Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology (NEP) and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) have joined forces to cultivate a new era of health and sustainability.
New joint initiatives in education and research will address the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and human health. The collaborations draw on a longstanding relationship, as NEP was previously housed in CAHNRS for several decades before moving to the College of Medicine in 2017.
“This partnership came naturally,” said NEP Chair Glen Duncan, PhD, ACSM-CEP. “We are returning to our roots in agriculture with a modern approach to nutrition science embedded within medicine.”
Last year the colleges launched a new joint bachelor’s degree program, the Human Nutrition and Food Systems major. The program will equip students with an understanding of nutrition and health from “soil to society,” beginning with soil science and agriculture and extending to human nutrition and health.
Students will complete core courses in CAHNRS’ Agricultural and Food Systems program before taking NEP courses on biochemical and molecular processes in food production and digestion, macronutrient and micronutrient metabolism, and nutrition and health outcomes.
“WSU has fantastic agriculture, food science, and nutrition programs, but they’ve mainly been siloed,” said NEP Associate Professor Pablo Monsivais, PhD. “This new major will bring them together so students can learn how the food system impacts diets and human health.”
For students, the new major could lead to careers in a wide variety of fields, ranging from dietary counseling to international food security advocacy. Students will have opportunities to complete internships with public and private employers and to get involved with research.
“More and more companies and food systems stakeholders are seeking employees with human health and nutrition skills,” said NEP Associate Professor Franck Carbonero, PhD. “Graduates from the program can thus expect to be highly competitive for positions in industry research and development, academic research, and regulatory affairs.”
The new offering grew out of ongoing research collaborations between scientists in both colleges that aim to improve the nutritional value of common crops from the ground up.
Funded by a five-year $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Soil to Society research project takes a comprehensive systems approach to increasing the production and nutrient content of wheat, barley, peas, lentils, buckwheat, and quinoa, which are important crops in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. The project will also investigate the human health benefits of these foods and identify ways of increasing their consumption.
CAHNRS soil scientists, plant breeders, and food scientists are working to improve the soil quality where these crops are grown, develop more nutritional varieties, and create products to bring to market. Meanwhile, NEP researchers will evaluate the nutritional value of these enhanced foods and explore their impact on human health, ranging from effects on the gut microbiome to population-level health.
The ultimate goal is to improve human health by increasing the consumption of more nutritious and affordable whole grain-based foods, said Kevin Murphy, PhD, program director and WSU associate professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
While the quantity of agricultural production in the U.S. has increased over time, the nutrient content of many crops has been declining for decades, according to several studies.
“In the last century, the majority of agricultural research and development has been focused purely on yield, and the side effect has been a loss of nutritional value,” Carbonero said. “Studying nutritional value and training future professionals in the joint major who will value nutrition in agriculture and food systems is essential.”
In addition to Carbonero and Monsivais, NEP collaborators on the project include Martine Perrigue, PhD, RDN, CD, and Patrick Solverson, PhD. The team also includes researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Kansas State University, the USDA, and Viva Farms.
The grant is part of the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Sustainable Agriculture Systems program, the nation’s largest competitive grant program for the agricultural sciences. The significant investment in WSU’s Soil to Society project reflects a growing national interest in supporting both research and education that employs a comprehensive approach to food systems, nutrition, and human health.