AMES, Iowa — In a new effort to address food nutrition and security challenges by leveraging the academic, research and community expertise of land-grant universities, Iowa State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Ohio State University and Purdue University are among the nation’s prominent institutions participating in the Challenge of Change Commission (CCC).

 

“What I like about this report is that it embraces systems thinking and modeling,” said Kendall Lamkey, ISU agronomy chair and professor, and chair of the CCC Sustainable Production Systems working group. (Steven Leath, former ISU president, is also a CCC member.)

Released last month, the report addresses the findings of the working groups, outlines conclusions and suggests actions, receiving feedback from more than 100 leaders of universities, government, non-governmental organizations and businesses as it formulated recommended reforms.

Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and convened by the Assoc. of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the 34-member commission was established by the APLU to examine food security challenges and make recommendations on actions required by public research universities to meet global food needs by 2050.

“The commission brought together experts on food and nutrition security from a range of disciplines and with interests and experience in both developed and developing countries,” said Alex Winter-Nelson, director of the U of I’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Office of International Programs.

“We need this kind of strategy to understand how production systems work, to define appropriate measures of sustainability and to appropriately account for the spatial and temporal scales of agriculture operation.”

According to Purdue, nearly 1 in 9 people were food insecure in 2014-16, including 42.2 million in the United States.

Food security problems – including hunger, obesity, malnutrition, low crop yields, inadequate food storage, poor sanitation and the political instability they create – are poised to intensify unless there is a deliberate effort to create true global food and nutrition security.

Gebisa Ejeta, 2009 World Food Prize Laureate, Purdue distinguished professor of agronomy and director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security, said, “Our world continues to face food security challenges, such as the current famine afflicting over 20 million people in the Horn of Africa, that pose a growing global crisis.

“Our land-grant and public research university systems have a vital role to play in responding to such crises through knowledge and technologies our international educational and research efforts generate.”

The report defined seven challenges for solving global food and nutrition insecurity and details the steps that public research universities, along with partners, must take to address them:

•Increase yields, profitability, and environmental sustainability simultaneously

•Develop the varieties and breeds needed for sustainable food systems

•Decrease food loss and waste through more efficient distribution systems

•Create and share resources that serve all populations

•Ensure inclusive and equitable food systems

•Address the dual burdens of under-nutrition and obesity to ensure full human potential

•Ensure a safe and secure food supply that protects and improves public health

The commission spent a year gathering information for the report and identified four areas that need specific attention, including looking beyond the amount of food produced and focusing on improved storage and distribution.

“The report hits on what is needed to work toward food security,” said Casey Hoy, Kellogg chair in agricultural ecosystems management and OSU faculty director of the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation. “Not just by 2050, but starting now.”

In addition, the CCC recommended a whole-government approach, encouraging multiple federal departments and public agencies to work together on such security, and called on governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada to sponsor research partnerships with universities and other organizations to advance food security solutions.

“Public research universities represent the world’s most powerful resource to address food and nutrition security,” said Peter McPherson, APLU president and a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“The problems of food and nutrition insecurity are so complex and cut across so many areas of expertise.

“That vast array of expertise already exists at our institutions. The challenge is helping to bring public research universities together in a coordinated way, with support from the government and others, to make it a reality.”