College Station, Texas (May 10, 2023) – Texas A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is spearheading a study that focuses on advancing the concept of responsive agriculture and is seeking experts and leaders in the agriculture-food value chain to serve one of its three committees. The committees, along with a recently named Task Force, will help develop a road map to achieve responsive agriculture, an agricultural system and food environment that supports health through nutrition while ensuring the system is economically robust and environmentally sustainable for future generations.
To help facilitate this effort, the IHA has partnered with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Center on Global Food and Agriculture (the Chicago Council) to organize and harness the synergy of these diverse and important committees toward this effort. The new study, titled “A National Roadmap for Responsive Agriculture Solutions,” has already convened a nationwide expert Task Force to guide the development of a national roadmap on priorities that will enable responsive agriculture solutions across the nation. Over the next 18 months, the Task Force will be informed by three committees in the domains of 1) chronic disease reduction, 2) agricultural ecosystems and agriculture-food value chain and 3) securing nutrition equity.
The IHA is seeking experts and leaders to serve on these three committees from across the full spectrum of agriculture-food value chain, including researchers engaged in scientific research and applied agricultural technologies, decision-makers, public health professionals, food and agriculture related industry representatives, professional societies, consumers and policy and medical experts. The intent is to bring together experts who may not traditionally routinely interact or work collaboratively, yet collectively hold the synergistic and unique potential to advance responsive agriculture.
“A collaborative effort of this magnitude is essential to realize the concept of responsive agriculture. We believe that convening experts in this arena will pave the way by creating a roadmap to ultimately reduce diet-related chronic diseases,” said Patrick Stover, Ph.D., director of the IHA and chair of the Task Force.
The Task Force is charged with guiding the development of a final consensus report—a roadmap for action with recommendations useful for various stakeholders across food and health systems, policymakers, funding agencies and decision-makers in the private and public sectors. The expected release date of the Responsive Agriculture Roadmap is mid- to late- 2024.
“With the Task Force, we can use science-driven solutions to improve human health by transforming the food system and environment to achieve equitable access through choices that promote health and nutrition through food,” said Peggy Yih, managing director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council and the Task Force staff study director. “The Chicago Council is incredibly excited to partner with the IHA to facilitate these efforts to enable responsive agriculture solutions to benefit the nation.”
Task Force members include:
- Patrick Stover, Ph.D. (chair), IHA Director
- Regan Bailey, Ph.D., IHA Associate Director for Precision Nutrition
- Catherine Bertini, Chicago Council Distinguished Fellow
- Dan Gustafson, Ph.D., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Special Representative of the Director-General
- Scott Hutchins, former USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics; Global R&D Leader for Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva AgriScience), retired
- A.G. Kawamura, Solutions from the Land Founding Co-Chair
- Elizabeth Parker, D.V.M., IHA Associate Director of International Programs and Strategic Initiatives
- Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., IHA Associate Director for Healthy Living
- Pam Starke-Reed, Ph.D., United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service Deputy Administrator for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Quality
- Bernhard van Lengerich, Ph.D., Seeding The Future Foundation Founder and CEO, General Mills Inc. former Chief Science Officer
Nominations close on June 7, 2023. To learn more about the study, the Task Force, the charges for each of the committees, or the call for nominations, please visit https://iha.tamu.edu/responsive-agriculture-study/.
The United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) is funding the efforts for this study.
About Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
The IHA is the world’s first research institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. The institute partners with the USDA-ARS Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit, in which researchers work with other USDA-ARS programs and land-grant universities nationwide to bring big data, state-of-the-art sensors and computational systems approaches to responsive agriculture, precision nutrition, and behavioral research.
About the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Founded in 1922, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing knowledge and engagement in global affairs. Our in-depth analysis and expert-led research influence policy conversations and inform the insights we share with our growing community. Through accessible content and open dialogue of diverse, fact-based perspectives, we empower more people to help shape our global future. Learn more at globalaffairs.org.
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