About the presenters

1: Biological Background of Nutrition

a) The biohistory of nutrition in humans
Stephen Boyden AM PhD(Cantab.) BSc MRCVS FAA FRSA

From 1949 to 1965 Stephen Boyden carried out research in bacteriology and immunology at the University of Cambridge, the Rockefeller Institute in New York, the Pasteur Institute in Paris, WHO's Tuberculosis Immunisation Research Centre in Copenhagen and the John Curtin School for Medical Research at the Australian National University. From 1965 to his retirement at the end of 1990 he engaged in research and writing in human ecology and human biohistory. In 1972 he initiated the undergraduate Human Sciences Program at ANU and was Director of the Hong Kong Human Ecology Program (1972-1977) and a UNSECO Consultant to the Man in the Biosphere Program (1972- 1989). From 1988 to 1990 he was leader of the Fundamental Questions Program at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies. Since 1992 he has been involved in the establishment and activities of the Nature and Society Forum in ACT. He has published several books, including: The ecology of a city and its people the case of Hong Kong (with Millar, Newcombe and O'Neill); Western civilisation in biological persective; Our biosphere under threat: ecological realities and Australia's opportunities (with Dovers and Shirlow); Biohistory: the interplay between human society and the biosphere - past and present.); The Biology of Civilisation (2004); People and Nature: The Big Picture (2005)

b) Aboriginal food and land relationships
Mr Maurie Ryan Japarta, Northern Territory Health Department, NT

Maurie Ryan Japarta is Chairperson of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Stolen Generation Corporation and Chairperson of the Croker Island Association. He represents over 1200 clients in the case of the Stolen Generations Gunner and Cubillo vs the Commonwealth. Maurie Ryan Japarta, a member of the Gurindji Nation, was himself removed at age four from his home at Wave Hill to Croker Island off Arnhem Land and again as an eight-year-old to Adelaide. Maurie, a school teacher, has a special interest in the relationship between Aboriginal food and land.

c) Nutrition of Indigenous peoples—past and present
Prof Neil Thomson, Edith Cowan University, WA

Neil Thomson is Foundation Professor of Public Health at Perth's Edith Cowan University and Director of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet.

Neil's long-term involvement in Indigenous health is based on tertiary training in medicine, public health, mathematics, anthropology and public health. After five years of clinical medical practice, Neil has worked for 20 years in the development and dissemination of Indigenous health information, particularly for health policy-making and planning.

In 1997, he was responsible for the establishment of the Internet-based Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/), an innovative way of contributing to the health of Indigenous people by making relevant, high quality information easily accessible to policy makers, health service providers, program managers, clinicians, researchers and the general community. The HealthInfoNet also works directly with Indigenous people to improve their use of the Internet, and assists Indigenous and other relevant agencies in Internet site development - to make their information accessible.

d) Bush tucker—bush medicine
Mr Allan Fox, Allan Fox and Associates, NSW

Allan Fox trained as a teacher and immediately became associated with Aboriginal education by appointment to Brewarrina Central School, NSW. He was rapidly promoted through the service, spending eight years in environmental education at National Fitness Camp Schools. After 14 years he was seconded to the State Wildlife Service where he became responsible for the wildlife management program, training and interpretation. Following ten years in that role Allan transferred to the Federal National Parks and Wildlife Service and became responsible for Training and Education/Interpretation at Uluru and Kakadu National Parks which were jointly managed with the traditional owners. The initial Plan of Management for Kakadu National Park was also one of his responsibilities. His work at Kakadu included responsibility for the nation's innovative first Aboriginal Ranger training program.

In 1982, Allan Fox, left the Public Service and established a consultancy in natural area management, environmental management and education. Much of the work has involved the Aboriginal people. He
has worked throughout Australia and has created a highly respected photographic library and had published, 36 books and numerous posters about the Australian environment. In 2001, Allan was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia, 'for service to conservation and the environment through education and management'.

e) GMOs—guiding meaningful options
Ms Paula Fitzgerald, Agrifood Awareness Australia, ACT

Paula Fitzgerald is the Executive Manager of Agrifood Awareness Australia - an industry initiative established in 1999 to increase public awareness of,and encourage informed debate about, gene technology. Before her appointment to Agrifood Awareness Australia, Paula was the Public Affairs Manager forthe largest Division of the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – CSIRO Plant Industry is one of the world’s leadingresearch institutes, recognised internationally in the field of plant molecular biology.

Paula’s key areas of interest and expertise are in science communication, education, and issues management. She has coordinated numerous innovative communication initiatives to extend research results and educate key decision makers, media professionals, industry representatives and the general public, particularly in the area of biotechnology.

