Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
12.3.5
Key Challenges
According to the WHO and FAO (
2009
), the key challenges to all kinds of foods
including minimally processed foods are:
1. Increased investment in people is essential to accelerate food security improve-
ments. In agricultural areas, education works directly to enhance the ability of
farmers to adopt more advanced technologies and crop-management techniques
(Rosegrant and Cline
2003
).
2. To avoid or eradicate hunger in the earth. Not only to ensure suffi cient food
production to feed a world population that will grow by 50 % and reach 9 bil-
lion by 2050 (FAO
2002
), but also to fi nd ways to guarantee that everyone has
access to the food they need for an active and healthy life.
3. To put in place a more coherent and effective system of governance of food
security, at both national and international levels.
4. To make sure developing countries have a fair chance of competing in world
commodity markets and that agricultural support policies do not unfairly distort
international trade.
5 . fi To fi nd ways to ensure that farmers, in both developed and developing coun-
tries, can earn incomes comparable to those of secondary and tertiary sector
workers in their respective countries.
6. To mobilize substantial additional public and private sector investment in agri-
culture and rural infrastructure and ensure farmers' access to modern inputs to
boost food production and productivity in the developing world, particularly in
low-income and food-defi cit countries.
7. To ensure that countries are prepared to adapt to climate change and mitigate
negative effects (FAO
2009
).
8. Advances and improvements in public health signal detection using PulseNet
(
www.cdc.gov/pulsenet/
)
, which is a system whereby state public health labo-
ratories analyze strains of certain pathogenic bacteria from ill individuals and
determine their genetic fi ngerprint. This is then shared nationally with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), allowing CDC to analyze
results and when the same genetic fi ngerprint of an organism is isolated from
clinical specimens from geographically dispersed regions. Several multistate
outbreaks have been detected due to PulseNet and this collaboration to improve
signal detection.
9. New regulatory reporting requirements of contaminated food products in com-
merce (The Reportable Food Registry).
10. Improved communication streams and interconnectivity between regulatory
agencies domestically and internationally.
11. The global food supply continues to grow in volume and complexity. Imports
are expected to continue to grow because of cost concerns (need for lower costs
and higher productivity), availability (includes seasonality) and consumer
demand for diverse food products. According to an FDA Report entitled
“Pathway to Global Safety and Quality,” (FDA
2011
) between 10 and 15 % of
