Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture

Advancing Health through Agriculture

Kendall Bassett

Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture and Chicago Council on Global Affairs Announce Committee Experts to Support Study on Responsive Agriculture

· ·

College Station, Texas (September 20, 2023) – Today, the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Center on Global Food and Agriculture (Chicago Council) announced members for the three committees that will work with The Responsive Agriculture Task Force to develop a national roadmap for responsive agriculture solutions.

The first committee will focus on Reducing Diet-Related Chronic Disease, supported by the Committee on Securing Nutrition Equity Across the Food Environment, and the Committee on Transforming Agricultural Ecosystems and the Agriculture-Food Value Chain. The IHA defines Responsive Agriculture as an agricultural system and food environment that supports health through nutrition while ensuring the system is economically robust and environmentally sustainable for future generations.

“Collaboration across the entire food value chain is essential to achieve our shared aspiration of lowering diet-related chronic disease through agriculture. To be successful, everyone must be heard; everyone will need to participate. The nominated members of these three committees are national leaders who will ultimately drive the advancement of responsive agriculture,” said Patrick Stover, Ph.D., IHA Director and Task Force Chair.

The United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) is funding the efforts for this study. The overarching goal of the study is to encourage health-promoting food decisions that reduce the high rates of diet-related chronic disease in America. This is the first study to include multiple dimensions of the food system, food environment, and social and behavioral factors that contribute to food choices that influence health.

“These preeminent members selected to participate will focus on evaluating the scientific evidence and proposing paths forward to achieve a food environment that supports health-promoting dietary patterns for our diverse population with an understanding that nutrition needs for health vary based on factors like age, life stage, culture, access, and many others,” said Regan Bailey, Ph.D., IHA Co-Director and Coordinator for the Committee on Reducing Diet-Related Chronic Disease. “For agriculture to be the solution to chronic disease reduction, the food system must support dietary patterns that address hunger, food insecurity, and health.”

The Committee on Reducing Diet-Related Chronic Disease considers food environments that support human health and the complexity of the diet-disease relationship, appreciating the biological variability among individuals in the diet-disease relationship – one size does not fit all. Committee members include:  

  • Cathie Woteki, Ph.D. (chair), Iowa State University Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition
  • Jamy Ard, M.D., Wake Forest University Professor of Epidemiology and Prevention
  • Cindy Davis, Ph.D., United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service National Program Leader for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Quality
  • Terry Hartman, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., Emory University Professor of Epidemiology
  • Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, M.S., R.D.N., International Food Information Council President and CEO
  • John Kirwan, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center Executive Director
  • Kevin Klatt, Ph.D., R.D., University of California at Berkeley Assistant Research Scientist for Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
  • Kristina Petersen, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Nutrition
  • Pamela Schwartz, M.P.H., Kaiser Permanente, Executive Director of Community Health
  • Kartik Shankar, Ph.D., University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Professor of Pediatrics
  • John Sievenpiper, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.P.C., University of Toronto Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Medicine
  • Elizabeth Yetley, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health Senior Nutrition Research Scientist, retired
  • Regan Bailey, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D. (Task Force Member), Co-Director of IHA, Texas A&M

The Committee on Securing Nutrition Equity Across the Food Environment will present key concepts, findings, and conclusions for achieving a food environment characterized by stable access to food that provides opportunities for all people to make dietary choices that promote their health through food. Committee members include:

  • Christina Economos, Ph.D. (chair), Tufts University Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
  • Alice Ammerman, Dr.P.H., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Kaufman Distinguished Professor of Nutrition
  • Deirdra Chester, Ph.D., United States Department of Agriculture Director of the Office of the Chief Scientist
  • Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, Sc.D., M.P.A., George Washington University Associate Professor of Public Health
  • Joel Gittelsohn, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Professor of International Health
  • Tashara Leak, Ph.D., R.D., Cornell University Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences
  • Jennifer Otten, Ph.D., R.D., University of Washington Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
  • Alison Tovar, Ph.D., Brown University Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • Amy Yaroch, Ph.D., Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition Executive Director
  • Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., R.D.N., L.D., C.S.C.S. (Task Force Member), Co-Director of IHA, Texas A&M

“This is a pivotal moment to bring together the very best teams of interdisciplinary experts to advance an evidence-based understanding that will help build the foundation to achieve chronic disease reduction through food environments across the diverse geography and communities of the US,” said Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., IHA Co-Director and Coordinator for the Committee on Securing Nutrition Equity Across the Food Environment. “Their contributions will provide critical new insights and that meet the diverse needs of individuals, communities, settings, and systems.”   

