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Research with a Purpose: GHF Research Preview 2011

Do you ever wonder who is responsible for improving the food environment?

On September 15th and 16th, leaders in grains and health came together in Minneapolis to address this question and get an update on the latest research.  What we came away with was a better understanding not only of research, but also key insights into the future of our food system.

Topics of discussion included the need for public health and industry partnerships for the improvement of the community food environment, a different approach to behavior change (positive deviance), the importance of our gut microflora on our SUPRAorganism, outcomes of collaboration in the European grains community, and the reminder that it takes two to tango.

If you’re wondering how DANCING came up during a RESEARCH meeting, you’re not alone!

An overriding theme of the discussion on Thursday and Friday was partnerships.

Recognize we are never working alone.  Others impact my decisions and are impacted by them. 

Even with state of the art research facilities and leading centers of expertise, the work we do is never done single-handedly. Improvement and change (which is really the point of research, right?) require communication and collaboration.

Within this backdrop, it is easy then to answer the question- who is responsible for improving the food environment?

I am.