Paula holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication majoring in Public Relations and Marketing. She is a founding member of the Australian Science Communicators, a member of AusBiotech Ltd, and currently chairs the Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Communication Advisory Committee.

f) Unnatural devices
Mr Bob Phelps, Australian Conservation Foundation, Vic

Bob Phelps is Director of the GeneEthics Network, founded in 1988. He is an educator, environmental campaigner, policy analyst and critic of new technologies, with twenty five years experience in the Australian and global environment movements. He promotes public understanding and debate on the environmental, social, economic and ethical impacts of gene technology.

Mr Phelps is a leading participant in Australian and overseas forums on biosafety, food labelling standards, and regulation. He serves on University and government advisory committees, including the Victoria University of Technology Institutional Biosafety Committee and the Advisory Committee of the Marsupial Co-operative Research Centre at Macquarie University.

Bob is a sought after speaker who does frequent radio and television interviews as a public interest spokesperson. The Age, The Canberra Times, Australasian Biotechnology, Search, Habitat, Acres Australia, and many other journals have published his articles.

The GeneEthics Network: The GeneEthics Network, founded in 1988, is sponsored by the Australian Conservation Foundation. It is a federation of groups and individuals who promote critical discussion and debate on the environmental, social, economic and ethical impacts of genetic engineering technologies.

g) GM foods—ethical and public health aspects
Professor Stephen Leeder, BSc(Med), MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FFPHM, FAFPHM

Professor Leeder is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine of the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the University Senate (the governing body of the University).

He was Foundation Professor of Community Medicine at the University of Newcastle from 1976 to 1985 and Director of the Division of Public Health and Community Medicine at Westmead Hospital in the Western Sydney Area Health Service until the end of 1997. He remains a member of the Western Sydney Area Health Service Board and chairs its Human Research Ethics Committee and Clinical Policy, Quality and Outcomes Committee.

In 1987 and 1988, he chaired a State-Commonwealth committee of the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council which was commissioned to propose health targets and ways to achieve them, as part of Australia's commitment to Health for All by the Year 2000. Professor Leeder was the foundation chair of the Board of Censors of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine 1990-1994 and has served two terms as National President of the Public Health Association of Australia. He was a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and chaired one of its principal committees, the Health Advisory Committee, during the 1997-1999 triennium. Professor Leeder was appointed Chair of the Health Inequalities Research Collaboration Board by the Minister for Health and Aged Care in May 2000.

Professor Leeder has an interest in medical education and ethics, health policy communication and strategic approaches to research development and application. His special clinical and research interest is asthma.

Professor Leeder's book, Healthy Medicine: Challenges facing Australia's health service, was published on 1 September 1999.

2: Nutrition, Health and Disease

a) No free lunch—the global distribution of food and micronutrient entitlement
Dr Colin Butler, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU, ACT

Colin Butler is completing a PhD at the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health, at the Australian National University. He has studied and worked in Nigeria, Europe, India and Nepal, as well as in Australia, where he graduated in medicine from the University of Newcastle in 1985. In 1989, with his wife Susan, he co-founded BODHI, an NGO which works to improve primary health care and to fund micro-credit schemes, mainly with Tibetans, in both India and Tibet. BODHI has also supported education projects for untouchable children in one of India's poorest states, Bihar (http://www.angelfire.com/on/bodhi/). He remembers being frequently hungry when, as a medical student, he spent time carrying his pack up and down hills to reach ever more remote health posts in eastern Nepal, despite eating copious quantities of the only available foods - rice, dahl and a green vegetable.

b) Obesity and diabetes
Ass/Prof Dennis Wilson, Dept of Endocrinology, Canberra Hospital, ACT

Dr J Dennis Wilson is a consultant endocrinologist. His clinical interests include:

• insulin dependent diabetes including children and adolescents
• diabetes in pregnancy
• non insulin dependent diabetes
• pituitary disorders including abnormalities of growth and fertility
• thyroid disorders including thyroid disease in pregnancy
• adrenal disorders
• metabolic bone disease including osteoporosis
• abnormalities of calcium metabolism including parathyroid disease
• abnormalities of sex hormones
• hormone replacement therapy
• lipid disorders

c) Food sustainability and health through food variety
Mark Wahlqvist, AO, MD (Adelaide and Uppsala), FRACP, FAIFST.