The Committee on Transforming Agricultural Ecosystems and the Agriculture-Food Value Chain will present key concepts, findings, and conclusions needed to realize an agriculture and food system that addresses both hunger and human health, while ensuring environmental sustainability and economic robustness for producers, with capacity and resiliency for food production and distribution now and into the future. Committee members include:

  • Jessica Fanzo, Ph.D. (chair), Columbia University Professor of Climate
  • Alvar Carlson, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center Associate Director
  • Laurence (Larry) Chandler, Ph.D., United States Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service Plains Area Office Area Director
  • Amit Dhingra, Ph.D., Texas A&M University Professor and Department Head of Horticultural Sciences
  • Constance Gewa, Ph.D., Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Senior Program Director for Health-Agriculture Nexus
  • Justin Gleghorn, Ph.D., Cactus Feeders Director of Cattle Risk Management and Customer Service
  • Mark Haugland, National Wheat Foundation Board of Directors
  • David Just, Ph.D., Cornell University Susan Eckert Lynch Professor of Science and Business
  • Ajay Malshe, Ph.D., Purdue University R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
  • Hikaru Peterson, Ph.D., University of Minnesota Professor of Agricultural Economics
  • Mollie Van Lieu, International Fresh Produce Association Vice President of Nutrition and Health
  • Frank Yiannas, M.P.H., United States Food and Drug Administration Former Deputy Commissioner of Food Policy & Response
  • David Zilberman, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Resource Economics
  • Patrick Stover, Ph.D. (Task Force Chair), Director of IHA Texas A&M*

“These committees are well positioned to develop and present findings that promote human health and advance nutrition for a heterogenous population. I have full confidence that each of the committee members will provide critical insight that furthers the Task Force charge,” said Peggy Yih, Managing Director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council and the Task Force Staff Study Director.

To learn more about the study, the Task Force, or the charges for each of the committees, please visit iha.tamu.edu/responsive-agriculture-study.

About Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture

The IHA is the world’s first research institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. The institute partners with the USDA-ARS Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit, in which researchers work with other USDA-ARS programs and land-grant universities nationwide to bring big data, state-of-the-art sensors and computational systems approaches to responsive agriculture, precision nutrition, and behavioral research. Learn more at iha.tamu.edu.

About the Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Founded in 1922, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing knowledge and engagement in global affairs. Our in-depth analysis and expert-led research influence policy conversations and inform the insights we share with our growing community. Through accessible content and open dialogue of diverse, fact-based perspectives, we empower more people to help shape our global future. Learn more at globalaffairs.org.

Watch Now

· ·

Dr. Patrick Stover presenting, “Enhancing the Purpose of Food,” for the USDA-ARS Under the Microscope Memorial Lecture Series

Texas A&M’s Director of Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture calls for a comprehensive approach to combat diet-related chronic diseases and rising health care costs

· ·

Dr. Patrick Stover testifies in front of full House Committee on Agriculture as part of “Innovation, Employment, Integrity, and Health: Opportunities for Modernization in Title IV” hearing.

WASHINGTON – June 8, 2023 – Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA), testified in front of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture yesterday to document that swift action is needed to reverse the increasing rates of diet-related chronic diseases and their subsequent economic burden on health care systems and costs.

Given that many of the drivers of chronic disease are related to diet, health behaviors, and our food systems, Dr. Stover was poised to provide insightful comments on our healthcare burdens, saliently offering solutions. The IHA’s research aims to align Precision Nutrition, Responsive Agriculture, and Healthy Living as a solution to the pressing health crisis affecting all Americans. Medical costs associated with diet­related diabetes alone total more than $327 billion annually.

