CUSPA Laboratory

 

2013 Theme: Obesity, Food Security, and Nutrition in Global Context

April 2, 2013

Education is a priority for…addressing the world’s challenges

- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (September 24, 2012)

The 2012 G8 Summit featured President Obama’s Keynote address on food security and nutrition, who informed of the critical need for the achievement of sustained and inclusive agricultural growth, highlighting the issue in a new alliance for food security and nutrition, which underscores the commitment to “achieving global food security” (http://www.state.gov/s/globalfoodsecurity/190282.htm; Guardian, 2012, 1).

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food acquired in a socially acceptable ways to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Summit, 1996).

Globalization of food production, coupled with advances in the technology of processing and preservation, has revolutionized what we eat and drink today. Global changes in food production and distribution, as well as in nutrition, affect human development across the lifespan. Natural disasters, political and cultural conflicts, technological changes, and the burden of policies that fail to address problems of food security and genetically modified foods influence the dietary needs and food choices of worldwide populations. Most vulnerable populations affected by issues of food insecurity and nutrition number about 900 million worldwide, with the majority being women and young children. The growing global issues of food insecurity and nutrition have prompted researchers and scholars to seek solutions. The 2013 Global Educational Forum brings together university-wide researchers and scholars to share state-of-the-art programmatic and research findings on food insecurity and nutrition in the global context.

Improving food security and nutrition is about more than just increasing the quantity of energy intake – it is also about improving the quality of food in terms of dietary diversity, variety, nutrient content and safety.
–Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2012.
http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/

Forum goals:

• Provide state-of-the-art research on food security and nutrition.
• Educate about excellent food choices and nutritional habits.
• Share evidence-based knowledge on physical activity promotion to reduce obesity.
• Communicate knowledge about food safety in production, distribution and consumption.
• Discuss food and nutrition policies responsive to the needs of human population across the life span.

 

Submission Information:

Student poster presentations focus on local and global studies. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words (and include the title, presenter’s name, and department affiliation).

Poster session time: 2-3:15p.m., April 2, 2013. Students must put up their posters between 8a.m. and 9:30 a.m., and remove them by 7p.m.

Plan to be by your poster at least 10 minutes before 2p.m. Poster presentation is from 2-3:15 p.m., April 2. Make sure your poster has an abstract that contains a purpose, method, results and conclusions if data based or has an objective, procedures, thematic perspectives and implications if not data based. A poster is preceded by an abstract of no more than 250 words. Key terms used in the paper are listed immediately below the abstract.

Top three poster presenters will each receive a certificate (gold, silver, and bronze) and a T-shirt (three graduate students and three undergraduate students). The rest of the presenters will each receive a certificate of participation.

• Abstracts Reviewers: TBA
• Deadline for the submission of abstracts: Monday, March 25, 2013
• Notification on or before: Tuesday, March 27, 2013
• Where to send abstracts: Submit abstracts and any questions: Program chair, Rose Chepyator-Thomson, at jchepyat@uga.edu
• When: Tuesday, April 2, 2013
• Registration: Free and on-site registration for all campus-wide faculty and staff, students, guests, and visitors
• Where: Tate Student Center, Grand Hall-A, B, & C

Program Director

Dr. Rose Chepyator-Thomson, Professor, Kinesiology

Mission

The mission of the Global Educational Forum (GEF) is to provide faculty and students an opportunity to share their research, teaching, and service activities as contextualized within UGA’s diverse academic disciplines. The forum brings together a wide cross-section of faculty from the University to discuss their research and teaching efforts to promote cross-cultural understanding on food security and nutrition in global context. Graduate and undergraduate students get the opportunity to share their research studies and educational experiences as connected to diverse disciplinary knowledge.

Faculty Oral Presentations:

Click here for full agenda.

Chief Advisors:

Dr. Kavita Pandit, Associate Provost, Office of International Education;
Dr. Michael Ferrara, Associate Dean for Research, College of Education.

Members of the Advisory Committee

Dr. Alex Kojo Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences;
Dr. Akinloye Ojo, Director, African Studies Institute, and Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences;
Dr. Paul Duncan, Associate Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute;
Dr. Richard Gordon, Director, and Professor, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. John Mativo, Assistant Professor, Workforce Education, College of Education
Dr. Su-I Hou, Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, College of Public Health