Mark Wahlqvist was Foundation Professor of Nutrition at Deakin University, Professor and Head of Medicine at Monash University, Melbourne and Chair, Asia and Pacific Health and Nutrition Centre, Monash Asia Institute. He has served on many committees relating to nutrition policies and practice both within Australia and internationally and is President-Elect, International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Mark has published extensively in the scientific literature, and is the author or co-author of 17 books. Many of these are of interest to the general reader, including Preventive Nutrition in Medical Practice (1994), Exercise and Obesity (1994), and Nutrition in a Sustainable Environment (1994), published by Smith-Gordon & Co. Ltd, London. His latest book is Food and Nutrition: Australasia, Asia and Pacific (1997), published by Allen and Unwin, reflecting his interests in nutritional health and environmental sustainability in the region.

d) Dietary guidelines for older Australians - in practice
Ms Louise Bartlett, Royal North Shore Hospital, NSW

Louise Bartlett is a dietitian specialising in aged care and renal nutrition at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Her passion to empower older people to access adequate nutrition has seen her working in the aged care setting for 7 years in a variety of roles from rehabilitation, acute hospital and currently in aged care facilities. She has presented in the past to the Council on the Ageing NSW State Conference and the ACA & AAG 1999 National Conference 'The Age of Celebration and Expectation'. Louise contributed to the expert review panel for the Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians and is currently a member of the Committee on Nutrition for Older Australians.

e) Lessons from the global elimination of iodine deficiency as a cause of brain damage
Basil S Hetzel, AC MD FRCP FRACP FFPHM FTSE

Dr Basil Hetzel has been involved in the prevention and control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) since 1964 when his team, in collaboration with the Public Health Department of Papua New Guinea, showed the severe effects of iodine deficiency on fetal brain development during pregnancy and their prevention by correction of the iodine deficiency before pregnancy.

Subsequently he has worked in Indonesia and China and been Consultant to the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

Iodine deficiency is now recognised as the most common preventable cause of brain damage with a population of 2.2 billion at risk in 130 countries.

In 1985 he initiated the formation of a multidisciplinary group of professionals committed to assistance with the development of prevention programs in countries throughout the world.

This became the International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) of which he was Executive Director from 1985-1995 and from 1995 Chairman, and now has 500 members from 90 countries.

f) People as omnivores—costs and benefits
Robert H Loblay MBBS, PhD, FRACP

Rob Loblay is Director of the Allergy Unit, Department of Immunology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. Dr Loblay is also Senior Lecturer in Immunology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney.

g) Phytochemicals, glyconutrients and health
Dr Barbara Eckersley, Canberra, ACT

Barbara Eckersley has a PhD in reproductive physiology from the University of Sydney. She was involved in hormone research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sydney University until moving to Canberra in 1983. She has had a varied career since then whilst raising a family, including developing a small business which used patterns revealed by electron microscopes as a basis for designs.

Barbara is currently working on the secretariat to a Parliamentary (House of Representatives) inquiry into human cloning and stem cell research.

Barbara's interest in nutrition, and in phytochemicals and glyconutrients in particular, was sparked by a lecture given in 1999 by an American immunologist on the new science of glycobiology. At the time her teenage daughter had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue, her son was an asthmatic and the increase in chronic, degenerative diseases in society was becoming a real concern to her.

For the past 2 years Barbara has been an independent associate with a company which is producing and marketing glyconutrient and phytonutrient supplements and is developing a business based on educating doctors and the public about the need for supplementation.

h) Are we complacent about food safety?
Ms Vicki Deakin, MSc (Food Science & Technology), B Educ, Grad Dip Nutr & Diet, MDAA

Vicki Deakin is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Canberra and convenes the undergraduate course in Human Nutrition. She is a member of the Population Health Research team at the Gadi Research Centre. Current research is related to identifying the determinants of eating behaviour in sectors of the ACT population, in collaboration with ACT Healthpact and the Gadi Research Centre. One of the focus areas of this research is identifying, attitudes and behaviours about food safety issues in relation to food consumption practices of this population. Vicki has also been involved in research and consultancies in sports nutrition, cardiovascular disease and dietary survey methods. She is co-editor, with Professor Louise Burke, of the internationally renowned textbook Clinical Sports Nutrition published by McGraw-Hill in 2000.

3: Food and Animals

a) Food from animals—ecological and health implications
Mrs Helen Scott-Orr, NSW Agriculture, Orange, NSW

Helen Scott-Orr is Executive Director, Research Advisory & Education with NSW Agriculture, responsible for oversighting these activities through the Department's three Divisions, 20 Research Stations, 75 Advisory Offices and two Colleges. She has a background in veterinary science, microbiology and epidemiology with extensive experience in the research, control and eradication of zoonotic diseases in livestock, and has worked in the United Kingdom and Indonesia as well as Australia.

She was Chief Veterinary Officer of NSW and Chief of NSW Agriculture's Division of Animal Industries for 10 years and has served on many state and national committees and boards dealing with animal health and production issues. She is currently President of the Australian Veterinarians in Public Health, a Special Interest Group of the Australian Veterinary Association.

