Food and Nutritional Security

At the core of human health is nutrition. Nutrition and food security is achieved when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 1996). The absence of food and nutrition security can have significant short and long term consequences for individuals and for society, including malnutrition, obesity, disease, and poverty.

Work within food and nutritional security aims to address both underlying and proximate determinants of food and nutritional security, including access to foods, care and feeding practices, and access to health care and treatment of illness. At the Department of Environmental and Global Health, researchers in food and nutritional security work on complex social issues, including women’s empowerment, behavior change, livelihood resilience, and adaptations to climate change. Researchers employ a systems perspective to study and understanding the complex drivers of nutrition and seek to identify effective pathways for global development interventions to improve nutrition among vulnerable populations.

Learn more about faculty working in this area by visiting their profiles below.

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