research -Martien Van Nieuwkoop, Global Director of Agriculture and Food, World Bank Group -Emmy Simmons, Former Assistant Administrator, US Agency for International Development (USAID), and A4NH Independent Steering Committee member Closing Remarks -John McDermott, Director of CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) Moderator -Ruerd Ruben, Research Coordinator of Food Security, Value Chains, and Impact Analysis, Wageningen University & Research, and A4NH Managing Partner Representative Q&A

This episode, ON KNOWLEDGE, features Ajay Rastogi, founder of the the Foundation for the Contemplation of Nature, Nadia Bergamini from Bioversity International and Reetu Sogani, women’s rights activist for Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Equity and Resilience.

Listen as CSIS Global Food Security Project for the launch of our newest report, Risk and Resilience: Advancing Food and Nutrition Security in Nigeria through Feed the Future , by Julie Howard and Emmy Simmons. The report examines what the new Feed the Future strategy's emphasis on resilience means in Nigeria, one of the newly-designated target countries.

Please join the CSIS Global Food Security Project for the launch of our newest report, Risk and Resilience: Advancing Food and Nutrition Security in Nigeria through Feed the Future, by Julie Howard and Emmy Simmons. The report examines what the new Feed the Future strategy's emphasis on resilience means in Nigeria, one of the newly-designated target countries. Nigeria, with the continent’s largest economy, is arguably the most important partner for the United States in Africa and is on the verge of a critical presidential election. Through the lens of Nigeria, especially the northeast, the report examines the risks and opportunities related to extending the highly-regarded U.S. global hunger and food security initiative to more fragile countries.    The event will feature a dialogue on why the United States’ leadership on global food security, particularly in fragile, climate, and conflict-affected regions, is critical to U.S. national security and reducing global poverty and malnutrition. How can the U.S. adapt its successful experience with facilitating inclusive, private sector driven agricultural development to more fragile environments? Can boosting resilient systems, jobs, incomes, and nutrition in the agricultural sector – where most people live and work – help address the root causes of fragility and conflict in Nigeria and other regions? This event is made possible through the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Panelists Tonya Rawe, Global Policy Lead for Food and Nutrition Security, CARE International FAO’s 2018 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report highlights that for the third consecutive year global hunger has risen, now standing at 821 million people today compared to 804 million last year. This three-year increase represents a reversal of nearly a decade of positive trends in the fight against global hunger. According to the report, which offers a significant update on the shifting global milieu that is affecting people's food security and nutrition, climate variability and conflict are among the key drivers of this worsening trend.

Juan Echanove, the Senior Director of Food and Nutrition Security at CARE talks about how we can do a better job designing a portfolio of projects that use a systems thinking approach instead of creating a host of standalone projects that don't build on each other.

Current social movements have focused an overdue spotlight on the disadvantages faced by women and girls around the world. Join us for a discussion of both the challenges of persistent gender inequality and the inspiring strength and resilience of women and girls, especially vis-à-vis their contributions to food and nutrition security in unstable environments. Natural and manmade disasters often reinforce and even augment gender disparities, undermining women’s prospects for recovery. The long-term and intergenerational consequences of malnutrition are also disproportionately borne by women. In light of compelling evidence that gender-sensitive investments yield impressive returns in agricultural and nutrition programming, are development stakeholders sufficiently focused on women’s empowerment? How can we better harness and leverage the strength of women as change agents in both the humanitarian and development context? This dialogue is part of the joint CSIS Global Food Security Project and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Liaison Office for North America speaker series on agricultural development.

Current social movements have focused an overdue spotlight on the disadvantages faced by women and girls around the world. Join us for a discussion of both the challenges of persistent gender inequality and the inspiring strength and resilience of women and girls, especially vis-à-vis their contributions to food and nutrition security in unstable environments. Natural and manmade disasters often reinforce and even augment gender disparities, undermining women’s prospects for recovery. The long-term and intergenerational consequences of malnutrition are also disproportionately borne by women. In light of compelling evidence that gender-sensitive investments yield impressive returns in agricultural and nutrition programming, are development stakeholders sufficiently focused on women’s empowerment? How can we better harness and leverage the strength of women as change agents in both the humanitarian and development context? This dialogue is part of the joint CSIS Global Food Security Project and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Liaison Office for North America speaker series on agricultural development.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries were asked to present their own climate action plans, and 90 percent of these action plans -- technically called NDCs, for "nationally-determined contributions" -- incorporated farming fixes -- or shiftint to sustainable agriculture. That led to a major breakthrough this week at year-end climate talks here in Bonn, Germany, where our guest is Tonya Rawe, who runs the Food and Nutrition Security program at CARE International. CARE is a humanitarian aid organization formed in the wake of World War II, but it's become a key player in the environmental space as well, especially when subsistence farmers are involved. 