In her current position Helen is on the Boards of the Beef, Cotton, Weeds and Rice Cooperative Research Centres. She has special interest in the dynamic balance between conventional, genetically modified and organic agriculture.

b) Communicable diseases in livestock
Prof Frank Fenner, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU, ACT

Frank Fenner was born in 1914, and graduated MB BS in 1938, MD in 1942, at Adelaide University. After 6 years in the Australian Army he joined Macfarlane Burnet at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1946 for about three years, working on mousepox. In 1949 he was appointed foundation Professor of Microbiology at the new Australian National University, where he worked on the rabbit disease myxomatosis for 15 years. In 1967 he was appointed Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research and in 1973 Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at ANU. In 1969 he became involved in the Intensified Smallpox Eradication campaign of the World Health Organization and announced its success at the World Health Assembly in 1980. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the John Curtin School since January 1980 and has written several books on virology and the history of science.

c) Crops and pest control
Dr James Ridsdill-Smith, CSIRO Entomology, WA

Dr James Ridsdill-Smith is Leader for the Pest Management Program in CSIRO Entomology. He has worked with CSIRO since 1964 on a range of pest problems in Armidale, NSW, and for the last 24 years in Perth, WA. James is a Chief Research Scientist in CSIRO, and a consultant to the Western Panel of the Grains Research and Development Corporation. His research has included pest impact assessment, use of biological control, use of resistant plants, improved management, and the evaluation of economic benefits of research on pest control. Currently he is developing a package, TIMERITE®, for better control of redlegged earth mite with a critically timed single spray in spring. He is working in a group aiming to understand the plant-insect interactions involved in resistance to aphids in lupins.

d) The use of antibiotics in food production animals: does this cause human health problems?
Dr Peter Collignon, Infectious Diseases Unit, Canberra Hospital, ACT

Dr Peter Collignon MB,BS(Hons), B.Sc,(Med), FASM, FRACP, FRCPA, is currently Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at The Canberra Hospital, a position he has held since 1987. He has been active in the Microbiology laboratory since his appointment to the hospital in 1987 and was appointed the Director of Microbiology in 1996. He also has appointments at all the other hospitals in Canberra (Calvary Hospital, John James Hospital and The National Capital Private Hospital).

He has been appointed as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney, after the Clinical School commenced in Canberra. And is involved in teaching and research. He has had published a large number of articles in both Australian and International Medical and Scientific journals.

He continues to be active and involved in many research projects. This involves not only the Canberra area but also Australia-wide programs involving both aspects of infections and Infection Control. Particularly of interest are the problem of antibiotic resistance (in particular Staph aureus, pneumococcus, P. acnes) and also the issue of resistance and its development through the use of antibiotics in animals. In the area of hospital acquired infections, he has been widely published and involved in many studies involving intravascular catheters and interventions to try and decrease the serious infections associated with these devices. He has been involved in many research projects involving infection control, particularly looking at procedures and current practices in medicine and how these may be improved to decrease the risks for patients acquiring infections.

He has been and continues to be an active member of many national committees, including those of NH&MRC (Communicable Diseases, Infection Control, and Meningococcus). He is also the Chair of a research group looking at antibiotic resistance that involves over 20 of the major teaching hospitals in Australia (The Australian Group for Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR). He is also the Chair of The Australian Society for Microbiology Standing Committee on Clinical Microbiology. He has been involved in drawing up the antibiotic guidelines for four editions of The Australian Antibiotic Guidelines. He was also a member of the Commonwealth Committee looking at the issue of antibiotics in animals (Joint Expert Technical Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance: JETACAR) which released it's report in October 1999. He was subsequently appointed to the Commonwealth Committee with an ongoing overseeing interest in antibiotic use in Australia called EAGAR (Expert Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance). From March till July 2001 he undertook a project at WHO headquarters in Geneva on the issue of antibiotic use in animals and the human health consequences resulting from antibiotic resistance.

e) Ethics and animal husbandry
Dr Hugh John Wirth A.M., B.V.Sc., F.A.V.A, RSPCA Australia President

Dr Hugh Wirth has been a practicing vet since 1964 and his public contribution to animal welfare through all levels of the community covers a span of at least 30 years.

Since 1969 Dr Wirth has had a continuous involvement with the RSPCA and since 1972 he has held the position of President of the RSPCA, Victoria. He was the founding President of the RSPCA, Australia which was established in 1981 and he holds that position today.

Dr Wirth's expertise in animal welfare and his commitment and contribution to the field has been recognised in a variety of ways by the veterinary profession and he has been the recipient of several state and federal government awards. Through the books that he has published and his regularly scheduled radio programme he is well-known in the community and commands a great following.

Dr Wirth sits on the Board of Directors for World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and at the June 2000 meeting of the Board was appointed Secretary. In 1985 Dr Wirth was awarded the Order of Australia for his service to animal welfare and in 1998 he received the George T Angell Humanitarian Award from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals. The citation reads: for "exceptional commitment to animals and for profoundly influencing public attitudes towards animals." Dr Wirth is the only Australian to have received this award.

