Facing a vast array of food and nutrition security problems in the U.S. and abroad that pose significant humanitarian, environmental and national security risks, a commission of prominent researchers and leaders from public universities, government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector announced a comprehensive, coordinated effort to solve these challenges.

While many important efforts are being undertaken to address the vast array of problems that comprise food and nutrition insecurity, a truly comprehensive, holistic approach that fully engages arguably the world’s greatest scientific and educational resource in food and nutrition security – public research universities – has been lacking before now.

The Challenge of Change Commission, which the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) convened with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, began with the understanding that public research universities – with their broad academic, research and community expertise and experience – are uniquely positioned to address the complex and diverse challenges of food and nutrition insecurity.
 
“The world's food system is broken, yet demand is increasing at a record pace,” said North Carolina State University chancellor Randy Woodson, who served as chair of the Challenge of Change Commission. "We can't just grow our way out of this global crisis. Issues of infrastructure, food safety, distribution and more must be addressed as part of a long-term, sustainable solution if we are to effectively address global hunger. We believe public research universities are uniquely positioned to help solve this complex challenge through our vast expertise of faculty and research, our role as collaborators with government and industry and our global reach."

The Challenge of Change Commission is comprised of 34 members who include university leaders, subject matter experts and current and former private- and public-sector officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In addition to the commission members, more than 100 individuals from universities, the public and private sectors and non-governmental organizations were engaged in the project as members of interdisciplinary working groups or expert advisors. Similarly, more than 75 organizations were invited to provide comment and feedback throughout the process.

“Public research universities represent the world’s most powerful resource to address food and nutrition security,” said APLU president Peter McPherson, who is a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “The problems of food and nutrition insecurity are so complex and cut across so many areas of expertise. That vast array of expertise already exists at our institutions. The challenge is helping to bring public research universities together in a coordinated way, with support from the government and others, to make it a reality.

"Many view this as a problem of feeding a growing population by 2050, but the challenge is already upon us, with far too many people suffering from food and nutrition insecurity. If we do not address these problems now, the solutions will become more intractable, the costs greater and the human, social, economic and environmental damage irreparable,” McPherson added.

Nearly one in nine people were food insecure in 2014-16, including 42.2 million people in the U.S. Food security problems – including hunger, obesity, malnutrition, low crop yields, inadequate food storage, poor sanitation and the political instability they create – are poised to intensify unless there is a deliberate effort to create true global food and nutrition security. The search for sustainable solutions becomes even more complicated in the face of a rapidly growing world population, limited natural resources, changing climates and evolving diets that demand more high-value food products.

At a Tuesday event in Washington, D.C., members of the Challenge of Change Commission unveiled their much-anticipated report and action plan, which centers on harnessing the vast academic, research and leadership capabilities of public research universities to address the interdisciplinary challenges of food and nutrition security.

The commission report defines seven challenges for solving global food and nutrition insecurity and details the steps that public research universities, along with partners, must take to address them:

After spending a year identifying these challenges and pathways to achieving them, the commission detailed its findings and recommendations, which are centered on the need for a transdisciplinary approach to break down silos that have too often prevented the issues surrounding food security to be fully addressed.

In order to achieve food and nutrition security, the commission urged that specific attention must be paid to the following areas:

Broaden the focus beyond yields. More food must be produced, but there must be greater efficiencies in food storage and distribution, particularly in the context of limited natural resources.

Change the food system’s incentive structure. Changing systems to meet future demands requires designing new incentive structures, including market forces affected by research on outcomes, regulations or guidelines that promote food and nutrition security.

Develop the capacity of universities in low-income countries. Helping low-income countries better address their own challenges will be critical in the global food security picture.

Leverage technology, big data and information science information. The use of new sensor technologies, geographic information systems and the rapidly increasing power of information storage and processing can be powerful contributors to sustainable production. Likewise, data from social media, purchasing patterns and other online sources hold potential to help understand the structure, behavior and function of food systems.

With complex systems, the need for transdisciplinary science and community engagement in mind, the commission report lays a new foundation for action and recommends the following four steps: