Texas A&M leads national conference on elevating agriculture to improve human health

CHICAGO, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) laid out a path forward today to strengthen agriculture's integral role in reducing chronic disease.

The IHA partnered with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to host a "Conference on Agriculture for Health: Priority Setting to Solve the Ultimate Grand Challenge" ­– drawing experts from higher education, agriculture, government and the private and nonprofit sectors.

After presentations by IHA leaders, the USDA's chief scientist and others, leaders across the agriculture and food system organized in small working groups to inform and initiate a process that will set priorities and identify barriers for better aligning sustainable agri-food systems and human health. The IHA over the next year will convene "think tanks" that will publish and present their findings at a national symposium.

"Leaders throughout the agri-food value chain will identify priorities and the best approaches to reduce chronic disease with agriculture and food as the solution," said IHA Director Patrick Stover, Ph.D., who addressed the conference. "There can be a different, better way, but it starts with the best science and an inclusive process that engages the entire agriculture and food system."

The conference is an important milestone for the IHA since it formally opened in January in College Station, Texas, the world's first academic institute fostering research in responsive agriculture, precision nutrition and healthy living.

Bringing those domains together is crucial to inform a national agenda that helps guide decision-makers including private sector, government, and funding agencies, Stover said, amid demands to nurture the health and wellness of a diverse population with diverse needs, ensure the economic viability of agriculture and sustain food production in a changing environment.

"We have the ability to make agriculture and food more responsive to human health, and to do this in a way that promotes environmental sustainability and economic vitality. If we all work together towards shared vision, we can position agriculture as the solution for the benefit of producers, consumers and society as a whole," he said.

The conference highlighted how food, agriculture and nutrition are intrinsically linked, holding the keys to saving lives and cutting health care costs. Other speakers included Peggy Yih, managing director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Catherine Bertini, the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate and Chicago Council Distinguished Fellow; Chavonda Jacobs-Young, chief scientist and under secretary for research, education and economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and Ellen Shanley, president, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

"The science we are discussing at this conference will advance efforts governments are undertaking to improve nutrition security across the country. USDA is ideally suited to help address these challenges because we operate in both research and program delivery in which quality, objective science supports sound policy," Jacobs-Young said.

Yih said the conference will lay critical groundwork on how agriculture and food systems can be better aligned to support long-term solutions that utilize a whole systems approach.

"This represents incredibly important discussions on human, environmental and economic health," she said. "Through the partnership between the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, we can help solve the Ultimate Grand Challenge."

Other IHA conference participants included Regan Bailey, associate director for precision nutrition; Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, associate director for social and behavioral healthy living; and Elizabeth Parker, interim associate director for responsive agriculture.

The IHA, which includes the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit, will work with other ARS units and land-grant universities nationally to bring big data, state-of-the-art sensors and computational systems approaches to responsive agriculture, precision nutrition and healthy living research. For more, visit https://iha.tamu.edu/.

As the largest comprehensive agriculture program nationally, Texas A&M AgriLife brings together a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences within The Texas A&M University System. With over 5,000 employees, and a presence in every county across the state, Texas A&M AgriLife is uniquely positioned to enrich Texas with comprehensive agricultural and life sciences knowledge and services to restore connections among people, agriculture, food, science and the economy.

Media contact
Kendall Bassett
Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
979-314-3415 | [email protected]

SOURCE Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture