The MIT International Nutrition Planning Program (INP) was initiated in the fall of 1972 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, later supplemented by funds from USAID under the 2110 Program. Con ceived as a multidisciplinary undertaking, the INP was a joint effort of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science and the Center for Inter national Studies at MIT that also included representatives of the Depart ments of Economics, Political Science, Urban Studies, Humanities (Anthropology), and Civil Engineering. It has been successful in attract ing graduate students and conducting research on various international food and nutrition problems, including the design of intervention pro grams. A condition of the original grant from the Rockefeller Foundation was the organization of a meeting to summarize and evaluate the prog ress of the program. It was ultimately decided that the best approach would be a workshop that would attempt to assess what had been learned about the implementation of food and nutrition policies since the start of the INP. Out of concern for food and nutrition policy issues, the World Hunger Programme of The United Nations University (UNU) and the Ford Foundation also agreed to cosponsor the workshop.

This book offers a broad introduction to food policies in the United States. Real-world controversies and debates motivate the book's attention to economic principles, policy analysis, nutrition science and contemporary data sources. It assumes that the reader's concern is not just the economic interests of farmers, but also includes nutrition, sustainable agriculture, the environment and food security. The book's goal is to make US food policy more comprehensible to those inside and outside the agri-food sector whose interests and aspirations have been ignored. The chapters cover US agriculture, food production and the environment, international agricultural trade, food and beverage manufacturing, food retail and restaurants, food safety, dietary guidance, food labeling, advertising and federal food assistance programs for the poor. The author is an agricultural economist with many years of experience in the non-profit advocacy sector, the US Department of Agriculture and as a professor at Tufts University. The author's well-known blog on US food policy provides a forum for discussion and debate of the issues set out in the book.

The coronavirus pandemic has upended local, national, and global food systems, and put the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach. But lessons from the world’s response to the pandemic can help address future shocks and contribute to food system change. In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and other food policy experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what this means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive. Chapters in the report look at balancing health and economic policies, promoting healthy diets and nutrition, strengthening social protection policies and inclusion, integrating natural resource protection into food sector policies, and enhancing the contribution of the private sector. Regional sections look at the diverse experiences around the world, and a special section on finance looks at innovative ways of funding food system transformation. Critical questions addressed include: - Who felt the greatest impact from falling incomes and food system disruptions caused by the pandemic? - How can countries find an effective balance among health, economic, and social policies in the face of crisis? - How did lockdowns affect diet quality and quantity in rural and urban areas? - Do national social protection systems such as cash transfers have the capacity to protect poor and vulnerable groups in a global crisis? - Can better integration of agricultural and ecosystem polices help prevent the next pandemic? - How did companies accelerate ongoing trends in digitalization and integration to keep food supply chains moving? - What different challenges did the pandemic spark in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and how did these regions respond?