“Agriculture and food are the only feasible solutions to address our skyrocketing health care costs. We need to develop a systems-based approach to connect agriculture, food, nutrition, and human health,” said Dr. Stover.

The committee hearing focused on federal nutrition programs, and Stover in his testimony cited the disproportionate impact of chronic diseases and food insecurity and associated costs on rural, underserved, and underrepresented communities, underscoring the urgent need for agriculture-centered, responsive solutions.

“We need to continue the work to eliminate hunger while expanding our mission to also ensure that our food environments promote human health,” said Dr. Stover. “Both the food environment that consumers experience, and consumer health behaviors need to be addressed together through sound policy grounded in high-quality scientific evidence that is lacking at this time.”

A strong evidence base is needed to ensure that policy is driven by the best science – to this end, Dr. Stover created the Agriculture, Food, & Nutrition Evidence Center at Texas A&M University. Dr. Stover also emphasized that the United States has made extraordinarily successful advances through nutrition and agriculture already, but that hunger and health must become the new endpoints for our food systems to adapt to if we are going to tackle the problem of chronic diseases.

“Farmers and ranchers have always been prepared to meet the needs and expectations of the nation, they feed America, and want to be part of the solution to help all Americans,” Stover emphasized.

Dr. Stover, an international leader in biochemistry, agriculture, and nutrition, is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has more than two decades of academic leadership experience, including serving as Vice Chancellor and Dean at Texas A&M AgriLife. Last month, he was named the 2023 W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecturer in recognition of his outstanding contributions to nutrition research.

Watch the entire hearing here.

Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture Awarded $2 Million in Funding to Support Social and Behavioral Healthy Living Research

· ·

Grants awarded for evaluating middle school student nutrition and physical activity as well as and Produce Prescription programs, among others

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 23, 2023 – New research initiatives at the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) have received more than $2 million in funding to support social and behavioral healthy living research.

The researchers’ projects aim to improve physical activity and healthy eating habits while promoting positive youth development, especially in economically disadvantaged middle schools. Another project will look at how community cafes – non-profit restaurants that use a pay-what-you-can system – influence healthy diets and food security.

IHA researchers Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D.; Alexandra L. MacMillan Uribe, Ph.D.; Jacob S. Szeszulski, Ph.D. and Chad Rethorst, Ph.D. have received funding from four sources: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Downstate Health Sciences University and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (Hatch grants).

Patrick Stover, Ph.D., director of the IHA, said the newly awarded grants reflect the importance of the Institute’s forward-looking work.

“It’s our mission to reduce diet-related chronic diseases and consequently healthcare costs through the power of agriculture in a way that considers the environment and our economy,” said Stover. “Doing so requires community-engaged multisector partnerships, as exemplified in this new portfolio of funded projects across the IHA Healthy Living research team.”

Strong Teens for Healthy Schools

Among the awards is a project led by MacMillan Uribe, Szeszulski and colleagues, titled, “Strong Teens for Healthy Schools Change Club: A Civic Engagement Approach to Improving Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Environments.” MacMillan Uribe and Szeszulski were granted more than $300,000 annually for the next five years from NIH’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Seguin-Fowler and Rethorst serve as co-investigators on the team. Working in partnership with Cooperative Extension as well as 4-H staff, school educators and middle school students, this project will refine the Strong Teens curriculum for delivery and evaluate its effectiveness in improving physical activity, nutrition and positive youth development-related behaviors and environmental outcomes in economically disadvantaged middle schools.

Produce Prescriptions for Healthy Blood Pressure
MacMillan Uribe and colleagues, including Seguin-Fowler who serves as associate director for Healthy Living at the IHA, were awarded $500,000 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture as part of its Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Grant Program (GusNIP). GusNIP focuses on programs that seek to improve dietary health and food security through the consumption of fresh produce as well as reducing the need and consequential costs of healthcare use.

