February 18, 2017
It is my honor to be asked to comment on this important matter. Respectfully, after reading the First Draft the following are my comments. May you and yours…Be In Good Health.
RE: Dawson, Laura - Comments on: FIRST DRAFT, 27 JANUARY 2017 – Work Programme of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025
1. Does the work programme present a compelling vision for enabling strategic interaction and mutual support across existing initiatives, platforms, forums and programmes, given the stipulation of Res 70/259 that the Decade should be organized with existing institutions and available resources?
a. Yes.
b. However, nowhere in this work programme did we see the mention of an essential element of nutrition for human sustenance; WATER, safe clean drinking water was declared a right by the United Nations several of years ago.
c. Here in the United States these regulations fall on urban leadership to keep the drinking water supply safe.
d. In rural areas, including farms there is no regulation to guard against water borne diseases, which can be insidious and tenacious as often these microbiologic pathogenic factors are not visible to the human eye.
e. We believe clean, safe, drinking water needs to be included in the Decade of Nutrition oversights to assure overall quality of life and health.
2. What are your general comments to help strengthen the presented elements of the first draft work programme of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition?
a. Food in and of itself is or can be a social conversation with most people, however as a healthcare professional using food to heal or treat diseases, the master’s thesis I developed is only as good and the use by a patient or consumer.
b. We would be wise to remind/encourage each individual of their own responsibility to know how their personal constitution assimilates and utilized food energy, and water needs, that are essential to Quality of Life.
c. In the traditional oriental medical model taught in most acupuncture colleges in the US, we may likely have been taught to discern or diagnose using the Eight Principles [Hot vs Cold, Internal vs External, Excess vs Deficiency and Yin vs Yang]. Also, many of the schools in the US teach the Five Element Theory, which is more subjective rather than the objective. Whereas the measurable comparisons of the Eight Element Model for Diagnosis, Treatment and Prognosis make it a more transferable and usable model of medical care. These Eight Principles are used when learning to apply foods based on color and flavor, as well as the amino acid, fat, enzymatic compositions that cool, warm, moisten, dry, stagnate or move, organ systems and functions with the human body.
d. I believe this makes the certified, ‘Food Physics & Body Dynamics’ transferable locally, nationally, and internationally.
e. Finally, there are no parts of this draft in which WATER is mentioned let alone prescribed as an essential fluid to be consumed, and expelled appropriately to sustain Quality of Life.
1. Somewhere, we will need to open the discussion on just what and how clean drinking water is accessed and consumed, and its role to sustain a healthy state of well-being, as a part of the whole nutrition aspect.
3. Do you feel you can contribute to the success of the Nutrition Decade or align yourself with the proposed range of action areas?
a. Yes, We have a nationally and internationally Certified Nutrition Education Protocol, which has been approved to teach licensed health care professionals to meet the requirement for Continuing Education in Nutrition as mandated in several states and countries.
b. I personally, have academics at a college and post-graduate level, have participated in policy making regarding access to healthy food and the Food and Drug Agency [FDA] in the capacity building of the newest Food Safety Modernization Act, instituted by President Obama in 2011-2012.
c. As a member of the public and a candidate to write the American Food Guidelines, it was my honor to be asked to contribute to the final published Food Guidelines in 2004, published in 2005.
d. As a stakeholder on several committees at the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Food Safety and Inspection Services, and now on two Codex Alimentarius Committees, I have added expert comment and suggestions for more than a decade.
e. As a hosted participant, I contributed my expertise in Urgent Evoke, an event designed to address the world’s biggest issues conducted by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (The “World Bank”), and am a Founding Member effective 2010.
4. How could this draft work programme be improved to promote collective action to achieve the transformational change called for by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the ICN2 outcomes? What is missing?
a. Recognizing that communication is the first and foremost matter we will need to resolve as to how and when we will address these important matters.
b. Nutrition Education models and certifications for those models will be helpful to encourage ongoing participation and maintain and high level of engagement by us as authors/creators of systems to achieve our desired outcomes and for the global community we are working to serve.
c. Clean water access as a necessary component of nutrition consumption, in addition to being necessary for clean and safer food use in the kitchen and at the table.
d. Ideas how to overcome language barriers during the work programs.
1. A suggestion, in the recent past, SKYPE in the Classroom was formed and utilized by USDA to communicate to young students in schools for comparisons of foods being consumed.
2. This source could be used in the meetings to accomplish our common goals, and/or
3. Microsoft has a whole set of tools for Education and Communication here: https://education.microsoft.com/microsoft-innovative-educator-programs/mie
5. Do you have specific comments on the section on accountability and shared learning?
a. While not certain how Member States will select their representatives, it is my desire to serve as a representative, or on one of the committees, or boards, as a United States health care professional who specializes in using foods to heal disease and citizen, if that may be feasible. If you have recommendation or suggestions how to facilitate this role, please advise me via direct email using my FAO forum contact information.
b. I look forward to working on the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2015-2015 in collaboration with the UN FAO, and other stakeholders to set benchmarks for the development of commitments and the establishment of action networks to address the potential topics suggested in Table 1.
Sra. Laura L. Dawson, Dipl.Ac., L.Ac.