What You Should Know About the

National Nutrition Consortium, Inc. - A Brief History

The public and their representatives in Federal and State legislatures have become more interested in nutrition during the last decade. Much of the information they have received has been from persons with little or no training in disciplines related to foods and nutrition. In this regard there was (and continues to be) a critical need for accurate presentation of nutrition facts and involvement in the application of nutrition science in public policy decisions by persons who are qualified by training and experience.

It was to meet this critical public need and to facilitate communication among professional nutritionists that the four societies representing dietitians, basic research, medical research and food science and technology formed the National Nutrition Consortium in 1973. The professional organization representing nutrition educators joined the Consortium in 1977.

The Consortium is classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization. The Consortium strives to provide nutrition information to the public policy maker by responding to requests from Congress and its research arms (Office of Technology Assessment and Government Accounting Office). The Consortium also cooperates with executive departments such as the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services, and independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission.

The Consortium has been addressing problems of nutrition education, food quality and safety, National Nutrition Policy and its implementation, and nutrition research priorities and support. Increasingly, the Consortium has provided a ready coordinated resource of nutrition expertise to the executive and legislative arms of the Federal government.

"The National Nutrition Consortium represents the collective voice of the most respected scientific and professional societies concerned with food and nutrition. These organizations constitute a scientific and professional constituency of some 80,000 members. The Consortium has potential for extraordinarily effective educational activities that can considerably complement the work of the Nutrition Foundation and of other prestigious competent nutrition groups, especially within the Washington scene.”

Dr. William J. Darby

Objectives

The National Nutrition Consortium, a non-profit scientific and education organization, is an association of the major scientific food and nutrition professional societies representing approximately 80,000 members..

The objectives of the National Nutrition Consortium are:

• Facilitate involvement in public affairs concerning issues of interest to the food and nutrition professional.

• Facilitate communication among the food and nutrition professional community.

• Facilitate the training of food and nutrition students in public policy and government activities.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Consortium has prepared testimony and background documents on public policy issues, published position papers on controversial nutrition and food policy issues, and offered the scientific community insights into public policy through summaries of pending legislation, proposed regulations, and federal documents related to food and nutrition. It has also served as a clearinghouse for information on food and nutrition for public policy makers, organized symposia and seminars for the discussion of public policy issues related to nutrition, and has provided policy makers and their staff rapid access to the various services of its member organizations.

Programs of the National Nutrition Consortium are carried out by three bodies: Standing Committees, Issue Committees, and the Washington-based staff. The Standing Committee, Public Affairs, has broad responsibilities for monitoring issues, developing statements, and recommending actions to the Board of Directors. The Issue Committees are formed to prepare positions and recommendations on specific issues, and are decommissioned when their final reports are accepted by the Board of Directors.

All Committees are responsible for:

1. Identification of discrete issues, options, and decision points within their issue area,

2. Drafting position papers, testimony, or other documents for approval by the Board of Directors and presentation in the appropriate legislative or regulatory forum, and

3. Responding to requests for input from public policy makers, both from Congress and regulatory or other executive agencies.

The details of the 1982 NNC programs and accomplishments are described in the subsequent pages.

Programs/Activities Accomplishment

• Public Policy

• Nutrition Alerts

• Public Affairs Update

• Health Fairs

NNC, through its Issue Committee, has developed position papers and statements on a variety of topics of importance to the food and nutrition scientific community. These papers are based on the latest sound and factual information available. These issues represent the collective position of the NNC professional societies. During 1982 the following issues were identified by the NNC Board as being important: Health Manpower, Food Labeling, Dietary Recommendations, Food Fortification, and Food Safety. HHS and USDA requested the Consortium's expertise regarding several important issues (e.g.) carbohydrate chemistry and food safety. The Wheat Industry Council (USDA) requested from the Consortium its assistance in providing members to serve on its Consumer Panel. One representative from each member society was selected by USDA to serve. The NNC provided prompt response to legislative staff regarding the importance of having a strong national nutrition monitoring system. Presently the NNC is developing a position statement to support this initiative.

Nutrition Alerts are up-to-date informative bulletins concerning legislative and/or regulatory matters of importance to the food and nutrition community. Fifteen Nutrition Alerts on various significant issues were published by the Consortium during 1982. Currently, there are over 300 subscribers to these Nutrition Alerts.

Through its Public Affairs activities, NNC keeps its member organizations updated on matters of interest and importance to their membership. The information is provided by NNC through the Public Affairs column (written 4 per year) as well as Public Affairs Updates/Seminars held at the annual meetings of member organizations.

The activity is directed toward providing nutrition information as part of health awareness programs for legislative and agency staff members. These highly successful activities have provided nutrition information about the "health" of people using computerized nutrient data bases. This innovative program was instituted in the 3rd quarter of 1982 and effectively carried out with employees of HHS, GAO and DOE. NNC plans to carry out more of these health fairs with the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives during early 1983.