Nutrition 

Main Contacts for Initiative

Adam Drewnowski, University of Washington, USA
Jessica Fanzo, Johns Hopkins University, USA

AgMIP6 Nutrition Roundtable

By Dave Gustafson, Monday, July 25th, 2016. 

This press release was originally posted by the ILSI research foundation here.

Scientists have recognized for some time that climate change represents a major and growing threat to agricultural production systems. However, a new area of focus has recently emerged involving the complicated linkages between our changing environment, nutrition security, and human health, which are intensified due to our highly interconnected regional and global food systems.

The ILSI Research Foundation is working to advance scientific understanding of these complex interactions and better inform adaptation responses, in order to help food systems meet nutrition needs in more sustainable ways.

An important step forward in this effort took place on July 1, 2016 in Montpellier, France, where the ILSI Research Foundation joined academic partners from the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University to co-host a roundtable discussion among 30 multidisciplinary international experts, titled “Climate Change, Nutrition & Health: Building Collaborative Structures.”

The roundtable was scheduled as a side-event of the 6th Global Workshop of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), a major international effort linking the climate, crop, and economic modeling communities. Earlier in the week at the AgMIP Global Workshop itself, the ILSI Research Foundation co-led sessions intended to begin new dialogue, interaction and collaboration between the nutrition and climate change communities.

The July roundtable discussion represented a unique opportunity to greatly expand the scope of these conversations with nutrition scientists who would not have otherwise been participants in the AgMIP discussions.

The roundtable began with invited comments from Dr. Adam Drewnowski, University of Washington, Dr. Nicole Darmon, INRA, Dr. Fabrice DeClerck, Bioversity, Dr. Marco Springmann, University of Oxford, Dr. Hans van Meijl, Wageningen University, and Dr. Leigh Anderson, University of Washington.

Through this roundtable discussion, a shared understanding of the research gaps between nutrition, health and climate change was developed. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants identified ways to fill these gaps through future scientific collaboration and research.

“Health effects of climate change due to changes in dietary risk factors could be substantial, and appear to exceed other climate-related health impacts.” -Dr. Marco Springmann, University of Oxford

Roundtable participants were then divided into three parallel breakout groups of around 10 scientists each, to answer the following questions:

• What is the evidence of how diets impact climate change? What is the evidence of how climate change impacts dietary patterns and nutrition and health outcomes?
• What are the key metrics and methods that are needed to better understand the linkages and pathways between diets, nutrition, health outcomes and climate change?
• How can the nutrition and climate communities better work together? Which other actors need to be involved if we want to change the food environment in the context of a changing world?

These discussions were facilitated by Dr. Drewnowski, Dr. Jessica Fanzo, Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. David Gustafson, ILSI Research Foundation.

“Although it is not typically included in current food security modeling, seasonal hunger has been associated with increased stunting. Climate change is expected to alter seasonality, potentially increasing the “hunger months.” -Dr. C. Leigh Anderson, University of Washington

The three groups then reconvened to share highlights of their discussions and agree on next steps. Among the surprising findings was that healthier diets are often associated with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, highlighting the complex tradeoffs in food choice.

“What we eat affects greenhouse gas emissions. Healthier diets are often associated with higher emissions. There are tradeoffs and many complexities.” -Dr. Nicole Darmon, INRA

Others noted the sequential linkages between climate, crops, diet, and health – with new models suggesting these risk factors exceed other climate-related health impacts.

Another series of discussions involved the complex role of animal-sourced foods (see sidebar).

An overall summary of the workshop will be prepared and circulated among the workshop participants for public release later this summer. The group unanimously concluded that a half-day of these conversations was a great start. However, the effort must now be significantly broadened and deepened by gathering a larger number of experts to develop a coordinated and comprehensive research strategyThe ILSI Research Foundation will continue to collaborate with AgMIP and other key stakeholders to address this critical need.