Food and Nutrition
This program represents the Sustainable Gastronomy Initiative, a cluster of themes, orchestrated through the Food Festivals and related programs. Such themes include nutrition, food as medicine, and SDGs in the food system, among others.
The Food Festivals
The International Food Festivals are culinary and cultural events held at the globally recognized iconic location, the Delegates Dining Room at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. These festivals serve as tools for cross-cultural sharing, communication, and community-building in a spirited atmosphere of excellent cuisines, cultural traditions, and innovative practices in support of sustainable development, particularly the Sustainable Gastronomy theme at the United Nations https://www.un.org/en/observances/sustainable-gastronomy-day.
The festival offers a unique opportunity to promote and heighten awareness of the rich culture, exquisite cuisines, and traditions from a country to an international community that includes world leaders, ambassadors, delegates, UN staff and the general public, representing 193 countries of the world. As a distinctive program, the Food Festival has its own website at https://thefoodfestivals.org.
Here is a highlight of the 2018 Chinese Food Festival organized under a partnership entity the Human Health Organization.
Food is Medicine
Even in the United States, understanding the connection between nutrition and health, as well as access to nutritious food, remains a big challenge. For example, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
“About half of all American adults — or 117 million individuals — have 1 or more preventable chronic disease, many of which are related to poor-quality eating patterns and physical inactivity. These include cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and poor bone health.“
Recognizing that access to high-quality nourishment, i.e., Food is Medicine, is essential for well-being. Good news is that worldwide, particularly in indigenous traditions, Food is Medicine is a given. T’CEH DP will introduce and highlight practices in this regard as a special program at the Food Festivals.
SDGs in the Food System
As stated in FAO’s Agrifood Systems and the 2030 Agenda, the food system has broad impact in all the 17 SDGs: For example, delivering more food with less and cleaner energy (SDG7), reducing food waste (SDG12), providing small-scale producers with access to innovative technologies (SDG9), potential to address water scarcity (SDG6), responding to climate change (SDG13), protecting the worlds aquatic (SDG14) and terrestrial biodiversity (SDG15), etc. T’CEH DP will highlight practices in these areas through multiple venues.
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