Congress report - European Health Forum Gastein

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European Health Forum Gastein 2001
impact of this first Action Plan will be reviewed during the first Ministerial Conference on
Food & Nutrition in 2005.
This political commitment gives public health experts an extraordinary and important
opportunity to lobby both at national and European level for an agriculture policy that
explicitly promotes health.
Conclusion
Unsustainable agricultural systems have grown out of the narrow focus on productivity that
has monopolized agriculture policy. Their economic costs are already becoming apparent but
their human health costs – including their nutritional impact – have not received sufficient
attention.
A number of opportunities for changing agricultural policy are becoming available, and public
health experts are urged to ensure that their views are fully expressed in this process.
Notes
† This has been the finding of several WHO reports over the last decade: Diet,
nutrition and the prevention of chronic disease (WHO Technical Report Series 797, Geneva,
1990); Preparation and use of food-based dietary guidelines (WHO internal document
WHO/NUT/96.6, Geneva, 1996); Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Diseases
Intervention (CINDI) dietary guidelines (WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 2000).
‡ Between 1960 and 2000, the countries of Mediterranean European saw a reduction
in the land used for fruit and vegetable production by nearly a quarter (2.1million hectares)
and an increase in land devoted to cereal production by a similar amount (1.5 million
hectares).
References
1. Agriculture and the Environment: An impact statement prepared by the
Environment Agency, Consultation draft, UK Government Environment Agency,
Bristol, October 2000.
2. D Pimentel et al, 1974, cited in RD Sainz, ‘Livestock-Environment Initiative, Fossil
Fuel Component: Framework for Calculating Fossil Fuel Use in Livestock Systems’,
Livestock, Environment and Development program (LEAD), FAO, Rome 2000
[http://www.fao.org/WAIRDOCS/LEAD/X6100E/Intro.htm].
3. For game, see MA Crawford, Fatty acid ratios in free-living and domesticated
animals, Lancet, 22 June 1968, p1329-1333; for plants, see A Trichopoulou et al,
Nutritional composition and flavonoid content of edible wild greens and gren pies:
a potential rich source of antioxidant nutrients in the Mediterranean diet, Food
Chemistry, 70, 2000, p319-323.
4. World Cancer Research Fund, and American Institute for Cancer Research, Food,
Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective, WCRF/AICR,
Washington, 1997.
5. World Health Organization Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases,
Technical Report Series 797, WHO, Geneva, 1990.
International Forum Gastein, Tauernplatz 1, A-5630 Bad Hofgastein
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