Prof. Aron Troen believes that the role of a democratic government is to ensure the health, wellbeing, and the rights of all members of society. This may take form of protective laws, regulations, and providing opportunities for legal recourse. As a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, and with an impressive resume of research focused on the connection between nutrition and the brain, he is now turning his attention to the question of nutritional security as a basic human right.
“We need to ensure that our food system is both fair and equitable, but 3 billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy and sustainable diet.”
Often, people’s diets are not a question of choice, but of circumstance. In Israel for example, the lowest quintile (20%) would have to spend 2/3 of their income to make healthy food choices. Poor diets result in a variety of maladies, with society (taxpayers) shouldering the cost down the line—hospitalization, lost productivity, children not realizing their full potential.
This is precisely why Prof. Troen loves being at the Hebrew University. “As a publicly funded institution, we have the responsibility and opportunity to care for the public—and this means public health,” he says. “As scientists, we must foster reasoned research-based debate and policy development around such issues. One way is to use our convening power; to bring together stakeholders, transcend politics, and focus on achieving individual and societal needs.” In other words, organizing conferences and symposia. Over the course of the last year, Prof. Troen was involved in leading a number of such international conferences.
He helped organize Food Insecurity – The Continuing Pandemic: Toward Sustainable Food Systems for Israel, which took place at the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities. The event hosted a number of experts from abroad, including Prof. Dan Glickman, who served as the US Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton. Based on the success, Prof. Troen worked on two additional conferences, all action-oriented and combining science and policy.
The first converence was the two-day Batsheva de Rothschild Workshop, Avoiding the Coming Food Security Crisis: Novel Solutions at the Intersection of Agriculture, Environment and Health. Multidisciplinary stakeholders from four continents traveled to Israel to advance an evidence-based understanding of how governments, NGOs, organizations, and companies can best address looming food security challenges in Israel and worldwide.
The second converence was a mini-symposium organized and hosted by Prof. Troen at Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food, Agriculture and Environment: Science and Measurement in Food Security Policy. It brought together experts from the United States and Israel, including a wide range of stakeholders: members of Israel’s National Nutritional Security Council, governmental and civil service professionals, and civil society members. The goal was to examine and develop methods for mapping and addressing food insecurity—not only asking what is known, but how we know it—how is data collected and analyzed, and what barriers exist to better evidence-based practice and policy?
“I measure success as good public health, not monetary wealth.”
But health and wealth mustn’t necessarily conflict—data from the United States has shown a $2 return for every $1 invested in food security. Thus, it is possible to develop evidence-based policies that generate sustainable, environmental, and healthy solutions that are both equitable and financially and politically feasible.
Thanks to Prof. Troen and his colleagues, Hebrew University is sounding the alarm, while also offering guidance on how to best move forward.