Internet conference (a People and Nature (PAN) project)

Food - for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet

Conference Proceedings

(held from 9 - 23 September at www.conference.natsoc.org.au)

Welcome to Nature and Society Forum's edited food conference proceedings, which have now been released in the public domain on our website. They comprise the complete papers of more than 40 leading experts in the fields of nutrition, health, biological and agricultural sciences and bio-ethics. In addition, the website presentation includes brief cvs of contributors, abstracts of papers, synopses at the head of each section, and edited discussion points from some of the conference participants.

These proceedings attempt to give a broad biological and social perspective of the impact of food consumption on the health of humans on the one hand and the impact of food production on the health of the environment on the other. Some of the critical food-related issues for human health include: Aboriginal health, food security and inequalities, the impact of both over- and under-nutrition, genetically modified (GM) organisms, food from animals, and the complexities of food choices and marketing in our post-industrial world. Environmental concerns address the critical problems of land and water degradation, loss of bio-diversity, population pressures and resources depletion.

While many conference contributors and discussants expressed concern over aspects of human and environmental health both in Australia and globally, they also referred to the many opportunities which are available for making individual and societal choices towards a sustainable future. Nature and Society Forum's policy, expressed through these proceedings, is that the achievement of sustainability depends on a wider understanding amongst the community of the interdependence between humans and the rest of the natural world.

These proceedings may be used in a number of ways. You may wish to browse through the papers and refer to the further reading suggestions. If you are involved in class teaching at the secondary or tertiary level, you may wish to download some of the papers for a class exercise.

If you use any of the papers for teaching purposes or publication, we would ask you to acknowledge authorship and source, and we would welcome any feedback on the usefulness of this method as an educational tool, to: conference@natsoc.org.au. We hope you find the information provided to be interesting and informative. A condensed perspective of the conference theme in book form will be produced in 2002.

Bryan Furnass, Sue Gilbert and Jenny Wanless
(Conference organisers and editors)

Conference themes

Papers and on-line discussion were grouped under six sections:

1. Biological Background of Nutrition

2. Nutrition, Health and Disease

3. Food and Animals

4. Choices in Food Consumption

5. Food, Population and Resources

6. Sustainable Food Production

 

Conference Organising Committee

Dr Stephen Boyden AM

Emeritus Professor Frank Fenner AC, FRS

Dr Bryan Furnass AM (conference convenor)

Ms Sue Gilbert (administrative officer)

Dr John Schooneveldt

Ms Jenny Wanless

Emeritus Professor Malcolm Whyte AO

Conference supported by: