Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities Redmond, Washington
Earth’s burgeoning population—projected to be well over 9 billion by 2050—and concomitant societal challenges, including climate change, diminishing land and water resources, increasing urbanization, changing incomes and diets, and the need to ensure better health outcomes impose significant obstacles to our ability to achieve global nutritional security. The international community had made progress to address these societal challenges, but domestic and international policies in recent years have either hindered or contributed to a regression of the gains. The COVID-19 pandemic has, unfortunately, waylaid progress made in addressing global poverty and hunger and has only exacerbated our efforts to solve nutritional security. Considering the worsening situation and complexity of approaches needed, we need an all-hands-on-deck effort to ensure nutritional security, including the involvement of our Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities, because relying on only a subset of institutions as the source of all knowledge and trained personnel is just not tenable. I will discuss the needs and opportunities for the community of HBCUs and other minority serving institutions to address global nutritional security, particularly as it relates to the discoveries and solutions and training and education of personnel needed, as researchers, extension professionals, and hunger fighters.
