The USDA and nutrition

The USDA and Nutrition Mary C. Jarratt Assistant Secretary for Food and Consumer Services U. S. Department of Agnculture, Washington, D. C. 20250 I appreciate the opportunity to share with you some of the inItiatives of the new administration in the areas of nutntion, nutritIOn education, and food assistance. The USDA supports a broad spectrum of research, Information, and education programs in human nutritIOn. ThiS support began In the late 19th century and continues to f10unsh side by side with our commitment to a productive agriculture. Good nutrition and a healthy agricultural system are both vital to the health of the American people and to those who rely on us abroad. The best guarantee of a strong country IS a healthy people, and health begins With access to a good food supply. Serving Amencan agriculture and the human nutrition needs of the Amencan people are 2 Sides of the same COin. But we have to make the dollars we spend count, and we are setting about this task at USDA. The reorganization. The USDA recently has reorganized along functional lines of responsibility to increase the effiCiency of its programs. Basic research components of the Human Nutntlon Center are now under the Agncultural Research Service; the other components are under a new agency, the Human N4tntIOn Information Service (HNIS), under my Jurisdiction. The 3 components of the HNIS are the Consumer Nutntlon Center, the Nutrition Information and Dietary Guidance Staff, and the Food and Nutrition InformatIOn Center of the National Agriculture Library. Together, these UnIts address food and dietary surveillance, food composition, nutntlon educatIOn research, dietary guidance, nutntion information, professional educatIOn, and bibliographic services. The establishment of thiS new agency dedicated to nutntlOn informatIOn IS an Important first step In highlighting USDA's role in nutntion informatIOn and educatIOn. ThiS reorganization elevates, for the first time, nutritIOn mformatlon activity to the status of an Independent agency. ThiS step COincides With the determinatIOn of the administratIOn to provide the public With better nutntion information. We at USDA plan that the director of this new agency will be a 130

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nutritionist who understands surveillance, nutrition education, applied research, and health and who is a competent administrator and communicator. Cooperative activities. The HNIS and the Cooperative Extension Service worked closely together on the "Nutntion Research Update Teleconference" for ExtensIOn and research staff at land grant umversities. The teleconference program addressed the professional Issues of nutrient interactIOns and food guidance raised In the Extension community. Another project IS the development of a nationwide mstructlOnal program in basic nutritIOn in cooperation With the Amencan Red Cross. This administration also continues the recent tradition of close cooperation between the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture in nutrition actiVities. The Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health and I have met to discuss mutual problems and proposals. For example, I am delighted that the proposed USDA and DHHS NatIOnal Nutrition Monitoring System is neanng finalization. The 2 departments plan further cooperation in the areas of publications, surveillance, and research. As I have Indicated, USDA has had a traditional commitment to human nutrition research and nutntlOn education. I want to assure you that this adminIstration agrees With that commitment. We do feel there are areas of potential joint efforts between the government and the private sector, and we Will try to find ways to involve the private and independent sectors in this work - to get a better final product, to defray costs, and to allow us to do more to satisfy public demands. We are exploring some of these possibilities now. We are interested in targeting programs to the groups with special needs. The old, the poor, pregnant teens, people with allergies, and people With other diet-related risks are examples of some of the groups with special needs we hope to reach with targeted efforts.

The area of professional education will be highlighted. USDA produces an amazIng amount of technical and research information on food and human nutritlon. We must do a better job of getting this information to you and your colleagues. This area Will have a high priority under my leadership. Dietary Guidelines. I am sure you have heard the erroneous report that we are withdrawing the Dietary Guidelines. We have not, despite what you may be reading in the press, rescinded the guidelines. The Government Printmg Office has just reprinted the Dietary Guidelines for sale at a modest price. The guidelines are still in use in our education programs. We plan to review the dietary guidelines periodically to make sure that they are consistent With current knowledge. As the knowledge base changes, we will review and revise these recommendations in much the same way as those of the RDA Committee are reviewed and revised every 5 years. Program evaluation activities. Food and nutrition assistance programs, like other federal assistance programs, are not immune tp retargeting in the years ahead. Instead of continued growth, we must look forward to improving the efficiency of our programs as we direct assistance to those people most m need. When I look at the nature of our mission, the numbers of people that these programs serve, and the amount of money that we spend, I realize how urgent it is to be able to gauge the effectiveness of our operations. As an assistant secretary, I need reliable sources of information upon which to propose legislation, formulate policy, and make management deCisions. I will rely heavily on research and program evaluations to provide this information. There are 3 human nutrition research and evaluation activities now underway in USDA to provide this information.

1. The NatIOnal NutritIOn MOnltormg System. The 1977 Farm Bill mandated VOLUME

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USDA and DHHS to develop a comprehensive NatIOnal Nutrition Monitoring System. The purpose will be to provide reliable information upon which to base food, nutritIOn, and health policies. Hopefully, this information will do much to improve the nutritIOnal status of the population. This plan establishes a framework for increased coordination between the Nationwide Food Consumption Survey (conducted by USDA) and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (conducted by DHHS). Also, it will prOVide broader population coverage, including high-risk population groups. There will be data sharing between agencies and more rapid processing of data all along the line. An implementation plan has been developed and is being reviewed by Secretary Schweiker and myself.

