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NATURE AND MISSION
The Food Systems for Improved Health (FSIH) Program is a cross-departmental, faculty-based effort to foster trans-disciplinary, systems-based efforts for the development of sustainable solutions to problems of incorrect nutrition in both domestic (New York State and U.S.) and international contexts. It arose in 1994 as a "grass-roots" expression of the need to find ways to focus food systems on human health and well-being. The FSIH approach is to consider food systems holistically (from the production, acquisition and utilization of foods to the bio-physical, economic, social, public health and policy environments in which those activities are carried out) with human nutrition and health identified as explicit outcomes of those systems (Fig. 1). This approach calls for the formation of trans-disciplinary linkages in the implementation of research, instruction and outreach.
In 1994, the FSIH mission was formally defined: "to foster effective trans-disciplinary research, teaching and outreach strategies focused on the development of food systems that support human health and well-being in sustainable ways." This relates FSIH to almost all of the programs of CALS. In fact, FSIH was conceived as a means of implementing the CALS mission in areas relating to agriculture, food and nutrition. Thus, FSIH has been described as a "supra-program" with the potential to contribute in substantial ways to many other Program Areas.
WHO DOES THE FSIH PROGRAM SERVE?
Consumers, i.e., people, are the ultimate
beneficiaries of the FSIH program. In serving the interests of consumers,
FSIH has several types of "customers". As FSIH grows and develops,
it will be able to serve additional customers.
"Customers" of the FSIH Program
|
current customers | potential customers |
| internal, direct |
|
CALS faculty (e.g., ARME, Enomtol., Rural
Soc., Commun., Plant Path.) CALS Sustainable Food & Agric. Group CALS, CHE graduate students |
| external, direct | university scientists (Adelaide, Guelph, Davis, Sydney, Menoufia, UCLA) research institutions (USDA/ARS, Egyptian Nat. Res. and Agric. Res. Centers) international agencies and programs (WHO, FAO, UNICEF, IFPRI, CGIAR) foundations (e.g., Thrasher Res. Fund) | other universities (e.g., UC-Davis; Tufts) GREAN Consortium World Bank Sustainable Agric. Programs (NYSAg, NESAg, NatSAg) NYS government (Dept.Agric.&Markets) NYS agribusiness, food industry USAID |
| internal, indirect | CALS, CHE faculty, undergrad. & grad. students | |
| external, indirect | other university scientists and teachers NY State/US consumers NY State/US Agribusiness/Food Industry |
INDICATORS THAT THE FSIH PROGRAM HAS BEEN PRODUCTIVE, OF HIGH QUALITY AND HAS BEEN MEETING THE NEEDS OF ITS CUSTOMER GROUPS
The initial objectives of the FSIH program have been:
i. to conceptualize the issues relating food production with human health and well-being,
ii. to increase local, national and international appreciation of the need to develop more effective linkages between food systems and human health.
FSIH made the decision to use initially the micronutrient malnutrition problem area to illustrate how food system-based strategies to improve human health could be developed.