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Association members have entrusted me
with the Presidency for another four years. I am
honoured, and will do my best.
The need for rest and fun
I write this just after spending two weeks walking
in the South Tyrol mountains of Italy. Every month
in his column Reggie Annan reserves a place for rest
and reflection. He is right to do so. We also need
to remember that many people never have the
opportunity to step back from the grind of everyday
life. People with jobs so often work long hours
under pressure and have little time to enjoy their
lives. People without jobs have lots of time but are
also under pressure, to cope with limited resources.
How many of us lead balanced lives? We need to
re-evaluate what is most important for ourselves,
our families and our society.
This thought recurred to me when, back from holiday,
I read this month’s column by Geoffrey Cannon.
Seeing its images, I wondered if it was right for
the Association. Then I read the stories and found
out about the people in them, and changed my mind.
We all need fun in our lives. Sometimes I can’t help
thinking that academics are attracted to the type of
work they do, because it enables them to read and to
write about life without actually living it. Those
of us who generate knowledge need to work with those
responsible for policy, and both groups need to work
with and support those who are committed to action.
Indeed, we all can combine science and policy with
action.
Questions of balance
The Association remains pledged to represent the
interests of public health nutrition throughout the
world. As part of this pledge, we do our best to see
that contributions to the Association’s work,
whether by Council members, or on this website, or
in our journal
World Nutrition,
are suitably balanced. This is not a simple matter –
but perhaps, as a middle-aged white man who migrated
from one high-income country to another, I would say
this! Obvious questions of balance include those of
age, gender, and nationality. At least equally
important are areas of speciality and interest, and
also attitude.
We think we are doing fairly well. Two of our
columnists/ bloggers are young, and all four are
nationals of, or based and working in, lower-income
countries. Well before this time next year we would
like to be publishing six columns/blogs an issue,
and we would like the additional two to be by women.
Offers, please.
Of the 12 members of our new Council, 5 are women
and 9 are men. We are still missing members from
low-income countries, especially Asia.
So far our WN columnists have disproved the
notion that members of our profession take it easy
after ‘retirement age’. Do we want commentaries from
young Association members? We surely do. Anybody who
remains preoccupied with questions of balance needs
to know that we really are doing our best with what
we have got and with who we know. If you want your
views or news published on our website or in WN,
let me know personally.
Dr C Gopalan
The third event we mark this month is the accession
of our first honorary life member. This is
Colothur
Gopalan, usually known for well over half a century
as Dr C Gopalan, who celebrates his 92nd birthday in
a couple of months’ time. There is no need for me to
introduce him here. His member’s profile is
published this month, and we publish his testimony
of his life’s work in nutrition as this month’s WN
commentary. Dr Gopalan, a Fellow of the Royal
Society, has all his professional life been
committed to the promotion of healthy, culturally
appropriate, preferably local, accessible and
affordable food supplies for all people, in his own
country, in Asia, and worldwide.
A former President of the International Union of
Nutritional Sciences, who has earned special status
with United Nations agencies, Dr Gopalan has never
rested on his many honours. He continues to inspire
countless colleagues around the world with his
rigour, passion and integrity – doing what is right,
which so often is not easy. In sympathy with his
fellow countryman
Amartya Sen, he presses for
equitable, accountable food and nutrition policies
and practices. His commentary shows what can be
achieved with vision, commitment and passion
Rio 2012
One of our most important responsibilities is the
fourth event we mark this month: our congress in Rio
in 2012, which will be formally announced at the
Porto congress. The Association takes full
responsibility for Rio 2012, together with our
national partners Abrasco, the non-government
organisation representing the interests of public
health in Brazil. Just before my holiday I spent a
working week in Rio, meeting the hosts and
organisers of Rio 2012, outlining its programme and
policies, and seeing the ‘marvellous city’ for the
first time. What really impressed me with all the
people I met was their ‘can and will do’ attitudes.
It’s so good to work with people whose attitude is
‘sure, we can do this, what else do you want?’ One
theme so far agreed for Rio 2012 is ‘Knowledge –
policy – action’ It’s going to be a great congress.
UK 2010
I end with a gloomy note, sorry to say. This is not
a good time to be living in England. As you probably
know, the UK has a new ‘right-wing’ government,
replacing the discredited and exhausted ‘New Labour’
administrations headed by Tony Blair and then Gordon
Brown, in power from 1997 to May this year. Faced
with economic slump and the exceptionally fragile UK
economy, leaders in the new government are already
boasting that their slashing of public services will
be more radical than anything attempted during the
Margaret Thatcher decade of the 1980s.
One mildly progressive innovation introduced by the
Labour government after its election in 1997, was
the Food Standards Agency. The FSA was created
following a proposal made at the invitation of Tony
Blair by Association founder member
Philip James.
With all its limitations and caution, the FSA has
done good work, and is internationally respected.
One of its recent campaigns has included pressing
food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in
their products and thus in the national food supply.
More recently the FSA has made itself unpopular with
the very powerful food processors by advocating a
‘traffic light’ nutrition labelling system enabling
customers to see red, when products are high in
calories, saturated fat, added sugars, or salt.
The new UK Prime Minister David Cameron was employed
before entering politics as a public relations
officer for a commercial television company. He
remains friendly with big business. He believes that
ill-health including obesity is an individual
responsibility, and not that of government. The UK
Food Standards Agency is to be chopped up, its
public health work hamstrung, and its chief work
replaced by providing ‘healthy information’, with no
restrictions on the activities of Big Food and
Drink. In the UK public health is once again in
retreat.
Barrie Margetts
Email: b.m.margetts@soton.ac.uk |