2. The Western Human Nutrltlon Research Center (WHNRC). The mission of the WHNRC, inaugurated in August 1981, is to develop methods to assess and monitor nutritional status. With such methods, groups at high nutritional risk can be better identified, and changes in the nutritional status of the population can be monitored. The WHNRC research Will identify factors that result in poor nutritIOnal status, develop reliable and inexpensive methods of defimng nutritional status, conduct research on human nutrient needs, and develop nutritional criteria for the evaluation of food assistance programs. The WHNRC is located at the Letterman Army Institute of Research in San Francisco and contains a 16-bed metabolic ward, laboratory space, and some laboratory eqUipment. Currently, 20 people are employed through a cooperative agreement with the University of California. USDA IS remodeling the laboratories, and plans have been made for remodeling the

metabolic ward. The estimated yearly budget for a fully functioning center is $8 million.

3. Food and Nutritlon Service (FNS) Evaluations. The commitment of FNS to evaluatIOn is reflected m the nearly $20 million that was set aside for program evaluations and related studies dunng the 1981 federal fiscal year. OrgamzatlOnally, the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation reports directly to the FNS administrator. Program evaluation has shown the Nutntion Education and Traming Program (NET) to be a good and important activity. I appreciate the work that nutrition educators have carried out to make this program effective. NET will be funded at the $5 millIon level for the 1981 fiscal year. In the Food Stamp area, we have an evaluation underway of supplemental security income cashout. Also underway are major evaluatIOns of the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, the Child Care Food Program, and the WIC Program. We are about to start 2 new demonstration evaluatIOns. One wIll focus on alternative income verification procedures for the School Lunch Program, and the other will evaluate alternatives to the current system for distnbuting commodities for the School Lunch Program. With respect to cooperative evaluation activities, FNS and the Consumer Nutrition Center are studying how infant feeding practices affect growth and health in the first year of life. Also, with the Cooperative Extension Service, FNS IS studying various methods for reaching Food Stamp participants With the Expanded Food and Nutntion Education Program (EFNEP). EFNEP has long been a favorite program of mine because it helps its participants, those at poverty and below, achieve a quality return on ItS assistance grants. For

FOOD According to 1. E. Finch (Journal of Human Nutrition 35:106-17, 1981) the Aquarian food guidance system IS SImple, makes sense, and is acceptable to children and homemakers In England. She believes this plan IS superior to nutnent-based food grouping systems because it builds on people's concepts of foods rather than on nutntionists' concepts of nutrient requtrements. Nonetheless, the Aquanan system has problems of ItS own. The 4 groups are: "mains," which are the central foods in meals, such as VOLUME 13

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too long we have measured the impact of our low-income assistance programs only in terms of the dollar commitment and have neglected assessment of the quality of the benefit. A dollar transfer does not guarantee better nutrition; we are more likely to get the guarantee when the assistance IS backed up with nutritIOnal guidance, as EFNEP provides. Concluding comments. The evaluations described above make Important contributions to our understanding of how to design better policies and programs concerning food, nutrition, and health. We also need to continue to work closely with concerned nutntion professionals. Groups such as the Society for Nutrition Education can take credit for putting nutntlOn education hIgh on the natIOnal agenda. It is through your work and that of other organizations that nutrition mformation will continue to improve and be avaIlable to all Americans. I want this audIence to know that USDA and the present admimstration know and value the contributions made by nutritionists and nutrition SCIentists among us. We look to an even greater contribution in the months and years ahead. I apprecIate this opportunity to communicate directly with nutrition educators. I hope you will continue to adVise me on the Issues that I have discussed so that we at USDA can keep current in our thinking as we move ahead. My door IS always open. I may not always be able to respond to your requests or agree with you on every issue. However, I WIll always listen; and I wish to encourage your presentation of ideas. 0 NOTE ThiS paper was adapted from an address to the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Nutntlon EducatIOn presented on August II, 1981, In San DIego. Cahforma

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meats, eggs, and milk; fruits and vegetables, which are considered essential sources of VItamins and fiber; "fillers," a group whIch includes cereals, legumes, and nuts as well as refined fatty and sugary foods; and "drinks," which Includes gravies, soups, gelatin, mtlk, and fruit JUices, even though the latter 2 also satisfy other groups. The system assigns processed foods to the same 4 groups, and processing mayor may not change group asSignment: lemon cheesecake remains in the "mains," but cream,

butter, and cream cheese as well as dned fruits are "fillers." The organization of the plan appears to focus on the roles foods have in meals. Nutritional concepts are incorporated through further explanation which may vary in compleXIty dependIng on the cognitive skills of the nutritIOn educator's audience. As WIth other recent food guidance proposals, the Aquarian system has not been evaluated as to whether or not It actually supports nutritionally sound food-choice behaVIOr. S.M.O. JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION

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