The Programme in Mediterranean Foodways within the Mediterranean Institute is organising the seminar 'Food Insecurity, Social Inequality and Sustainability'. This seminar will be held on Tuesday 9 April at 18:00 in Hall B1 Gateway Building.
The speaker is Elliot M Berry MD, FRCP (Ministry of Health, Israel and the Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel).
Abstract
The evolutionary history of the concepts of Food Security (FS) and Sustainability have run in parallel for many years. After the food crisis of 2008 Stability was added to definition of FS as a short term time dimension to express the ability to withstand shocks to the food system caused by natural (financial) or man-made disasters. We have proposed that Sustainability be added as a fifth long term time dimension, thus bringing together Food Security and Sustainability.
We have developed a Global Nutrition Index to describe nutritional status with regard to the three dimensions of malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency (hidden hunger) and obesity – all of which are problems of people with food insecurity and of low socio-economic status. In 2015, the United Nations described the seventeen sustainable development goals. We believe that FS involves nearly all of these goals to a greater or lesser extent.
The challenge ahead is to build and integrate food security on the sustainability agenda and vice versa. The final common pathway for all these efforts is for countries to develop their most appropriate Sustainable Food Systems. The Mediterranean diet pattern has the most scientific evidence for health benefits and also an excellent profile regarding environmental impact. The presentation will discuss the practical steps involved in building sustainable food systems, from production to consumption and involving all stakeholders along the value chain.
We have developed a Global Nutrition Index to describe nutritional status with regard to the three dimensions of malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency (hidden hunger) and obesity – all of which are problems of people with food insecurity and of low socio-economic status. In 2015, the United Nations described the seventeen sustainable development goals. We believe that FS involves nearly all of these goals to a greater or lesser extent.
The challenge ahead is to build and integrate food security on the sustainability agenda and vice versa. The final common pathway for all these efforts is for countries to develop their most appropriate Sustainable Food Systems. The Mediterranean diet pattern has the most scientific evidence for health benefits and also an excellent profile regarding environmental impact. The presentation will discuss the practical steps involved in building sustainable food systems, from production to consumption and involving all stakeholders along the value chain.
References
Berry EM, Dernini S, Burlingame B, Meybeck A, Conforti P. Food Security and Sustainability: can one exist without the other? Public Health Nutr. 2015 16:1-10.
Dernini S, Berry EM, Serra-Majem L et al. Med Diet 4.0: the Mediterranean diet with four sustainable benefits. Public Health Nutr. 2016: doi: 10.1017/S1368980016003177.
Peng W, Berry EM. Global nutrition 1990-2015: A shrinking hungry and expanding fat world. PLoS ONE 2018; 13(3): e0194821. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194821
Peng W, Dernini S and Berry EM. Coping With Food Insecurity Using the Sociotype Ecological Framework. Front. Nutr.2018; 5:107. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2018.00107.
Peng, W., Berry, E.M., (2019). The Concept of Food Security. In: Ferranti, P., Berry, E.M., Anderson, J.R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, vol. 2, pp. 1–7. Elsevier. ISBN: 9780128126875.
The speaker - Elliot M. Berry MD, FRCP
Professor Elliot Berry graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK with distinction in medicine. His principal interests are the bio-psycho-social problems of weight regulation from obesity to anorexia nervosa, the metrics of nutritional assessment and the benefits of the Mediterranean diet; his laboratory research investigates the effects of nutrition on cognitive function.
From a synthesis of this work he evolved the concept of the <Sociotype> to understand how people cope with life stress and chronic diseases in general, and food insecurity in particular. Berry has published over 270 articles and chapters in books. He has been a visiting scientist at MIT, a distinguished visiting scholar at Christ’s College, Cambridge and a visiting Professor at Yale University.
Dr Berry has been a consultant for the WHO, the World Bank and the Serbian Government in Public Health and Nutrition. He was the Director of the Braun School of Public Health & Community Medicine (2003-6) and Head of the WHO Collaborating Center in Capacity Building in Public Health (2007-2013). He was a consultant at FAO, Rome (2013-4) where, following his development and publication of the Global Nutrition Index, he worked on indicators for food security and sustainability.
Berry has recently completed, as co-Editor-in-Chief, a three volume Encyclopaedia on Food Security and Sustainability (Elsevier) and he is currently Specialty Chief Editor for Nutrition and Environmental Sustainability as part of Frontiers in Nutrition. These responsibilities align well with membership of the United Nations Multistakeholder committee on Sustainable Food Systems, as part of the 10 year Framework Program.
From a synthesis of this work he evolved the concept of the <Sociotype> to understand how people cope with life stress and chronic diseases in general, and food insecurity in particular. Berry has published over 270 articles and chapters in books. He has been a visiting scientist at MIT, a distinguished visiting scholar at Christ’s College, Cambridge and a visiting Professor at Yale University.
Dr Berry has been a consultant for the WHO, the World Bank and the Serbian Government in Public Health and Nutrition. He was the Director of the Braun School of Public Health & Community Medicine (2003-6) and Head of the WHO Collaborating Center in Capacity Building in Public Health (2007-2013). He was a consultant at FAO, Rome (2013-4) where, following his development and publication of the Global Nutrition Index, he worked on indicators for food security and sustainability.
Berry has recently completed, as co-Editor-in-Chief, a three volume Encyclopaedia on Food Security and Sustainability (Elsevier) and he is currently Specialty Chief Editor for Nutrition and Environmental Sustainability as part of Frontiers in Nutrition. These responsibilities align well with membership of the United Nations Multistakeholder committee on Sustainable Food Systems, as part of the 10 year Framework Program.