 

4: Choices in Food Consumption

a) Mother’s milk and markets
Ms Julie Smith, The Australia Institute, ACT

Julie Smith is Senior Research Fellow in economics at The Australia Institute in Canberra. Her publications in the area of health economics include The Economic Value of Breastfeeding in Australia, Human Milk Supply in Australia and Breastfeeding and the Measurement of Economic Progress. She has also published on public finance, taxation policy history and taxation aspects of expenditures on health. Her current research includes estimating the ACT hospital system costs of artificial feeding.

b) Sense and nonsense in nutrition
Dr Rosemary Stanton, Nutritionist, Bowral, NSW

Rosemary Stanton is a nutritionist who has been awarded a PhD for her work in public health and an Order of Australia Medal for her services to community health through education in nutrition and dietetics.

The author of many scientific papers, 29 books on food and nutrition and over 3000 articles for magazines and newspapers, Rosemary is a member of the NSW Health Department's Food Advisory Committee, an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the School of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of New South Wales, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Boston University School of Medicine, the Medical-Scientific Advisory Board of Osteoporosis Australia and the National Expert Advisory Committee on Alcohol.

Rosemary is not beholden to any one interest group. Her major aim is to change Australians' poor eating habits so that people have healthier diets, and eat more enjoyable foods which create minimal environmental damage.

c) Safety and labelling of GM foods
Dr Michael Dack, Australia and New Zealand Food Authority, ACT

Michael Dack was born and educated in the United Kingdom moved to Australia in 1972. He is currently a Senior Public Affairs Officer with the Australia New Zealand Food Authority, specialising in the communication of science-based food issues, such as GM food, BSE and antibiotic resistance.

Dr Dack is a physical organic chemist by training and a public affairs practitioner by inclination. He was a Communications Manager at CSIRO (1975-88) prior to becoming Director Corporate Communications at the Institution of Engineers, Australia until 1998. He joined ANZFA in 2000, working closely with its GM team and with the Commonwealth agency Biotechnology Australia to explain ANZFA's safety assessment processes for GM foods to the public and other stakeholders.

Dr Dack sees his role at ANZFA as not to act as a proponent of gene technology in food production, rather to reassure consumers that GM foods approved for sale in Australia and New Zealand are as safe and no less nutritious than their conventionally produced counterparts.

d) Do current recommendations on healthy eating need a rethink?
Dr Michael Djordevic, Research School of Biological Sciences, ANU, ACT

Dr Michael Djordjevic is a molecular biologist and fellow at the Australian National University. At 42, he has published over 60 peer reviewed papers in International Scientific Journals. He has worked on how legume establish a complex symbiosis with nitrogen fixing rhizobia, how plants make bio-flavonoids, and is at the forefront of a powerful emerging technology, proteomics, that is set to make sense of the information gained via the human genome project. He has spent the past five years establishing a world class proteomics facility at the ANU.

Michael has supervised over 20 PhD and Honours students. He is regularly invited to give presentations to International Scientific Societies.

Michael is a consultant to industry in the development of proteomic tools, and is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee for the Australian Journal of Plant Physiology. He is also a visiting fellow in the Centre for the Mind, an exciting joint collaboration between the Australian National University and the University of Sydney. He formed part of the academic team to establish the 'What Makes a Champion' event in Sydney just prior to the Olympic games which was attended by Nelson Mandela and 'champions' from a wide range of human endeavours. This event received world wide media coverage via CNN and the world press. He also has a strong interest of the effects of nutrition on performance, overall health and longevity and regularly gives public lectures in this area. He has received Australia-wide media coverage for his views in this area.

e) Food marketing in the 21st Century: building the consumer–marketer connection
Dr Mike Reid, Monash University, Vic

Dr Mike Reid is a lecturer in Marketing Communications at Monash University, Australia. Mike's teaching areas include marketing communications, marketing strategy and marketing planning and implementation. His research interests extend to successful development and commercialisation of branded food and beverage products, consumers food-related lifestyles, and not-for-profit marketing. Mike has worked in the New Zealand meat industry and as a marketing researcher and consultant for various organisations in both New Zealand and Australia.