At a global level, the people who produce most of the world’s food – smallholder farmers – are also the people who suffer the most food and nutrition insecurity. Why is this so? And what needs to happen to make smallholder agriculture more nutrition-sensitive? In this seminar, three University of Sydney experts from different areas – public health, veterinary science and human geography – review the problem of food and nutrition insecurity among smallholder communities of the developing world. PANEL Dr Alana Mann (panel chair), a senior lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications; Associate Professor Robyn Alders, Faculty of Veterinary Science and the Charles Perkins Centre and a Director of the KYEEMA Foundation; Fyfe Strachan, Food Justice Program Coordinator at Oxfam Australia. A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute Food@Sydney event http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2014/food@sydney_series_2014.shtml

How will a changing climate affect global food production and global hunger? What do we know and what needs to be done? In March 2014, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change released the 5th Assessment Report of Working Group II, responsible for considering human adaptation to climate change. The Report presented a sobering, state-of-the-art assessment of how forecasts of climate change might affect global food systems. This is a complex area for future-gazing. Key assumptions about the interactions between climate change, agricultural production and the broader food system remain subject to considerable doubt. The panel will address this important set of issues. PANEL Professor Elspeth Probyn, Professor of Gender & Cultural Studies Associate Professor Bill Pritchard, Associate Professor in Human Geography Dr John Ingram, University of Oxford Debbie Hunt, NSW & ACT State Campaign and Engagement Coordinator for Oxfam Australia A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute Food@Sydney event http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2014/food@sydney_series_2014.shtml

Rajul Pandya-Lorch '85 heads the 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment initiative at the International Food Policy Research Institute. She speaks about the current state of global food security and outlines a plan for future improvement. 

International experts participating in the McGill Conference on Global Food Security (Oct 2010) debate the question: “What are the major problems in terms of food and nutrition confronting humanity, and what solutions would best address these problems?”

Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools III (Ryerson University) The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, in partnership with Ryerson's School of Nutrition and the Centre for Studies in Food Security, offers a post-degree Certificate in Food Security. This unique program is offered nowhere else in the world, and can be completed entirely through the convenience of distance education. The Certificate in Food Security introduces students to topics of hunger and poverty, food policy and programs, community development, urban food security and global nutrition. The schools teaching team is recognized internationally in the field and having lived and worked around the globe, they understand the challenges of implementing food security in Canada and the developing world. Backyard Chickens VII (Farming in the City IX) On part VII of our ongoing Backyard Chickens series (a sub-series of Farming in the City, Bucky Buckaw of Radio Boise shares his wisdom on the topics of swine flu and approaching neighbours about your backyard chicken plans, and he introduces listeners to the smallest chicken in the world - the Serama. Guests/Voices Cecilia Rocha, Director, Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University (Toronto, ON) - Cecilia Rocha, PhD in Economics, is an Associate Professor in the School of Nutrition of Ryerson University where she teaches Food Policy and Economics of Food Security. Dr. Rocha is a Research Associate of the Reference Centre for Food and Nutrition Security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Rocha is very active in initiatives involving collaboration between academia and practitioners in the area of food security in Canada and in Brazil. She has volunteered as a member of the Oxfam-Canada Food and Trade Policy Working Group (2003-2005), is a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (since 2006), and the coordinator of the Betinho Project, a partnership between the CSFS, the Stop Community Food Centre, Toronto Food Policy Council, FoodShare Toronto, and a number of volunteers from the Brazilian community in Canada. Her current research interests include assessing the social efficiency of food security initiatives and programs, the role of civil society in governance for food security, and food security issues among immigrant groups in Toronto. Dr. Rocha is also the Director of the CIDA-UPCD project Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil and Angola, and is a collaborator in the CIDA-UPCD project Urban Food Security and HIV-AIDS in Southern Africa, led by the Southern African Research Centre at Queen's University. Bucky Buckaw - Host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (Boise, ID) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.