Twenty food and agriculture experts from seven countries visited Washington University in St. Louis Feb. 5 to learn about the School of Public Health’s Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM), one of the school’s six research networks. FARM takes a public health-centered approach to food and agriculture, working with academic, public and private-sector partners to ensure access to healthy, sustainable diets for all.
The event was part of a weeklong meeting of Agri-Tech for Resilience, Innovation & Sustainable Ecosystems (ARISE). Supported by the U.K. government, ARISE brings together organizations from Latin America, the U.K. and the U.S. to strengthen trilateral collaboration and drive innovation, shared research and sustainable growth in conservation-based farming. Partner organizations are based in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico as well as the U.K. and the U.S.
“FARM was launched less than a year ago, and we’re still in the phase of building out our network and our research agenda,” said Mark Doyle, FARM’s senior network manager. “We have a mandate to do research that has real impact on food systems and public health. With representation from academia and experts in agribusiness development and entrepreneurship, programs like ARISE create a space for dialogue among key actors that help move public health innovations in food and agriculture toward commercialization, where they can have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.”
