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Introduction

The Food Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) convened the Food Forum 30th Anniversary Symposium on November 30, 2023, to celebrate its anniversary and reflect on its contributions to developments in the field of food, nutrition, and agriculture.¹ The symposium reviewed the history of the Food Forum, its evolution, and how it has informed research, policy, and industry practice. The symposium also featured discussions on the future of food in light of challenges such as climate change and population growth, new technologies to address these challenges, how these challenges affect and are influenced by health equity issues, and how the Food Forum will continue to approach these issues proactively and through a multisectoral lens.

The true impact of the Food Forum is woven into a much larger narrative about food and nutrition science and action in the United States—specifically, increased awareness around food safety and the federal government’s response to food safety threats. As national priorities in this area shifted over the years, so did the work of the forum, leading to an impressive portfolio of scientific leadership that has touched countless lives.

The symposium opened with welcoming remarks from Monica N. Feit, executive director of the National Academies’ Health and Medicine Division, who acknowledged the accomplishments of the forum over the

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¹ The symposium agenda, presentations, and other materials are available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/40053_11-2023_the-food-forum-30th-anniversary-symposium (accessed February 24, 2024).

past three decades. The forum addresses a broad range of issues, she said, such as nutrition, food safety, nanotechnology, sustainable agriculture, and alternative protein sources, and its work involves reacting to and informing government and industry priorities. Feit described the forum as highlighting the National Academies’ convening ability, bringing together thought leaders who are passionate about the complicated food system and creating a neutral space for science-guided discussions, brainstorming, and sharing of ideas and lessons learned. Such activities are critical to moving the nation forward in a positive direction, particularly given the current challenges to civil discourse, said Feit.

Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, reflected on the significance of the forum, one of the National Academies’ first convening bodies, and emphasized that its three decades of activity have advanced national dialogues in food safety, precision nutrition, food system sustainability, and more. Assembling key players from the federal government, academia, the private sector, and professional organizations, the forum confronts the most challenging and pressing issues related to food and generates benefit for the nation and the world, McNutt stated.

Planning committee chair Eric A. Decker, University of Massachusetts Amherst, highlighted that over the past 30 years, more than 180 members have served in the forum, representing industry, academia, federal government, nonprofit organizations, and consumer-oriented groups. Furthermore, Decker continued, more than 350 experts have contributed their expertise on nutrition, policy, regulation, and other areas related to the food system at forum events, and more than 200 volunteers have participated in program planning. Thousands of people have participated in the events, including approximately 1,300 people registered for this symposium. Decker underscored the forum’s efforts to address challenges within the highly complex food system to produce a safe and nutritious food supply, including symposia covering groundbreaking topics, such as interactions between diet and the microbiome.

During the symposium’s first session, former forum chairs discussed the forum’s history, role, accomplishments, and continued relevance in addressing current and emerging challenges (Chapter 2). The second session explored issues related to food safety within the contexts of regulation, manufacturing, and developing economies (Chapter 3). The third session considered the environmental effects of the food system and approaches to increasing sustainability (Chapter 4). The fourth session examined nutrition and health through the lenses of personalized nutrition, food composition, and equity considerations (Chapter 5). The fifth session presented a vision for the future of food that reflected health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects of the food system (Chapter 6). The symposium’s final session featured a discussion on technological effects within the food

system, contextual challenges, the intersection of health span and nutrition, and consumer and industry behavior change (Chapter 7). The symposium agenda, acronyms and abbreviations used in this publication, and biographical sketches of the symposium speakers and planning committee members can be found in Appendixes A, B, and C, respectively. The symposium’s statement of task is in Box 1-1.²

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² The symposium planning committee’s role was limited to planning the symposium. This proceedings of a symposium was prepared by an independent rapporteur as a factual summary of what occurred at the symposium. Statements, recommendations, and opinions expressed are those of independent presenters and participants and are not necessarily endorsed or verified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, nor should they be construed as reflecting any group consensus.

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