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FOOD FOR HEALTHY PEOPLE AND A HEALTHY PLANET

SUMMARY: A FEAST OF EXCELLENT PAPERS!

Tony Adams

The organisers of this Nature and Society Forum On-Line Conference deserve our thanks and congratulations for bringing together 40 extraordinarily stimulating papers for discussion on-line. The fact that the timing of the conference coincided with the terrorist attacks in the USA may have reduced the amount of discussion but the collection of papers in book form will make them available permanently and will certainly have an influence on policy making over the next few years.

The papers are grouped under six major headings and I shall attempt to highlight the major issues raised by the papers and by the discussants under each of these. However I must emphasise that the papers themselves are so succinct and pithy that readers are urged to turn to them in order to do full justice to the authors.

1. Biological Background of Nutrition

Stephen Boyden's assertion that "there is no diet better for any animal than that to which it became adapted through evolution, and in our case this is the typical diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors" struck a chord with many. The question of how to attempt to achieve any sort of realistic return to such a diet together with the pattern of exercise indulged in by our hunter ancestors makes for a lively debate.

Maurie Ryan Japarta, Neil Thomson and Allan Fox explore the impact of colonialism and dispossession on the diet, lifestyle and morbidity of indigenous peoples in this country. Economic deprivation and poor housing in many communities with associated lack of refrigerators reduces food choices and increases the chance of food borne illness. Discussion on Fox's paper also raised the important issue of intellectual property rights over bush tucker and bush pharmaceuticals that are at risk of commercial exploitation.

Paula Fitzgerald , Bob Phelps and Stephen Leeder explore and argue the pros and cons of perhaps the most contentious issue of the whole conference namely the genetic modification of crops and foods. This debate was joined by discussants and, later in the conference papers, by Rosemary Stanton and Michael Dack. Are GM foods a boon or potential public health disaster? That is the burning question and the jury is still out and likely to remain so for many more years. In the meantime the precautionary principle should apply.

2. Nutrition, Health and Disease

Colin Butler makes the very important point that policies that improve nutrition for the poor cannot be separated from policies that reduce inequality. This may be the most important challenge now facing humanity. It's solution or not will have an effect on future forced migration and warfare. Population limitation and redirection of foreign aid by national and multinational organisations will be needed to attempt to remedy the current imbalance between the haves and have-nots.

Dennis Wilson uses the growing epidemic of diabetes to highlight the urgent need for policies in the direction of prevention rather than clinical care for end stage disease. Prevention cuts to the quick of what human populations like to (or are influenced to) eat and how they use their leisure time for exercise. Mark Wahlqvist may have the answer to all of this in his concept of "eco-nutrition" ie combining nutritious plant-derived foods with small quantities of fish and meat which he says is nutritionally and environmentally attractive.

Louise Bartlett makes a passionate plea for the adoption of the dietary guidelines for older Australians which were released in 1999; and Basil Hetzel describes some of the valuable lessons learned during the remarkable campaign for the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders. In reply to one of the discussant's questions he notes that iodine content can be adjusted to the level of salt intake thus avoiding the need for pushing excessive salt intake.

Robert Loblay's paper is particularly notable for his statement that " eating is an inherently dangerous activity"! As an immunologist he points out that the immune system must protect us from pathogenic organisms and toxins without at the same time provoking immune reactions to food itself. Being omnivorous, humans are especially vulnerable in this regard. Peanuts and other nuts account for most fatalities from food anaphylaxis, but at the same time Barbara Eckersley tells us that nuts - along with fruits and vegetables are important sources of phytochemicals now shown to have considerable protective effects against cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Vicki Deakin sounds a valuable warning against complacency about food safety particularly "after point of sale". Many of our fellow citizens are tempting food borne illness through ignorance of simple measures regarding food preparation and retention in their kitchens. More research is needed on consumer behaviour and more eduction of the younger generation most importantly.

3. Food and Animals

Helen Scott-Orr says that Australians have been spoiled in both senses of the word by having an abundance of animal protein available. Many of us eat too much saturated fat as a consequence and this has brought disaster to the population's cardiovascular system. The recent international Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) alarm has vividly brought the world's attention to the need to farm animals destined for the human food chain much more sensibly. Human and veterinary public health workers will need to collaborate even more closely in the future.

