Food systems for improved health: linking agricultural production and human nutrition

Objectives: Link traditional agricultural production disciplines to the food sciences and the various disciplines concerned with human nutrition and health in order to find sustainable solutions to malnutrition. Design: Develop a new integrated program area within a university by forging explicit linkages within a wide array of disciplines concerned with food systems and human health. Setting: The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, the Division of Nutrition, and the Cornell international Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. Interventions: Use food-based, system approaches to meet human nutrition goals. Current focus is on the provision of micronutrients (especially iron, vitamin A and iodine) for people globally. Results: A new program area 'Food Systems for Health' has been developed at Cornell University. The program fosters effective interdisciplinary research, teaching and extension activities directed towards sustainable improvements in human nutrition and health. Conclusions: The old paradigms of agriculture, human nutrition, and public health must be shifted from current linear approaches to integrated and interactive approaches if effective long-term, food-based solutions to micronutrient malnutrition are to be found. Sponsorship: Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development and the U.S.D.A.-A.R.S., U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. Descriptors: micronutrient malnutrition, hidden hunger, food systems, agricultural systems, sustainability, interventions.