The African Food System and Its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition

Hunger, malnutrition, poor health, and deficient food systems are widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa. While much is known about African food systems and about African health and nutrition, our understanding of the interaction between food systems and health and nutrition is deficient. Moreover, the potential health gains from changes in the food system are frequently overlooked in policy design and implementation.The authors of The African Food System and its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition examine how public policy and research aimed at the food system and its interaction with human health and nutrition can improve the well-being of Africans and help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Several of the MDGs focus on health-related challenges: hunger alleviation
maternal, infant, and child mortality
the control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
and the provision of safe water and improved sanitation. These challenges are intensified by problems of low agricultural and food system productivity, gender inequity, lack of basic infrastructure, and environmental degradation, all of which have direct and indirect detrimental effects on health, nutrition, and the food system.Reflecting the complexity and multidisciplinary nature of these problems and their solutions, this book features contributions by world-renowned experts in economics, agriculture, health, nutrition, food science, and demography.

Contributors: Harold Alderman, World Bank
Christopher B. Barrett, Cornell University
Kathryn J. Boor, Cornell University
Laura K. Cramer, Cornell University
Stuart Gillespie, International Food Policy Research Institute
Anna Herforth, Cornell University
Dorothy Nakimbugwe, Makerere University
Rebecca Nelson, Cornell University, Onesmo K. ole-MoiYoi, Kenyatta University and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell University and the University of Copenhagen
Marie T. Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute
David E. Sahn, Cornell University
Barbara Boyle Torrey, Population Reference Bureau
E. Fuller Torrey, Stanley Medical Research Institute
Joachim von Braun, University of Bonn
Speciosa Wandira, Concave International
Derrill D. Watson, Cornell University