Op-eds & Outreach
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
“Mesdames et Messieurs…” the flight attendant began as we commenced our descent into Geneva. As she spoke, I grew excited at the thought of what my next three months would entail: 1) the privilege to work at the epicenter of global health policy, and 2) the opportunity to brush up on the French I had once learned and loved. At the time, I was committed to re-learn the language of love.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
In early June, I had the pleasure of spending a week on the campus of Warren Wilson College in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina, thanks to Wake Forest Divinity School.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Years of progress on diet and nutrition are threatened by attempts to cut back and weaken the SNAP program, to undermine nutrition standards for school meals, and to reverse environmental protection covered by the Farm Bill.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
The World Food Policy Center is honored to have partnered with Reverend Richard Joyner to co-author this chapter and share the mission and vision of the CFLC.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
In April 2019, the Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health released the “Health Taxes to Save Lives” report, calling on all countries to significantly raise their excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary beverages.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Krista Tippett, the curator of the Civil Conversation Project, seeks to inspire people to speak together differently to live together differently.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
“Land holds the key to unlocking the shackles of white supremacy,” wrote food justice advocate LaDonna Redmond in the forward of “Freedom Farmers,” a new book by University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental justice Professor Dr. Monica White.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
For some Americans, getting nutritious, fresh food is pretty easy and not something to think too much about. For others, it’s a day-to-day struggle. The underlying cause for why this happens is not a matter of personal motivation, or not understanding what it takes to be healthy.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Did you know that fisheries are managed largely through environmental management and economic policies? Such policies seek to optimize the economic benefits of fisheries, and to conserve charismatic species such as dolphins and turtles. But, they don’t optimize fisheries management as a crucial element of global food security. We’re working to change that.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
The Duke World Food Policy Center appointed three Duke students to the center’s steering committee. The students are each engaged in research with the center, and have with interests in food policy that span global health, food access, and environmental governance. The new steering committee members were introduced at the Spring 2019 meeting in February.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
In the months leading up to our Inaugural Food & Faith Convening, I focused most of my time on the logistics of meeting prep in partnership with my wonderful colleague Anna White and our WFPC team.
Monday, January 28, 2019
With such intense focus on combating obesity from the public health community, why is U.S. obesity rate still increasing?
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
We all want to raise healthy, happy kids who grow up to reach their full potential. As a Mom myself, even with my background in food science and nutrition, it’s not always easy to figure out what to do.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Kelly Brownell was featured in Gastropod's podcast "Dirty Tricks and Data: The Great Soda Wars, Part 2" along with Barry Popkin (UNC), Sara Bleich (Harvard), Adam Briggs (University of Oxford), Esperanza Ceron (Educor Consumidores), Gabriella Gómez-Mont (Laboratorio para la Cuidad), Cristin Kearns (UC-San Francisco), and Steven Gortmaker (Harvard).
Friday, December 7, 2018
At this week’s FoodCon event at the Fuqua School of Business, GOODR Founder and CEO Jasmine Crowe described the chaotic scene of a kitchen bursting at the seams: multiple pots and pans at the stove, dishes and plates piled high, steam in the air.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Americans are eating too much of the sweet stuff, and a staggering portion of it is coming from drinks like soda.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Food & Faith Convening Explores How Faith-based Communities Can Tackle Food Problems
Leaders in Christian, Muslim, Jewish and First Nations faith traditions are gathering in Durham this week to explore a common question: how can people of faith and their communities engage with food and agricultural systems as crucial to their faith practice?
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Public health psychologist Jonathan Blitstein will join Duke’s World Food Policy Center (WFPC) in October 2018 as a Duke-RTI Scholar. Blitstein, a senior researcher with RTI International’s Food, Nutrition & Obesity Policy Research Program, will develop evaluation frameworks for WFPC programs that can guide evidence-based best practices in food systems.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
In July 2018, Duke World Food Policy Center (WFPC) Director Kelly Brownell and staff joined North Carolina Farm Bureau President Larry Wooten and his senior team for a two day, dawn-to-dusk deep dive into North Carolina agriculture.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment presents a special conversation with Dr. Kelly Brownell, Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and Director of the World Food Policy Center. In 2006 Time magazine listed Dr.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Philadelphia's tax on soda and other sweetened drinks was upheld Wednesday when the state's highest court rejected a challenge to the law by merchants and the beverage industry.
The Supreme Court ruled the 1.5-cent-per-ounce levy is aimed at distributors and dealer-level transactions and does not illegally duplicate another existing tax.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
I went to a conference at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) on June 28 titled Science Denialism, Public Policy, and Global Health. It was presented jointly by the Rutgers Global Health Initiative and the academy.
Friday, July 13, 2018
The industry calls them SSBs. You know them as sugar-sweetened beverages, and they’re one of the many ways that an overload of sugar enters the average person’s diet.
Monday, July 9, 2018
The U.S. succeeded in watering down language in a U.N. World Health Assembly resolution to encourage breastfeeding. Under pressure from the Trump administration, language was removed that would have curtailed corporations’ promoting inappropriate foods for infants and young children. The following Duke University experts are available to comment.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Duke’s World Food Policy Center (WFPC) recently organized a panel discussion on food security efforts across multiple scales – global to local, and urban to rural.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Across the globe, there is more obesity, racial inequity in food access, malnutrition, diet-related disease and food waste than ever before. Those issues interconnect with poverty and inequality as a driver of food insecurity.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
In California, the legislature passed a bill Thursday that will preempt any new local beverage or food taxes for 12 years.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
A few years ago, Julian Xie, a Duke School of Medicine student, was at Duke Campus Farm, where he met Rebecca Hoeffler, the communications coordinator for Sustainable Duke.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
The Nutrition and Food Security Contributions of Capture Fisheries – Q&A with Author John Virdin
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Moby, a famous musician, DJ, and avowed vegan, is under fire for an op-ed he published in The Wall Street Journal.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
It seems that sports and junk food just go well together. What’s the point of even watching a football game without chowing down on pizza and wings? However, new research has revealed that many of the food items marketed through sports sponsorships are bad for you—and may be contributing to nationwide obesity rates.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
The World Food Policy Center (WFPC) at the Sanford School of Public Policy has launched an initiative aimed at helping Durham County and Edgecombe County, in eastern North Carolina, with ongoing efforts to become model food communities. Durham is the sixth-most populous county in North Carolina.
Monday, September 11, 2017
When it comes to judgment of their bodies, women can’t win.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Proposed rules would keep recipients from buying soda and junk food with SNAP dollars but sugar lobbyists are spending big to maintain the status quo. Members of Congress could be caught between their constituents and industry interests when it comes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as “food stamps.”
Monday, July 10, 2017
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University will use $5.9 million in grants to bolster efforts to improve global food policy and inform issues such as malnutrition and food safety.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
At Duke University, the Sanford School of Public Policy has just completed two years of fact-finding and planning for a World Food Policy Center focused on new opportunities for learning and collaboration. Kelly Brownell, dean of the Sanford School and a nationally recognized food policy expert, explains more in the following interview.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Durham is the foodiest town in the south, yet nearly 1 in 5 of the county’s residents don't know when their next meal will be.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
The world faces profound problems in supplying nutritious food to its growing population, yet few leaders recognize the urgency of the problems, a panel of food policy experts said Wednesday.
The panelists gathered at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy to discuss “The Future of Food Policy.” They outlined a series of troubling major trends, including:
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The world’s approach to food policy challenges is largely siloed. Some groups focus primarily on addressing obesity, while others work to combat hunger. Others focus on food safety and security. Still others concentrate on the environmental effects of modern food production.