Representatives from a dozen agricultural universities and research facilities from around the world finished a three-day meeting April 11 at Cornell University to hammer out details on an alliance to improve diets worldwide.

If a memorandum of understanding is signed between all the institutions within the next few months, the alliance could begin assembling agricultural demonstration projects that show how food systems could be improved -- a long-term boon to the food supply and the diets of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. An agreement also would begin the process of upgrading food-systems infrastructures and training within developing countries.

"In both developed and developing countries, we need to change the way we approach diet-related diseases. We take a medical approach to disease. It works partially, but it doesn't work well. We need some different strategies," said John Duxbury, Cornell professor and chair of the department of soils, crops and atmospheric sciences, who is participating in building this global alliance.

People in developed countries suffer from diseases such as cancer and heart disease, while people in developing countries suffer from problems related to micronutrient deficiencies, he said.

With several globally well-known institutions aligning with the same food-systems message, policy-makers and scientists can implement a food-systems education. Thus, the agronomists, nutritionists and health scientists meeting at Cornell hope that a new international alliance for food systems and health will help to solve such global problems as micronutrient malnutrition and diet-related diseases.

In addition to Cornell, other universities looking at joining the food-system health alliance include: Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands; University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Agricultural Research Center, Egypt; The University of Adelaide, Australia; The University of Sydney, Australia; Punjab Agricultural University, India; The International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.; the University of California at Davis; the University of California at Los Angeles; and the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory.

The food systems approach to health and solving malnutrition was a recent symposium topic at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Seattle in February. In a food systems approach to health, diets are well-balanced with essential vitamins and minerals -- through the food and not through supplements.

In developing countries, five of the 10 leading causes of death are related to poor diet and in developed countries, the populations have inadequate vitamin and mineral intakes, which leads to impaired physical and intellectual development, the scientists said.

Over the next 25 years, there will be 2.5 billion more mouths to feed and the food will have to be more nutritious than it is now, the scientists at the meeting said. More than a third of the world's children fail to reach their physical growth and cognitive development potentials due to inadequate diets. Malnutrition is thought to account for half of child deaths.

As developing countries become more developed countries, disease patterns typical of the developed world -- such as obesity and cancer -- begin to emerge. Duxbury asks: "With a food-systems approach, can we avert the same problems? I think so."