Frank Fenner continues the theme demonstrating the ever-important role of livestock in transmitting communicable disease to human populations using influenza, E.coli O157:H7, Foot and Mouth Disease and BSE. (I recall being asked on a radio interview at the height of the BSE concern in 1996, when Australia was banning the importation of food containing British beef, whether travellers to England should refrain from eating beef. Logic demanded abstaining and my reply was "definitely not". Frank Fenner in reply to a discussant says that being a mature age citizen of 87 he has little to fear from a disease that has an incubation period of up to 15 years! I still wouldn't risk it Frank - we need you around for a long time to come!)

James Ridsdill-Smith gives us the range of options regarding measures to control pests that threaten crops pointing out that no one method is going to be sufficient. Increasingly we are going to have to rely less on chemicals - a sentiment dear to the hearts of the exponents of organic farming and permaculture.
Peter Collignon sounds again the important warning to the world about the misuse of antibiotics but concentrates on the misuse of these agents in animals used in food production. The situation is truly alarming: Vancomycin and Ciprofloxacin resistance is now clearly linked to antibiotic use in animals. Antibiotics are a non renewable resource for human health. They must be used prudently and certainly not as growth promoters in animal husbandry.

Bidda Jones, Sharelle Hart and Hugh Wirth take a careful look at the ethics of raising animals for food and how these have changed over the years. There is now an accreditation scheme in operation in Australia which incorporates the "five freedoms for animals": freedom from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, injury or disease, fear and distress; and freedom to express normal behaviour. This should make us all feel less guilty as we consume our daily ration of animal protein.

4. Choices in Food Consumption

Mother's milk is always an emotive issue and Julie Smith highlights the ongoing debate over breast milk substitutes and the commercial drive behind their promotion. The advantages of breast feeding are well described and she issues an appeal for health professionals and governments to act positively as advocates for breastfeeding - something that the Australian government has been doing for years at WHO meetings.

Rosemary Stanton, in looking at the drivers of the food supply, gives us some very important messages about the need for citizens to influence who should be in control. Convenience foods are marketed to young and old and changing living habits will undoubtedly hasten the move to more and more pre-packaged foodstuffs. "It seems a futile game when commonsense would tell us to eat fruits and vegetables. But who (she asks) champions the carrot and the humble spud when they don't even have a label to list their glories?"

Michael Dack from ANZFA states the current official situation regarding GM foods noting that the new (December 2001) regulation will require GM foods to be identified as such on package labels. The aim is to "protect public health and safety and the provision of information to enable the consumer to choose whether to eat GM or not." Don't forget the warnings from Stephen Leeder and Rosemary Stanton that the studies are yet to be done to prove beyond doubt the safety of these products. Michael Dack in responding to discussants recognises the ongoing uncertainty in the minds of the population.

Michael Djordjevic stimulates the reader to reconsider the current recommendations on healthy eating in order to bring eating related disease patterns closer to those of Mediterranean countries. He suggests we look seriously at adopting the Glycaemic Index (GI) in order to assess the rate at which carbohydrate based foods are digested as simple sugars and then absorbed to become glucose in the blood stream. The foods with the highest GI are likely to have deleterious effects with regard to body weight and diabetes. Hence starchy foods such as potatoes white bread and rice bubbles have high GIs while soy-lin bread, low fat muesli and fruit and vegetables have low GIs. A high intake of starch-rich foods "may be in conflict with the aim of minimising the risk of diet related diseases". One discussant felt that more information is needed (eg what effect does mixing starchy and non-starchy foods have on the GI) before any changes are made.

Mike Reid forsees big changes to the way food will be marketed in the 21st century as it becomes more central to entertaining and socialising. More people will eat out more often and the ways food and eating are marketed will need to be scientifically based to ensure that food consumed at whatever site is fresh, nutritious and safe, and that all levels of the community understand the messages.

Louise Burke, Michelle Minehan, Gregory Cox and Andrea Braakhuis from the Australian Institute of Sport explore the relationship between diet and exercise and introduce us to the complexities of sports nutrition principles.