Recent publications have focused on agricultural cooperatives, product adoption in fresh produce industries, food-related consumer lifestyles, benchmarking product development practices, market orientation in the wine and food industries, and integrated marketing communications. Mike has published in a number of journals including the International Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Journal of Food Products Marketing and the ANZ Wine Industry Journal. Mike has delivered papers at conferences in the UK, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

f) The food/exercise balance
Louise M Burke, Gregory R Cox, Andrea Braakhuis, Michelle Minehan, Department of sports Nutrition, Australian Institute of Sport, ACT

Louise M Burke, Gregory R Cox, Andrea Braakhuis, Michelle Minehan are the sports dietitians in the Department of Sports Nutrition at the AIS. Together we work on a number of sports nutrition goals including:

• Providing nutrition services to the AIS athletes and teams. We work with the coaches to develop programs that include individual counselling sessions, cooking classes, supermarket scavenger hunts, fluid monitoring sessions and other activities.
• Providing education sessions and group activities for athletes visiting under the National Sports Program.
• Undertaking research projects to discover new strategies in sports nutrition.
• Developing education resources to spread the word about winning ways with nutrition.
• Working with food companies, national sporting organisations and other bodies interested in sports nutrition.

g) Changing patterns of eating
Dr Karen Cashel, Gadi Research Centre, University of Canberra, ACT

Karen is a lecturer and researcher in the School of Human and Biomedical Sciences, University of Canberra. She is responsible for graduate programs in nutrition and is Leader of the Population Health Group in the Gadi Research Centre. Her teaching responsibilities include lifecycle nutrition, research methods, community and public health nutrition. Karen has a background in nutrition policy, and monitoring and surveillance. She has been a member of several expert panels in these areas.

Over the past five years Karen has been actively involved in public health research, in the area of influences on food, nutrition and health-related behaviours. Currently she is working on projects related to changes in dietary fat intake; problems with making dietary changes; and Chairing the local organisation Committee for the 2001 Nutrition Society of Australia's Scientific Meeting Nutrition at the Edge.

 

5: Food, Population and Resources

a) Climate, environmental change and agricultural practices—impacts on food production and population health
Prof Tony McMichael, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU, ACT

Tony McMichael is Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU, Canberra. His previous appointments have been at University of North Carolina, CSIRO Division of Human Nutrition, University of Adelaide and, most recently, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research interests have encompassed occupational diseases, diet and cancer, environmental epidemiology and, more recently, assessment of the population health risks from global environmental change. He has been a frequent advisor to WHO, the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank. During 1990-1992 he chaired the Scientific Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO). Since 1994 he has chaired the international scientific assessment of potential health impacts by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is a member of WHO's Expert Committee on Globalisation and Health, the International Council on Population and Environment, and co-editor of the journal Global Change and Human Health. In 1993 Tony McMichael published Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and the Health of the Human Species and in 2001 Human Frontiers, Environments and Disease: Past Patterns, Uncertain Futures (both with Cambridge University Press).

b) Population, consumption and environmental degradation
Dr Doug Cocks, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, ACT

I am a human ecologist with a MAgrSc degree from University of Melbourne and a PhD in production economics from University of California. Currently I am a Divisional Fellow of the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Division of Wildlife and Ecology in Canberra, contributing to the Resource Futures program there. I have taught and been a staff researcher at the universities of Cambridge and California as well as being a guest lecturer, course presenter, visiting fellow etc at various Australian universities.

The three books I have written since 1992 represent explorations from different perspectives of a common theme: How can Australian society best manage itself in the 21st century? Use With Care, which has been a text in 23 tertiary courses, examines the way natural resources have been manged in Australia and how they will have to be managed in the future if an acceptable balance is to be established between the demands of the economy and the demands of an increasingly-prosperous community for a high quality living environment. People Policy examines in detail the economic, social and environmental arguments for and against building a much larger population in Australia. Future Makers, Future Takers identifies, elaborates and evaluates three distinctly different socio-political strategies for guiding the governance of Australia over coming decades.

c) Food production and fossil fuels
Brian Fleay, B.Eng, M.Eng.Sc., MIEAust, MAWA
Associate of the Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

Brian's professional life was spent with the Water Authority of Western Australia. He retired in 1993 to pursue his 20 year interest in ecological economics considered from an energy perspective, focusing on the future of world petroleum supplies.

He has published several papers on the Coming Oil Crisis and its consequences, especially for transport and agriculture. He has had many radio interviews on the subject and his features have been published in newspapers around Australia. His book, The Decline of the Age of Oil, was published in December 1995.

Since early 1997 he has developed a working relationship with Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere in Europe and with L.F. Ivanhoe in the USA, the leaders in the campaign to alert the world to the Coming Oil Crisis.

From 1982 to 1993 he managed the operation and maintenance of Perth's surface and ground water sources, including catchment management operations.

He represented the Water Authority on Australian Water Resource Council water quality committees from 1980 to 1991 and was on the National Health and Medical Research Council's Water Quality Committee from 1984 to 1991.

He has a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of W.A. and a Master of Engineering Science in Public Health Engineering from the University of New South Wales.

