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The health(1) and well-being of every person depends on access to sustenance provided by food systems of varying complexity; yet, these systems have evolved with little explicit attention to the quality of their nutrient outputs or their overall abilities to support good health. The nexus of food production and health is nutrition, and poor nutrition diminishes the quality of life for millions of people in both developed and developing areas of the world.
Incorrect nutrition contributes to at least five of the ten leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, atherosclerosis) of Americans. In addition, a fifth of pre-menopausal American women is estimated to be anemic due, in part, to poorly bioavailable dietary iron and low intakes of calcium contribute to metabolic bone disease among post-menopausal women. Deficiencies of vitamins A and C are prevalent among Hispanic and African Americans of lower socioeconomic status. At the same time, the incidence rates of overweight and obesity are increasing. The irony is that a country with the world's most sophisticated food system continues to have diet-related health problems varying from food insecurity to overnutrition. These problems erode the quality of life and have substantial social costs, making them consumer as well as public health issues.
Food and nutrition-related problems
are also national development issues. Malnutrition affects nearly half of
the world's population, particularly the poor in developing nations. Some
840 million people do not to have access to enough food to meet their basic
needs. Some 2 billion people live at risk to diseases resulting from deficiencies
of vitamin A, iodine and iron; most of them are women and children. More
than one-third of the world's children fail to reach their physical growth
and cognitive development potentials due to inadequate diets By potentiating
infectious disease, malnutrition is thought to account for half of all child
deaths. Although impressive gains have been realized in global food production,
the "green revolution" focus on staple grains has decreased
the diversity of many cropping systems and has actually contributed
to micronutrient malnutrition. Clearly, better approaches are needed to
meet the increasing demands of a world that expects to add 2.5 billion people
over the next 25 years.
These consumer, public health and development issues each involve failures of food systems to support good health. Similarly, nutritional interventions targeted to the correction of specific nutrient inadequacies have succeeded only partially and have not proven sustainable in developing countries. The Food Systems for Improved Health (FSIH) Program seeks to overcome these problems by linking agricultural production to human nutrition and health.
1 Health is used to indicate a state of physical, mental and emotional well-being . . . not merely freedom from disease or the absence of any ailment.