Dr. Patrick Stover presenting, “Enhancing the Purpose of Food,” for the USDA-ARS Under the Microscope Memorial Lecture Series
health
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.
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.
Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture Seeks Experts to Support Study on Responsive Agriculture
New study aims to set priorities for supporting health through food and agriculture by developing a National Roadmap for Responsive Agriculture Solutions
College Station, Texas (May 10, 2023) – Texas A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is spearheading a study that focuses on advancing the concept of responsive agriculture and is seeking experts and leaders in the agriculture-food value chain to serve one of its three committees. The committees, along with a recently named Task Force, will help develop a road map to achieve responsive agriculture, an agricultural system and food environment that supports health through nutrition while ensuring the system is economically robust and environmentally sustainable for future generations.
To help facilitate this effort, the IHA has partnered with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Center on Global Food and Agriculture (the Chicago Council) to organize and harness the synergy of these diverse and important committees toward this effort. The new study, titled “A National Roadmap for Responsive Agriculture Solutions,” has already convened a nationwide expert Task Force to guide the development of a national roadmap on priorities that will enable responsive agriculture solutions across the nation. Over the next 18 months, the Task Force will be informed by three committees in the domains of 1) chronic disease reduction, 2) agricultural ecosystems and agriculture-food value chain and 3) securing nutrition equity.
The IHA is seeking experts and leaders to serve on these three committees from across the full spectrum of agriculture-food value chain, including researchers engaged in scientific research and applied agricultural technologies, decision-makers, public health professionals, food and agriculture related industry representatives, professional societies, consumers and policy and medical experts. The intent is to bring together experts who may not traditionally routinely interact or work collaboratively, yet collectively hold the synergistic and unique potential to advance responsive agriculture.
“A collaborative effort of this magnitude is essential to realize the concept of responsive agriculture. We believe that convening experts in this arena will pave the way by creating a roadmap to ultimately reduce diet-related chronic diseases,” said Patrick Stover, Ph.D., director of the IHA and chair of the Task Force.
The Task Force is charged with guiding the development of a final consensus report—a roadmap for action with recommendations useful for various stakeholders across food and health systems, policymakers, funding agencies and decision-makers in the private and public sectors. The expected release date of the Responsive Agriculture Roadmap is mid- to late- 2024.
“With the Task Force, we can use science-driven solutions to improve human health by transforming the food system and environment to achieve equitable access through choices that promote health and nutrition through food,” said Peggy Yih, managing director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council and the Task Force staff study director. “The Chicago Council is incredibly excited to partner with the IHA to facilitate these efforts to enable responsive agriculture solutions to benefit the nation.”
Task Force members include:
- Patrick Stover, Ph.D. (chair), IHA Director
- Regan Bailey, Ph.D., IHA Associate Director for Precision Nutrition
- Catherine Bertini, Chicago Council Distinguished Fellow
- Dan Gustafson, Ph.D., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Special Representative of the Director-General
- Scott Hutchins, former USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics; Global R&D Leader for Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva AgriScience), retired
- A.G. Kawamura, Solutions from the Land Founding Co-Chair
- Elizabeth Parker, D.V.M., IHA Associate Director of International Programs and Strategic Initiatives
- Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., IHA Associate Director for Healthy Living
- Pam Starke-Reed, Ph.D., United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service Deputy Administrator for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Quality
- Bernhard van Lengerich, Ph.D., Seeding The Future Foundation Founder and CEO, General Mills Inc. former Chief Science Officer
Nominations close on June 7, 2023. To learn more about the study, the Task Force, the charges for each of the committees, or the call for nominations, please visit https://iha.tamu.edu/responsive-agriculture-study/.
The United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) is funding the efforts for this 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.
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.
Texas A&M names leading nutrition scientist to Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
IHA will design study to improve maternal, child health
The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, IHA, announced that Catharine “Cathy” Ross, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Nutrition in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, elevating Texas A&M’s integrated approach to public health nutrition, with an emphasis on maternal and child health.
Ross joined the IHA as the scientific director of a maternal/child cohort study and professor in the Department of Nutrition. Her addition is part of the Governor’s University Research Initiative, enacted in 2015 to help higher education public institutions in recruiting distinguished researchers from around the world to Texas.
Ross is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit society of distinguished scholars charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. She has twice served on the Food and Nutrition Board of the Health and Medicine Division, forming networks with leading academic centers across the country.
With the addition of Ross, the IHA now has three National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine members with IHA Director Patrick Stover, Ph.D., also a National Academy of Sciences member, and IHA Associate Director for Precision Nutrition Regan Bailey, Ph.D., registered dietician and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
“Thanks to Governor Abbott’s University Research Initiative, we’re investing in top talent that will make the IHA a nationally known name,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. “Dr. Ross’ leadership will be instrumental in our ability to improve public health in Texas and across the country.”
Building leadership and response
Ross’ appointment is the latest in a series of leadership and research advances at IHA, the world’s first academic institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture and behavioral and social science studies to reduce diet-related chronic disease.
“We are honored Dr. Ross has joined the Department of Nutrition and the IHA as we continue to elevate Texas A&M as a leader in connecting responsive agriculture, precision nutrition, and social and behavioral healthy living research for the benefit of public health,” said Stover.
Ross is recognized for her extensive research with vitamins A and D, pregnancy, lactation, and neonatal lung and immune responses.
“I look forward to working with Dr. Ross and our IHA leadership team on upcoming opportunities and innovative approaches to improve maternal and child health outcomes and address the chronic disease risk resulting from suboptimal nutrition during these life stages,” said Bailey.
Ross will also help position the Department of Nutrition and the IHA at the forefront of integrating basic science into community health projects. She will support faculty recruitment efforts in applied nutrition and oversee the current team to drive research discoveries, and train and mentor students and postdoctoral fellows.
“The addition of Dr. Ross expands our capacity to take an integrated approach to community nutrition with an emphasis on improving pregnancy outcomes, and fostering the department’s micronutrient research,” said Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., registered dietician and IHA associate director for Healthy Living as well as a professor in the Department of Nutrition.
Ross’ career reflects a long-standing commitment to academic affairs and public service, publishing over 270 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters and reviews. Most recently, she served as the head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.
Ross also served as a scientific adviser to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
Ross earned her undergraduate education at the University of California at Davis, and master’s degree in nutrition and doctorate degree in biochemistry from Cornell University.
-30-