He was born in 1934 into a pioneer farming family in the Avon Valley east of Perth.

d) Ecosystem services: the many ways in which biodiversity sustains and fulfills human life
Dr Steve Cork, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, ACT

Steven Cork is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO's Sustainable Ecosystems Division in Canberra. His training is as an ecologist and nutritional physiologist. His research until recently focussed on the different digestive systems in forest-living animals that allow them to use diverse and difficult diets like gum leaves, tough grasses, and stone-encrusted underground fungi. A developing interest in the ways in which biodiversity benefits humans led him over 10 years ago to become involved in debates about ecologically sustainable forest management. Since then he has served as an advisor to the Commonwealth and five State governments on policy and management in this area. Two years ago he became leader of The Ecosystem Services Project, an ambitious multi-partner initiative aiming to broaden thinking about natural resource management among Australians by documenting the benefits to humans from natural ecosystems and assess their value in economic and other terms.

e) Nature, society and a sustainable future?
Dr Ken Johnson, Dept of Geography, ANU, ACT

Ken has broad ranging interests in people and their environment. He has been involved in the study of the relationship from the human being side, trying to understand why people can be so apparently lacking in understanding of the problems they create for themselves. This has led to studies and lectures in the nature of social systems and the evolution of policy. Much of the interest has come from studies of cities but the rural scene has loomed large in teaching commitments and supervision. Learning in this domain reveals many aspects of the policy-life action nexus, throwing light on the lack of understanding and interest in the problems facing us in terms of sustainability. Presently one of his main concerns is in seeking a deep view of climate variation across the Earth. This involves the development of software systems and interpretation. One thrust of the work is making the understanding and knowledge available to people working directly in the environment: farmers and hydraulic engineers, for example.
Writings include an article in the Dovers collection on environmental history and an atlas of Australia published by Cambridge University Press.

 

6: Sustainable Food Production

a) Towards sustainable land management
Dr John Williams, CSIRO Land & Water, ACT

John Williams was raised on a grazing property on the southern tablelands of New South Wales. He was educated at the University of Sydney, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Agricultural Science and a doctorate in Soil Physics and Hydrology (1968).

After a seven year period of overseas research and academic work, John joined CSIRO in Townsville, and spent the next 16 years working on the hydrology of tropical landscapes and on a range of land management problems, including salinity and soil erosion in the Burdekin Catchment.

John, who was appointed Deputy Chief of CSIRO Land and Water at its inception, is well known for his analysis of the issues that confront Australian agriculture in being both productive and sustainable in terms of resource use and impact on the environment. He is a long-time advocate of the need for Australia to radically change land use, so that it is more in sympathy with the functioning of the natural ecosystem.

His experience and background in agriculture production and its environmental impact, particularly of salinity and erosion, coupled with his strong record in coordination and delivery, ideally position him to make a significant contribution to the national debate on natural resource management, land use policy, and its implementation in Australia.

b) Organic farming
Mr Tim Marshall, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, SA

Based in Stirling, South Australia, Tim Marshall is Organic Guarantee System Coordinator with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

Tim has worked extensively as an environmental trainer, land management and biodiversity management consultant, organic inspector and freelance writer. As a private training provider, Tim has delivered a series of organic growing workshops covering a wide range of topics and has been involved with organic farming schools throughout Australia.

c) Permaculture—designing for local food production
Mr David Johnson, permaculture consultant, Penrose, NSW

David Johnson BSc DipEd studied for his Permaculture Design Certificate under Phillip Booth in 1989 and later with David Holmgrem 1995. In 1991 he moved with his wife and family out of the Sydney jungle to the Southern Highlands of NSW. Here he combined a part-time teaching position at a local college with designing and developing his Penrose property. Since 1992 he has edited the Permacultivator, a local seasonal journal promoting permaculture in a cool climate, and coordinated the programme of permaculture courses run by Permaculture Southern Highlands. These have included introductory permaculture courses and full Permaculture Design Certificate courses. The PDC course is presented one evening a week over a whole year, thereby enabling students to more fully assimilate and apply the concepts, principles and techniques to their situations.
David also uses his musical talents in a family band called Paddys River Band, to present songs on a range of environmental issues.
He offers Permaculture design consultancy, particularly for cool climate sites.

d) Sustainable water management
Mr David Eastburn

David Eastburn has a Masters degree in Environmental Education from the University of Canberra and has been involved in education, environmental communication and capacity building/ realisation with rural communities in Papua New Guinea and Australia for almost 30 years. More than half of that time has involved working with the residents of the Murray-Darling Basin through the Commonwealth Schools Commission Country Areas Program, the River Murray Commission, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, and as a consultant to government and industry.

