Will there be enough food to feed the growing global population? How does the way we farm change the future of agriculture? What is a GMO, and what role might they play in global agriculture, food production, and even human health? How does increasing antimicrobial resistance affect me?
Food is a big topic right now. As the population grows and the climate changes, food security becomes more and more important. Felicia Wu, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in the departments of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University is an international expert in global health, agriculture and trade.
She is available to speak on several topics for World Food Day.
Wu believes it is not enough to just produce more food, but that an integrated approach will ensure distribution of food to the populations in need worldwide, while maintaining, and even improving, human health.
“The world’s population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by the year 2050, creating drastically increased demand on agriculture and food production,” Wu said. “World Food Day reminds us that we need to work together to address global hunger."
Her research covers topics that are important to addressing the future of health worldwide, such as agriculture, nutrition, economics, and human health. She can speak on several topics, including: antibiotic resistance, genetically modified crops (GMO’s), mathematical modeling, global trade patterns and foodborne toxins.
Wu also co-directs the Center for Health Impacts of Agriculture at MSU, a first-of-its-kind center that ties the study of global food supply, agriculture and nutrition to the study of human health. She can speak to the directives of CHIA, including antimicrobial resistance, agricultural development in developing countries and nutrient regulation and policy practices.
Wu is a member of the World Health Organization Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group, as well as the expert roster of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations. She is also a scientific advisor to the International Life Sciences Institute Food, Nutrition, and Safety Program and serves as the health risk area editor for the journal Risk Analysis.
Felicia Wu can be contacted via email at fwu@msu.edu and at 517-355-8474.