The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto,fiat panis,translates to "let there be bread". It was founded on 16 October 1945.
Ann Margaret Veneman is an American attorney who served as the fifth executive director of UNICEF from 2005 to 2010. She previously served as the 27th United States secretary of agriculture from 2001 to 2005. Veneman served for the entire first term of President George W. Bush,and she left to take the UNICEF position. Appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on January 18,2005,she took over the post on May 1,2005. A lawyer,Veneman has practiced law in Washington,DC and California,including being a deputy public defender. She has also served in other high-level positions in both the state and the federal government of the United States,including being appointed secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture,serving from 1995 to 1999,as well as United States deputy secretary of agriculture,serving from 1991 to 1993. Throughout her public career,Veneman was the first woman to serve in a number of positions,including secretary of agriculture,deputy secretary of agriculture,and California's secretary of food and agriculture. She was also just the second woman to lead UNICEF,following her predecessor,Carol Bellamy.
The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries,and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located in Beltsville,Maryland,it is one of five national libraries of the United States. It is also the coordinator for the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC),a national network of state land-grant institutions and coordinator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) field libraries.
The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University brings together biomedical,nutritional,clinical,social,and behavioral scientists to conduct research,educational,and community service programs in the field of human nutrition. Founded in 1981,the school's mission is to generate trusted science,educate future leaders,and produce real world impact in nutrition science and policy. The school has long billed itself as "only graduate school of nutrition in the United States".
The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture;it maintains programs in five commodity areas:cotton and tobacco;dairy;fruit and vegetable;livestock and seed;and poultry. These programs provide testing,standardization,grading and market news services for those commodities,and oversee marketing agreements and orders,administer research and promotion programs,and purchase commodities for federal food programs. The AMS enforces certain federal laws such as the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and the Federal Seed Act. The AMS budget is $1.2 billion. It is headquartered in the Jamie L. Whitten Building in Washington,D.C.
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970. The school offers training in public policy analysis and administration in government and public affairs-related areas of the private and nonprofit sectors. Degree programs include a Master of Public Affairs (MPAff),a mid-career MPAff sequence,16 MPAff dual degree programs,a Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS),eight MGPS dual degree programs,an Executive Master of Public Leadership,and a Ph.D. in public policy.
Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced,processed,distributed,purchased,or provided. Food policies are designed to influence the operation of the food and agriculture system balanced with ensuring human health needs. This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques,marketing,availability,utilization,and consumption of food,in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives. Food policy can be promulgated on any level,from local to global,and by a government agency,business,or organization. Food policymakers engage in activities such as regulation of food-related industries,establishing eligibility standards for food assistance programs for the poor,ensuring safety of the food supply,food labeling,and even the qualifications of a product to be considered organic.
American Farmland Trust (AFT) is a non-profit organization in the United States with a mission to protect farmland,promote environmentally sound farming practices,and keep farmers on the land. AFT is staffed by farmers,policy experts,researchers,and scientists,and governed by a board of directors. Its headquarters are in Washington,D.C.,and it has regional offices throughout the country. AFT also runs the Farmland Information Center,an online collection of information on farmland and ranchland protection and stewardship established as a public-private partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Under Secretary for Research,Education,and Economics is a high-ranking official within the United States Department of Agriculture that provides leadership and oversight for the Agricultural Research Service,National Institute of Food and Agriculture,Economic Research Service,National Agricultural Library,National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Charles Franklin "Chuck" Conner is a former United States deputy secretary of agriculture.
The agricultural policy of the United States is composed primarily of the periodically renewed federal U.S. farm bills. The Farm Bills have a rich history which initially sought to provide income and price support to US farmers and prevent them from adverse global as well as local supply and demand shocks. This implied an elaborate subsidy program which supports domestic production by either direct payments or through price support measures. The former incentivizes farmers to grow certain crops which are eligible for such payments through environmentally conscientious practices of farming. The latter protects farmers from vagaries of price fluctuations by ensuring a minimum price and fulfilling their shortfalls in revenue upon a fall in price. Lately,there are other measures through which the government encourages crop insurance and pays part of the premium for such insurance against various unanticipated outcomes in agriculture.
The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition,food,health,community development,and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population:growing,harvesting,processing,packaging,transporting,marketing,consumption,distribution,and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps.
The U.S. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition,Specialty Crops,Organics,and Research is one of five subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture,Nutrition and Forestry.
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University,in Medford,Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017,the student body numbered around 230,of whom 36 percent were international students from 70 countries,and around a quarter were U.S. minorities.
The Childhood Obesity Task Force is a United States government task force charged with reducing childhood obesity in the United States. It was founded on February 9,2010,by the Obama administration through a presidential memorandum,announcing the establishment of a Task Force on Childhood Obesity. The task force aims to develop a plan to reduce childhood obesity. In the announcement,President Barack Obama highlighted the statistics on childhood obesity in the United States and outlined the steps that this new task force would be taking to end childhood obesity. Section 1 of the memorandum states:
There is established a Task Force on Childhood Obesity to develop an interagency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our Nation's children within a generation. The Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy shall serve as Chair of the Task Force.
Simin Nikbin Meydani is an Iranian-American nutrition scientist and professor who is the Vice Provost of Research at Tufts University.
Basil Ivanhoe Gooden is an American governmental executive whose career has advanced equitable food systems,agriculture policy,public health,and community economic development in rural America. Gooden served as the 3rd Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the cabinet of Governor Terry McAuliffe. He became the first Black American to serve in this position and during his tenure from September 2016 until January 2018,he was the only Black American Secretary of Agriculture in any state in the United States. In his capacity as Secretary,he provided strategic vision and leadership to two of Virginia's largest private industries,Agriculture and Forestry,with an annual economic impact of $91 billion on the Commonwealth.
Brian Baenig is an American government official who served as Chief of Staff for Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack from 2013 to 2015.
Rosemary R. Haggett is an American academic who is the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Success for the University of North Texas System. She was the second woman to serve as a dean of a college of agriculture in the U.S.
Ann Tutwiler is a Senior Fellow with Meridian Institute and serves as a Senior Advisor to the Food Forward Consortium and formerly was the senior advisor to the Just Rural Transition. She also chairs the Expert Review Committee for the Food and Agriculture Benchmark for the World Benchmarking Alliance. Previously,she was the Director General of Bioversity International from July 2013 to February 2019 and the first woman Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from January 2011 to November 2012. In 2022,she has been awarded the John Knox Batten Teaching Fellowship in Public Policy at Davidson College in North Carolina where she taught two undergraduate classes in food systems transformation.
