title: Fear of trying.
abstract: Unless the nutrition community intervenes in national and international policymaking, the world could well be headed for serious trouble with deaths from starvation on a consequential scale. There has been near-total dissociation between agricultural planning policies and food distribution and nutritional needs of populations. Unfortunately, the nutrition community is out of the mainstream of forces which affect nutritional status and which produce the macro-decisions. Why? Perhaps the professionals have too narrow a view of their role; although malnutrition is a health problem, the solution is not necessarily one of health delivery. Perhaps they don't seriously wish to be involved with policy change and the work it entails. Perhaps, by being unable to achieve consensus within their own ranks, they have generated a lack of credibility. The nutrition community needs to recognize a broader scope for nutrition and to take new approaches in advocacy directed to education policy-makers. No one else can play this role with authority.
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D003906:Developing Countries; D005239:Fear; D005544:Forecasting; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009934:Organization and Administration; D011203:Poverty; D013217:Starvation / Q000517:prevention & control; D014944:World Health Organization