Many voices have called for the global community to ensure adequate food and nutrition for a growing world population, a goal that must take into account changing climates, both physical and political. The call to feed the planet comes from influential individuals, NGOs, universities, national and international governing bodies, and the private sector.
There is a growing recognition that challenges for security in food and nutrition are more than can be addressed by single actions: real solutions include more than simply increasing food production per se; more than simply increasing availability of clean water; more than better transportation infrastructure; more than increasing supplies of affordable energy; more than improving training and access to communications; more than providing food calories; more than increasing markets; more than access to credit and safety nets for farmers; more than favorable policies from central and regional governments. The complex, integrated system that comprises ‘food and agriculture’ is both broad and deep. All members of the food system must be knowledgeable of the breadth of challenges while taking responsibility for creating a sustainable system that meets global needs. While the scale of the challenges for the global community is significant, it is possible to make changes in the immediate term that can increase the chances of long-term success to achieve food and nutrition security.
Universities, colleges, technical schools, and research laboratories have vital roles to play in improving the ‘food and agriculture system’. However, it is not reasonable to expect that any single institution will have all the necessary expertise and resources required to meet these emerging challenges. Rather, each academic/research institution must recognize its role and responsibility in the complex system if they are to contribute to creating innovative solutions for global food and nutrition security. For example, universities that focus on research, education, and outreach related to food production likely also have strengths in agriculture economics, and agriculture policy programs; but they may be less strong in food safety and nutrition, or in public health. Other research institutions have strengths in fundamental sciences in plant, animal, human biology, medicine, and social sciences but have little expertise in agriculture, agroecology, and sustainability, or water management, and so forth. As a consequence of the nature of how colleges and universities have historically developed and survived financially, very few faculty, and fewer students, have the capacity or incentives to engage across the full spectrum of the food and agriculture system. Moving forward, academic collaborations and larger systems understanding are both essential.
In other words, to build the comprehensive system that the world needs, and to have greater impact, we need to actively expand our research and education collaborations among academic institutions and the private sector. As a result, those that we educate, train and employ will be better suited to compete successfully, to innovate, to contribute and to work towards improved solutions for our food and nutrition challenges.
Developing research and education missions with greater impact in this ‘space’ requires significant changes in institutional, national and international policies and processes. Some changes to be considered in the immediate and near term include:
- 1. For policy and planning institutions:
- a. Commit to making changes that lead to achievable national goals for local and global security in food and nutrition;
- b. Establish roadmaps with clear steps to achieve goals for food and nutrition security; engage the natural and social/policy sciences, and stakeholders spanning all implicit parts of the ‘system’ from the lab/clinic to the consumer’s fork.
- 2. For universities and research institutions:
- a. Ensure commitment of administration, faculty and students to the common mission;
- b. Engage with private sector, funders and other partners to establish common interests and pathways to success;
- c. Commit incentives and seed funds that create interdisciplinary research/teaching activities leading to productive collaborations across and among essential disciplines in the food and agriculture system;
- d. Create changes in the review and reward system to value more innovative research collaborations, goal oriented activities, teaching, communications among faculty and staff with incentives to participate in joint, long term projects.
- 3. For agencies and organizations that fund and facilitate programs:
- a. Develop well-formed programs that lead to goals set forth in the roadmap which can be financially supported by multiple or single sources;
- b. Establish mechanisms to create team-based projects that require trans-disciplinary research and education, while achieving specific goals and with metrics; create disincentives for lack of performance;
- c. Establish mechanisms for sponsoring program activities and for sharing benefits/outcomes;
- d. Measure outcomes against the roadmap, adjust, and move to continue, expand, extend or abandon.
- 4. For corporations and the private sector:
- a. Actively participate as a stakeholder in developing suitable roadmaps that prioritize short and mid-term goals in food and nutrition security, including strategies for developing economies;
- b. Promote collaboration with other companies and agencies to co-fund pre-competitive research that builds knowledge and targets roadmap goals;
- c. Develop collaborative goal oriented research and education programs with universities and institutes that lead to increased global impacts in food and nutrition security and nutrition.
There are those that would consider some of these steps to be inappropriate for universities and academic institutions. Fair enough. On the other hand, it can be argued that unless there is such collaborative engagement, the chances of achieving global security in food and nutrition are lessened: grand challenges require input from as many ‘brains and hands’ as can be mustered.
The challenges facing our food system require a global food system roadmap with proactive collaboration among the world’s academies as well as broader collaboration with governments and the private sector.
Dr. Roger Beachy is Executive Director of the World Food Center at the University of California, Davis. He is also Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2013 he was Founding Executive Director and CEO of the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Beachy was appointed by President Obama to serve as Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from October 2009 through May 2011; and was Chief Scientist of the USDA in 2010.
This article was originally published in the 2014 Global Action Report and the Diplomatic Courier's special edition G7 ebook. The full G7 ebook can be purchased here.
UN Photo/Kibae Park.