Karen Cashel provides us with a good summary of the changes that have occurred in the patterns of eating in recent years. Most of these are good and that is excellent news - eg more fish, fruit and vegetables, cereals eaten and less fat-based spreads and beer. Consumer knowledge must have improved to achieve these results but we are warned that fewer children these days learn about life skills in school or home.

5. Food, Population and Resources

In the first of the five papers in this group, Tony McMichael looks forward fifty years to the time when the world's population is approaching 9 billion and with consumer expectations ever rising, we will have to anticipate the need for a 50% increase in total food requirements. Is global food supply sustainable he asks in the light of many factors including large scale environmental changes like ozone depletion, global climate change with increasing drought etc and the persistence of deleterious agricultural practices. Here again we need to emphasise the need to apply the precautionary principle putting into place whatever is required to limit the impact of these adverse forces.

Doug Cocks continues the theme by focusing on Australia's population policy, our consumption and environmental degradation. He offers suggestions as to the way the population debate might be conducted. Bryan Furnass in discussing the paper suggests that ESD would better be transformed to EESD (Ecologically and Economically Sustainable Development) to cater for the potential for economic and employment growth from the provision of renewable technologies.

Brian Fleay discusses food production and fossil fuels and floats the intriguing proposition that the increased yields from existing (and shrinking) agricultural land over the last fifty years can be mainly attributed to the use of petroleum fuels. He calls for a world wide strategy to halt and reduce population growth while giving first priority to remaining economic petroleum fuels to support agriculture.

Steven Cork introduces the concept of "Ecosystem Services" into the debate. These are "transformations of natural assets into products that are important to humans". The decline in ecosystems world-wide is alarming - imagine if pollinators disappear completely, or if not enough ecosystems remain to assimilate all the waste from the cities of the world for example. An Australian initiative, the ecosystems services project, illustrated in the paper gives a practical example of what can be done to start remedying the parlous situation we find ourselves in.

Ken Johnson strikes a more pessimistic note stating that human society and its complexity is the source of problems in the nature and society nexus. Individualism and the ideology that promotes private over public community interest is the culprit and to change these prevailing views will not be easy.

6. Sustainable Food Production

John Williams turns his attention to sustainable land management in the ancient tired land of Australia in a most important paper that deserves careful study and reflection. There is optimism here but it will urgently require major changes to land and water management and restoration of native vegetation on a huge scale to effectively solve our immediate problems.

Tim Marshall, on organic farming and David Johnson, on permaculture, continue the theme that a revolution in horticultural and agricultural practices is possible without recourse to chemicals and "artificial" means. There are examples largely from developing countries where such approaches have been most successful.
The challenge is to persuade governments and farmers in developed countries to become serious about introducing them.

David Eastburn paints a gloomy picture of the current state of water management in Australia, particularly in the Murray - Darling Basin area, but concludes that "a combination of scientific understanding, political will, social critique and social transformation can achieve effective management of water resources for a sustainable future". Again, political commitment will be all important.

Will Zacharin tells us that Australia leads the world in the management of fisheries and ESD plans are being put in place for the management of commercial and recreational fisheries and aquaculture. He demonstrates that "ESD planning is an investment, not a cost". This is good news indeed, and is hopefully applicable to all areas of endeavour.

Gerard Gillespie turns our attention to the soil and states that "we can have pollution, desertification, contamination and waste, or we can have employment, good food, clean air and health. The cost will be about the same". In other words, with better packaging and effective recycling we can solve our waste problems!

The late Donella Meadows' paper should be digested along with that of Tim Marshall. She waxed lyrical over the prospects of organic farming feeding the world citing for example the successful introduction of the mucuna bean in Benin. She concluded that organic farming has more chance of feeding the world than industrial agriculture. We probably need them both.

The final paper by Brendan Mackey introduces us to the "Earth Charter" which had its origins in the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 but which really only took off in 1997 when a secretariat was established in Costa Rica to progress the issue through wide consultation around the world. The Charter "helps place our local sustainability challenges in a global context, and reminds us of a broader set of universal responsibilities related to the greater community of life with whom we share Earth, together with the needs and rights of future generations." We wish the secretariat and the Earth Charter Commission every success. All our futures may depend on them.

So there we have it. A wealth of stimulating ideas and suggestions from presenters and discussants which, if directed to our national and international policy makers in health and agriculture should have a considerable influence. Much food for thought for all of us.