Jan 28, 2022
Editor’s Note: As correctly put in this article, we need to prioritize equitable access to nutritious foods and agricultural education. We need to step up, voice our concerns, and demand change now more than ever before. We need to close the gaps in the global agricultural system and hold both producers and policy leaders accountable for their words and actions. Kickstart your own urban farming dreams by registering for Agritecture Designer today!
CONTENT SOURCED FROM CIVIL EATS
Dariush Mozaffarian, Marion Nestle, and A-dae Romero-Briones on next steps for greater access to healthier food for all.
As 2021 comes to an end, we take stock of another momentous year that marked massive upheavals in the food system and across society. To lead us into 2022, we asked some of the leading thinkers and doers working on the frontlines of food, justice, and climate to share their thoughts with us about the most pressing issues, what they’ll be working toward in the new year, and what propels them to keep going.
Today, we hear from Dariush Mozaffarian, Marion Nestle, and A-dae Romero-Briones about nutrition research and policy and efforts to improve food and nutrition access.
Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University
In your testimony to the Senate Agriculture Committee, you described a “true national nutrition crisis.” What do you see as the biggest factors contributing to that crisis?
Our food system has dramatically changed over 40 years, and it’s changed in broad ways, from how we grow our food, to how we process it, to how we sell and market and eat it. And those changes together are contributing to a tidal wave of obesity and diet-related illnesses. So, it’s critical that we act upon the drivers of that crisis that we already know and then expand our science to figure out the ones that we don’t understand yet.
What are the big gaps you see from a research perspective?
I would say maybe we know 40 percent of what we need to know about the heart and 25 percent of what we know about diabetes. Every nation in the world has growing [rates of] obesity, and we don’t really understand the drivers of it. [We don’t understand] why we are actually getting more obese. There is also huge disagreement about the best diet for turning this around—a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet, the Paleo diet. Some people say we have to eat natural food. Some people believe it’s all pesticides and additives and we have to eat “clean” food. There’s no consensus.
Finally, we don’t understand the thousands of things that are in our food. There’s evidence that cocoa and green tea might be good for us, but why? How do nutrition and the microbiome impact autism? What about fertility, or brain health? We don’t even understand those conditions. It doesn’t mean we’re paralyzed and we shouldn’t take any actions; but there’s a lot we don’t understand.
What do you think of the efforts taken by the current administration and Congress on food and nutrition policy so far? What is working, and what needs work?
The administration and Congress should be congratulated for addressing acute food insecurity. There have been huge, successful efforts to combat food insecurity through expanding SNAP, emergency waivers for schools, Pandemic EBT, and many other programs. On the flipside, there has been very little done to address nutrition insecurity. If we’re going to get calories to people without working on the nutritional quality of the food, we’ve only solved half the problem.
You’ve called for a national nutrition strategy and a White House conference on nutrition, both as part of a bigger federal government effort. Why do you think these efforts will be effective?
The Government Accountability Office report that came out in September highlighted the challenge and the solution. It identified 200 different federal efforts fragmented across 21 agencies that are aiming to address nutrition. They’re not harmonized, and there is not a strategy to bring them together, so they haven’t been effective. They said very clearly that diet-related diseases are deadly, costly, and preventable and that we need an actual federal plan. If we don’t have a plan, we’re not going to fix the problem.
The last time the federal government sat down and looked at our food and nutrition landscape was in 1969 at the White House Conference [on Food, Nutrition, and Health]. That led to some major changes in our food policy and programming. So, 53 years later, we need to do that again.
Are there any policy initiatives going into 2022 that you think could make a real difference?
There is interest in a White House conference on hunger and health; both the House and the Senate have had bipartisan bills that have proposed it. Secretary Vilsack has said he supports it. If that happens, it has to be accompanied by a commitment from the White House and Congress to actually implement the recommended policy. And I think that could be really positive.
I think that there are at least some members in Congress who understand the principle of “food as medicine,” the fact that the biggest single missing thing in our healthcare system is addressing food, and that there are effective ways to do that, whether it’s produce prescription programs or medically tailored meals.
Nutrition science also has to be advanced. We’re on the cusp of incredible new discoveries and starting to understand nutrition, and if we can accelerate that with stronger science it would be very important. USDA has a pretty big science budget, and if they’re able to shift and ensure that their science focuses on not just agricultural production but on the nexus between production, human health, and sustainability, that would be a big advance. NIH has started to respond to calls for more nutrition science research. They’ve launched a precision nutrition initiative. They’ve created a new office of nutrition research in the office of the director. Those are small changes, but they are changes, so I’m hopeful. And on a more practical political level, there’s the Child Nutrition Reauthorization and the farm bill that have to happen, and so there are opportunities there.