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The Urgency for Academic-Business Collaboration: Establishing a Global Food System Roadmap
June 21, 2014
Many voices have called for the global community to ensure adequate food and nutrition for a growing world population, a goal that must take into account changing climates, both physical and political. The call to feed the planet comes from influential individuals, NGOs, universities, national and international governing bodies, and the private sector.
There is a growing recognition that challenges for security in food and nutrition are more than can be addressed by single actions: real solutions include more than simply increasing food production per se; more than simply increasing availability of clean water; more than better transportation infrastructure; more than increasing supplies of affordable energy; more than improving training and access to communications; more than providing food calories; more than increasing markets; more than access to credit and safety nets for farmers; more than favorable policies from central and regional governments. The complex, integrated system that comprises ‘food and agriculture’ is both broad and deep. All members of the food system must be knowledgeable of the breadth of challenges while taking responsibility for creating a sustainable system that meets global needs. While the scale of the challenges for the global community is significant, it is possible to make changes in the immediate term that can increase the chances of long-term success to achieve food and nutrition security.
Universities, colleges, technical schools, and research laboratories have vital roles to play in improving the ‘food and agriculture system’. However, it is not reasonable to expect that any single institution will have all the necessary expertise and resources required to meet these emerging challenges. Rather, each academic/research institution must recognize its role and responsibility in the complex system if they are to contribute to creating innovative solutions for global food and nutrition security. For example, universities that focus on research, education, and outreach related to food production likely also have strengths in agriculture economics, and agriculture policy programs; but they may be less strong in food safety and nutrition, or in public health. Other research institutions have strengths in fundamental sciences in plant, animal, human biology, medicine, and social sciences but have little expertise in agriculture, agroecology, and sustainability, or water management, and so forth. As a consequence of the nature of how colleges and universities have historically developed and survived financially, very few faculty, and fewer students, have the capacity or incentives to engage across the full spectrum of the food and agriculture system. Moving forward, academic collaborations and larger systems understanding are both essential.
In other words, to build the comprehensive system that the world needs, and to have greater impact, we need to actively expand our research and education collaborations among academic institutions and the private sector. As a result, those that we educate, train and employ will be better suited to compete successfully, to innovate, to contribute and to work towards improved solutions for our food and nutrition challenges.
Developing research and education missions with greater impact in this ‘space’ requires significant changes in institutional, national and international policies and processes. Some changes to be considered in the immediate and near term include:
- 1. For policy and planning institutions:
- a. Commit to making changes that lead to achievable national goals for local and global security in food and nutrition;
- b. Establish roadmaps with clear steps to achieve goals for food and nutrition security; engage the natural and social/policy sciences, and stakeholders spanning all implicit parts of the ‘system’ from the lab/clinic to the consumer’s fork.
- 2. For universities and research institutions:
- a. Ensure commitment of administration, faculty and students to the common mission;
- b. Engage with private sector, funders and other partners to establish common interests and pathways to success;
- c. Commit incentives and seed funds that create interdisciplinary research/teaching activities leading to productive collaborations across and among essential disciplines in the food and agriculture system;
- d. Create changes in the review and reward system to value more innovative research collaborations, goal oriented activities, teaching, communications among faculty and staff with incentives to participate in joint, long term projects.
- 3. For agencies and organizations that fund and facilitate programs:
- a. Develop well-formed programs that lead to goals set forth in the roadmap which can be financially supported by multiple or single sources;
- b. Establish mechanisms to create team-based projects that require trans-disciplinary research and education, while achieving specific goals and with metrics; create disincentives for lack of performance;
- c. Establish mechanisms for sponsoring program activities and for sharing benefits/outcomes;
- d. Measure outcomes against the roadmap, adjust, and move to continue, expand, extend or abandon.
- 4. For corporations and the private sector:
- a. Actively participate as a stakeholder in developing suitable roadmaps that prioritize short and mid-term goals in food and nutrition security, including strategies for developing economies;
- b. Promote collaboration with other companies and agencies to co-fund pre-competitive research that builds knowledge and targets roadmap goals;
- c. Develop collaborative goal oriented research and education programs with universities and institutes that lead to increased global impacts in food and nutrition security and nutrition.
There are those that would consider some of these steps to be inappropriate for universities and academic institutions. Fair enough. On the other hand, it can be argued that unless there is such collaborative engagement, the chances of achieving global security in food and nutrition are lessened: grand challenges require input from as many ‘brains and hands’ as can be mustered.
The challenges facing our food system require a global food system roadmap with proactive collaboration among the world’s academies as well as broader collaboration with governments and the private sector.
Dr. Roger Beachy is Executive Director of the World Food Center at the University of California, Davis. He is also Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2013 he was Founding Executive Director and CEO of the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Beachy was appointed by President Obama to serve as Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from October 2009 through May 2011; and was Chief Scientist of the USDA in 2010.
This article was originally published in the 2014 Global Action Report and the Diplomatic Courier's special edition G7 ebook. The full G7 ebook can be purchased here.
UN Photo/Kibae Park.