As Director of Communications for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (1989 -1998), David was responsible for the development and implementation of a large scale, multi-faceted environmental education-capacity building strategy for the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative. It demonstrated that it is logistically possible to develop and implement programs that can inform and help to realise the capacities of large numbers of people economically and quickly across rural Australia; to the great benefit of the morale of the people and potentially the health of the environment. Several elements of the overall program have been acclaimed as landmarks in environmental communication, including the video program, publications such as The Murray (Mackay & Eastburn 1991), and two large scale community capacity building/ realisation programs - the 'Special forever' schools project, and 'Reading the Land', a community bioregional asset assessment and marketing project. A recent report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (July 2000) identified the 'Special forever' environmental education-literacy program as a significant model to contribute to improved rural and remote education throughout Australia.

e) The sustainable management of fisheries
Mr Will Zacharin, Primary Industries and Resources (Fisheries), SA

Will trained as a marine scientist and holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Tasmania and a business diploma from the University of Sydney. Will is currently the Director, Fisheries with Primary Industries and Resources SA responsible for the sustainable management of fisheries and aquatic resources in South Australia. Over the past 17 years, Will has been involved in fisheries research, development and management in southern Australia. His current focus is on developing ecologically sustainable development plans for the management of wild fish resources. Will is a member of various State and Commonwealth fisheries policy and management committees.

f) The landcare-waste management nexus: poverty and pestilence – packaging and profit
Mr Gerard Gillespie, South East Waste Board, ACT

Newspaper journalist late 1960s, also photographer, printer, proofreader and typesetter. Owner/operator of a printing business in partnership in 1983 and moved into publishing.

Commenced publishing booklets on environmental issues and waste reduction for local councils in NSW in 1988 and expanded an extensive network into the waste industry. One publication was a booklet to all homes in Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) on recycling.

In 1992 the ACT commenced an extensive two-year trial of wheeled bins to evaluate kerbside recycling. Gerard was engaged to work with the waste reduction group on an education package for use in the trial.

Appointed permanently to the public service four years later.

Gerard was heavily involved in the development of the ACT Waste Strategy for Canberra which has the title "No Waste by 2010".

In 1996, this was the first government in the world to adopt no waste to landfill as a community target.

The past eight years have been dedicated to research into worm farming. This has centred on the removal of organic material from landfills and its placement back into farmland applications as the key to the rejuvenation of farming soils and the prevention of the use of landfill as a disposal method.

Zero Waste is a branch of the Tindall Foundation and was established in July 1997, to develop a New Zealand national policy of no waste to landfill.

This has focussed primarily on the funding and development of pilot and research projects to re-use resources diverted from landfill in the creation of local employment.

Gerard returned to Australia from New Zealand in 1999 and to a position in ACT Waste, Canberra.

In September 2000 he was appointed General Manager of the South East Waste Board, one of nine Waste Boards in New South Wales, which draw their funds from levies charged on waste to landfill in the urban, coastal areas of New South Wales.

The Board has recently completed a Regional Plan for the 52,000 square klms of its territory and over the coming years will seek to implement a range of waste minimisation plans, with a focus on the creation of employment opportunities in rural communities.

g) Can organic farming feed the world?
Donella (Dana) Meadows (1941-2001)
(Information obtained from the Sustainability Institute website - http://www.sustainer.org)

Donella Meadows was a systems analyst, journalist, writer, teacher, farmer, leading voice in the sustainability movement, MacArthur Fellow, Pew Scholar and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Honoree.

For 16 years Dana wrote a weekly column called "The Global Citizen," commenting on world events from a systems point of view. It appeared in more than twenty newspapers, won second place in the 1985 Champion-Tuck national competition for outstanding journalism in the fields of business and economics, received the Walter C. Paine Science Education Award in 1990, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1991. Dana was the author or co-author of nine books, including: The Limits to Growth (1972), The Electronic Oracle: Computer Models and Social Decisions (1983), The Global Citizen (1991), Beyond the Limits (1992).

Donella Meadows died in 2001. This paper is reproduced as an acknowledgement of her contribution to the sustainability movement.

h) The production and consumption of food - an Earth Charter perspective
Dr Brendan Mackey, Dept of Geography, ANU, ACT

Brendan Mackey is a Reader (Assoc. Prof.) in ecology and environmental science in the School of Resources, Environment and Society, Faculty of Science, The Australian National University. He has a PhD in tropical forest ecology from the Australian National University. Brendan has worked as a research scientist with the CSIRO and the Canadian Forest Service. He currently leads the Ecosystems Vulnerable to Change Project within the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting. Brendan also serves as Director of the Earth Charter Initiative Education Programme, working with the international secretariat in Costa Rica. Brendan is also Chair of Earth Charter Australia (see http://eca.anu.edu.au).

SUMMARY

Prof Tony Adams, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU, ACT

Tony Adams is a Fellow of the American Public Health Association, Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia, Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and Fellow, Australasian Faculty of Public Health, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). He is currently Professor of Public Health, National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health, ANU. He was Chief Medical Officer, Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services, from 1988 to 1997 and has held many appointments with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and other health-related committees, in NSW, nationally and internationally. Professor Adams has published extensively on infectious disease prevention and in the field of planning and evaluation of health care delivery.

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