Food and health in cross-cultural perspectives : policies and practices
Objectives
The current trends of inflation, failing economies, rising inequities and poverty are making it near impossible for the marginalized to access the basic requisites that ensure a reasonable quality of life. In order to raise the bar, decision-makers in all countries need to draw and lead programmes that ensure the improvement of the people's well-being at every stage of life, through well-defined and tangible deliverables. These should include programmes to create adequate access to nutrition, education, sanitation and healthcare. In the absence of poverty traps, one hopes that good nutrition and access to adequate healthcare will lead to better standards of living, ensuring early identification of illness/absence of ill health, leading to gainful employment, thereby offering a substantive opportunity to live a full and productive life. There is an urgent need to invest in holistic and comprehensive plans and policies which will result in an increase in the overall quality of life of the citizens, and thus provide for a more socially and economically secure, safe and productive future.
The conference aims at exploring and understanding the inextricable linkages between food, health and mental health, from a cultural perspective. It seeks to create a platform for knowledge and experience sharing from the best of scientific, social and health research and practice. This will enable participants to engage in a dialogue and debate on creating plans and policies resulting in better health outcomes, and an improved quality of life.
