Exclusive Workshop Series: The Future of Food

“The Future of Food: Learning from the Pandemic” | This program was co-hosted by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFC-USA) and the National Press Foundation, part of the “Learning from the Pandemic Series”, sponsored by BAYER.

This program was co-hosted by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFC-USA) and the National Press Foundation, part of the “Learning from the Pandemic Series”, sponsored by BAYER. The Association of Foreign Correspondents (AFC) and National Press Foundation are solely responsible for this program's content.

5 TAKEAWAYS from the program:

➀ The pandemic has altered food supply chains, decimated the restaurant industry and heightened food insecurity. Laura Reiley, who covers the business of food for The Washington Post, has focused on the 50 million Americans who are food insecure. Many are experiencing food insecurity for the first time in their lives while suffering shame about their circumstances. Learning how to talk with them is vital.

➁ Obesity and food insecurity are twin problems in the United States and the world. In the U.S., “It’s not so much lack of calories, it’s lack of nutrition,” Reiley said. Globally, 2 billion people lack micronutrients like iron and vitamin A, 155 million children are stunted and 2 billion are obese, said Dr. Walter C. Willett, a Harvard professor of epidemiology, nutrition and medicine.

➂ If the goal is to provide food to all, meat is an inefficient way to do so. Willett noted that animals take calories that could best be consumed by humans. “We feed the very large majority of our grains to animals,” Willett said. “And if we could do one thing, it would be stop feeding grain to animals and eat the grains ourselves in a non-refined way that would make massive improvements in health and environment at the same time.”

➃ The food system is a major contributor to greenhouse gasses and climate change – but change is possible. “We are on a path leading to ecological disasters and a sick and unstable global population,” Willett said. But, he said, “Feeding 10 billion people a healthy and sustainable diet is possible.” A shift to more plant-based protein sources would have a big effect on greenhouse gasses. Replacing one serving of red meat per day with plant proteins has been linked to sharply reduced risk of stroke, heart disease and overall mortality. Making the right moves now could allow food-production greenhouse gasses to stay within the limits necessary to help mitigate climate change.

➄ A healthy diet can be traditional. Willett shared the latest science – based on thousands of students, dozens of meta-analyses – on what constitutes an optimum diet. “It turns out that this is very similar to what Greek men were eating in the 1960s, when at that time they had the healthiest life expectancy in the world,” he said. (See this New York Times piece on the Mediterranean diet, citing Willett.)

WHEN: Wednesday, February 10th at 11 am EDT.

Interactive Transcript

LECTURES IN THIS EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Dr. Walter Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He served as Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard for 25 years. His work has focused on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods to large cohort studies, including nearly 300,000 men and women, that are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of diets. Dr. Willett has published over 2,000 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for cardiometabolic disease and cancer, and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Laura Reiley is the business food reporter for the Washington Post. She was previously a food critic at the Tampa Bay Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Baltimore Sun. She has authored four books in the Moon Handbook series, has cooked professionally, and is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy. In 2017 she was a Pulitzer and James Beard finalist.

Daniel Schrag is the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. He also co-directs the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Dan’s interests include climate change, energy technology, and energy policy. He has studied climate change over the broadest range of Earth’s history, including how climate change and the chemical evolution of the atmosphere influenced the evolution of life in the past and what steps might be taken to prepare for impacts of climate change in the future. From 2009 to 2017, he served on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST), contributing to reports to the President on a variety of topics, including energy technology and national energy policy, agricultural preparedness, climate change, and STEM education.

ATHANASIOS DIMADISFebruary 10, 2021