MacMillan Uribe’s project, “The Produce Prescription for Healthy Blood Pressure Program to Manage Hypertension Among West Dallas, Texas Residents,” will run through September 2025.

“The goal of this project is to understand whether a produce prescription program can improve blood pressure levels among adults with hypertension living in West Dallas, Texas, a largely underserved community,” said Dr. MacMillan Uribe. “We anticipate that blood pressure levels and the frequency and cost of using healthcare will decrease.”

Additional Awards
MacMillan Uribe was also awarded $12,000 from the Program to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Cardiovascular Health-Related Research team (PRIDE-CVD) at Downstate Health Sciences University in New York. In collaboration with Szeszulski and Lori Borchers, Ph.D. at Texas Christian University, this project will look specifically at community cafes, which are non-profit restaurants that operate on a pay-what-you-can system. They are hoping to learn more about how these community cafes influence food security and diet quality among patrons with food insecurity.

Texas A&M AgriLife Research (Hatch awards) were also granted to Szeszulski, MacMillan Uribe and Rethorst, totaling $35,000. This support will enable them to conduct data analyses on existing projects so they can apply for additional grants that support the mission of Healthy Living to promote health, reduce chronic disease and advance health equity through the development, evaluation and dissemination of community-engaged intervention programs.

About Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
The IHA relies on funding from federal, state and other entities to achieve its mission. Objectives include advancing research, knowledge and practice as well as informing science-based policy that connects and enhances human, environmental and economic health, resiliency, sustainability and prosperity across the Ag-Food-Health value chain. The IHA aims to be a model nationally for positioning agriculture as the solution to problems in human and environmental health and economic prosperity. The IHA is a statewide program of The Texas A&M University Systems and is headquartered at Bryan-College Station. Learn more about the IHA at iha.tamu.edu.

USDA honors Texas A&M’s Patrick J. Stover, director of Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture

· ·

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 16, 2023 — Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture (IHA), has been named the 2023 W.O. Atwater Memorial Lecturer in recognition of his outstanding contributions to nutrition research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) established the Atwater Lecture as a tribute to Wilbur Olin Atwater, an influential figure in modern nutrition research and education. It goes to scientists who have made exceptional efforts in improving the diet and nutrition of people around the globe.

The prestigious award represents the latest acknowledgement of the IHA’s contributions advancing research in responsive agriculture and precision nutrition and promoting a healthy diet and lifestyles.

“Dr. Stover is leading a charge toward positive impacts of nutrition and how people of the United States – and the world – consume food,” said Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp. “We are proud to have him on our team at Texas A&M, in conjunction with our partnerships with the USDA-ARS, and look forward to continuing to support his vision.”

His lecture, “Enhancing the Purpose of Food,” will focus on agriculture, food and nutrition as a solution to challenges facing society. It will be presented at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, July 22-25 in Boston. Past recipients have included prominent research scientists and academics.

Stover, an international leader in biochemistry, agriculture and nutrition, is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Being named an Atwater Memorial Lecturer is so humbling, given the legacy of Dr. Atwater and those who have previously been recognized, and highlights the critical importance of the work we are doing at the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture,” Stover said.

“Our research strives to create meaningful connections in agriculture, food and human health through impactful fundamental and translational research. The research holds the key to mitigating the prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases while also considering the broader environmental and economic impacts of our food systems,” he said.

Stover, a former president of the American Society for Nutrition, has served two terms on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.

“This award recognizes global leaders who work to improve human health through food systems. Dr. Stover’s visionary creation of the IHA will advance our ability to improve health and reduce chronic disease through collaborations of responsive agriculture, precision nutrition and social and behavioral research,” said Regan Bailey, Ph.D., IHA associate director for Precision Nutrition. “The IHA is the first of its kind to have such a multidisciplinary focus, and our partnerships with USDA would make Dr. Atwater proud.”

Stover has more than 23 years of academic leadership experience, serving as vice chancellor and dean for agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife, director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and director the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University, a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the Medical College of Virginia and completed his postdoctoral studies in nutritional sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.