Perspectives and priorities in food and nutrition planning

I have taken this opportunity to challenge a trend that I have seen in recent meetings toward the promotion of a holistic, but perhaps impractical, approach to food and nutrition policy planning and implementation. While I support the development of modeling as an approach to the conceptualization of the problems and interactions, it would appear that the data requirements of the integrated nutrition policy approach exceed our present capabilities. I fear that this can result in inactivity at a time when we cannot afford inactivity--inactivity consequent to delay for data collection, or inactivity consequent to a belief that because comprehensive planning is not yet feasible, there is no point in doing any systematic planning. The precision of the definition of the nutrition problem is a function of the stage of development of the operational planning process. Let us not advocate the collection of data we are not equipped or prepared to interpret and use. In many areas of the world, relatively simple information, often already available, can define the nutrition problem with sufficient precision to permit program development within the individual sectors of government. Surely that must be our immediate goal.