Blog Food + Education: a necessary and powerful combination in this challenging time of transformation
Food EDU is an open-access educational platform empowering leaders across the globe to advance human and planetary health. The Alliance is one of Food EDU’s partners, helping to deliver trusted, cutting-edge science. Our experts contributed a lesson and a case study to the second module and a lesson to the third module of the introductory course: Foodomics and Society.
By Erika Eliana Mosquera and Kevin Cody
Food EDU is designed to facilitate the translation and application of cutting-edge research in food, agriculture, health, and nutrition. Through online courses, a fellowship program and a networking hub, Food EDU provides educational and professional development opportunities for scientists, policymakers and practitioners in food and health systems across the world.
"Foodomics and Society" is the inaugural course track for Food EDU. This elearning course introduces current and future scientists to ;foodomics': a dynamic and rapidly evolving field generating comprehensive food composition data, with applications in agriculture, health and nutrition sciences. This interdisciplinary course explores what is in our food, how we know what we know, and how comprehensive food composition data can be used to improve food systems, human nutrition and environmental health.
Alliance contribution to the introductory course
Food EDU is an opportunity for the Alliance to foster a greater understanding of power dynamics and actor agency for strengthening food systems’ governance. For this reason, we are contributing a lesson and a case study to Module 2: Transforming Food Systems.
In Lesson 2: Aligning Science with Sustainability: The Politics of Evidence and Innovation in Food Systems, Christophe Béné - Principal Scientist and Senior Policy Advisor at the Alliance - discusses political economic factors within current food systems that enable or constrain transformation. As you watch this lesson, you can consider how and why actors at different levels of the food system have vested interests in maintaining the current system - from consumers to producers to the private sector and policymakers. As Dr. Béné explains, these interests can be at odds with growing evidence in support of food systems transformation for human and planetary health. While science and innovation have important roles to play in food system transformation, they will be insufficient to drive the kind of change that is necessary. That is, unless they address the root causes of food system challenges such as inequality and can be consciously directed toward generating sustainable solutions.
Also in module 2, you’ll find a case study on Ethiopia’s food based dietary guidelines: “Transforming Food Systems: Connecting Research, Policy and Practice”, narrated by Alliance researcher Mestawet Gebru, accompanied by our partners from Addis Ababa University, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Ministry of Health. The case study explores how scientists, public health leaders and policymakers are implementing a collaborative, systems-based approach to translate research into policies and programs to improve diet quality and promote sustainable food systems in Ethiopia. The development of Ethiopia’s Food-Based Dietary Guidelines demonstrates the benefits and challenges of engaging diverse stakeholders and sectors from education to industry. Utilizing scientific evidence as foundation, the guidelines developed inform policies and programs designed to ensure equitable access to a healthy diet that also benefits the environment. Ultimately, this case study shows how Ethiopia’s food based dietary guidelines, and the people and process involved their development, offer inspiration for advancing sustainable food systems transformation in Africa and across the world.
The Alliance's contribution to Module 3: Data-driven Solutions for Human and Planetary Health is provided by Fabrice DeClerk - Principal Scientist at the Alliance and Science Director at EAT. In the lesson 'Food Data in the Anthropocene: Global Guardrails and Local Solutions', Dr DeClerck introduces us to the 'anthropocene', a new geological epoch marked by the extraordinary impact of human activities on the planet. He discusses the importance of generating data that can drive pluralistic solutions to address multiple human and environmental challenges within global guardrails. To learn more, visit the Food EDU portfolio on the American Heart Association's Professional Education Hub.
About the course
Part 1 on 'Foodomics and Society' is available now! In these foundational modules, leading global experts discuss integrating different ways of knowing food, transforming food systems, and using data-driven science to address global challenges.
Part 2 of the course will be available mid-2025, with lessons on how cutting-edge technologies are revolutionizing our understanding of food, and the implications this has for advancing human and planetary health.
Format: Each asynchronous and self-paced eLearning module takes 1 hour to complete and includes video case studies and lessons by leading experts, reflection prompts, and knowledge checks.
Audience: Students and early career scientists in fields such as chemistry nutrition, public health, and food systems, plus others who want to learn more about how food composition data can be used to improve human and planetary health.
Access: Course modules are freely available on the American Heart Association's (AHA) Professional Education Hub. View this guidance here for a step-by-step guide on how to access the courses. Select case studies and lessons are available on the Food EDU YouTube channel.
Food EDU is facilitated by the American Heart Association and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT as co-secretariats of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative and is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and Fourfold Foundation.
For those interested in learning more about this course, email [email protected].
