In honor of Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day, I'm giving you 3 ways Dietitians can support Farmers. After all, farmers are the people who work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year to grow, harvest and distribute the food that ends up on plates around the world!
1. Talk to Farmers
This might seem like a no brainer, but farmers are the people who are growing our food and what better person to ask than this first hand source? I acknowledge not everyone has the opportunity to visit a farm or interact with a farmer. However, there are a wealth of registered dietitians who specialize in agriculture and communications that can point you in the right direction. Feel free to email me or leave a comment below and I'll be happy to help you out.
In the corn fields with farmers Sir Nardo and Sir Orly in Pampanga
2. Share your Knowledge
Put your bias aside. How you personally choose to consume foods vs. being a dietitian and sharing objective nutrition information are two different things. Your opinion does not matter here. There are already so many confusing marketing terms that have no meaning (I'm looking at you, "natural" and "clean eating"!) and it's your job to share this with your patients and clients in an unbiased manner so they can make the decision that's best for them.
Working with NDAP members on how to effectively communicate nutrition information in the media
3. Rinse and Repeat
I will never know everything about plant biotechnology, gene editing and plant breeding because the field is constantly changing. However, I have the resources to continue asking questions about these farming fundamentals. Get uncomfortable. Just because a term sounds daunting doesn't mean anything; it's just a word. Keeping an open dialogue with farmers and other agricultural resources needs to happen in order for us to work together to provide factual information to consumers so they can have the knowledge to decide what's right for them.
I was invited to the Philippines to speak at the Nutritionist Dietitians Association of the Philippines (NDAP) annual convention in addition to the post conference media workshop and farm tour hosted by Bayer Crop Science. This sponsored opportunity included an intensive schedule of presentations by the leading dietitians in their specialty areas of nutrition, networking with Filipino and global dietitians, learning from Filipino farmers and I most certainly can't leave out the immersive Filipino cultural dining experiences that left our bellies full night after night! Thank you to NDAP and Bayer Crop Science for this opportunity.
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