{"id":12,"date":"2021-04-12T15:29:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T15:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2024-01-04T13:58:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T18:58:20","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a project of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpc.unc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Carolina Population Center<\/a>. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/team\/\">team<\/a> collaborates with diverse partners around the world to carefully evaluate food and nutrition policies and to develop in-depth, longitudinal research on large-scale obesity prevention efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"mission\">Our mission is to provide the academic community, policymakers, and industry with rigorous and innovative methods to measure the influence of industry (factory-to-fork dynamics) on food supply trends across the globe. Ultimately, our work is aimed at reducing diet-related disparities in health and preventing obesity and other diet-related diseases by contributing to the creation of a more healthful food system and food environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Areas of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work focuses on the following areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/fiscal-policies\/\">Fiscal policies<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/food-nutrition-assistance-policies\/\">Food &amp; nutrition assistance programs<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/food-system-surveillance\/\">Food system surveillance<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/labeling-regulations\/\">Labeling regulations<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/marketing-regulations\/\">Marketing regulations<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/policy-research\/school-food-environments\/\">School food environments<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/UPF_ultra-processed_food_fact_sheet.pdf\">Ultra-processed products<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Global Food Research Program is the culmination of decades of foundational research on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nutrans.org\/\">Nutrition Transition<\/a> led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/team\/barry-m-popkin-ph-d\/\">Barry Popkin<\/a> and colleagues. These included large longitudinal studies in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpc.unc.edu\/projects\/china\">China<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/rlms-hse.cpc.unc.edu\">Russia<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/cebu.cpc.unc.edu\">Philippines<\/a>, as well as surveys in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.cscc.unc.edu\/cscc\/projects\/UAEE\">United Arab Emirates<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/where-we-work\/united-states\/\">United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2010, these efforts coalesced around a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/evaluating-the-food-industry-manufacturers-retailers\/\">major research project<\/a> funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation\u2019s marketplace pledge to reduce calories in the food supply. Drs. Popkin and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/team\/shu-wen-ng\/\">Shu Wen Ng<\/a>&nbsp;assembled a research team then known as the UNC Food Research Program. The team spent the next few years developing a <a href=\"https:\/\/sph.unc.edu\/sph-news\/new-study-provides-unprecedented-baseline-for-evaluating-food-industry-pledge-to-reduce-calories-3\/\">cutting-edge<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4276507\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">methodology<\/a> for capturing nuanced changes in the national food supply and evaluating the pledge in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajpmonline.org\/article\/S0749-3797(12)00801-X\/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">several<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0749379714002487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0749379714002499\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The utility of this novel methodology was immediately apparent, and the team continued to grow, using the approach to evaluate other national-level health policies (e.g., Mexico\u2019s 2014 sugary drink and junk food taxes) and to undertake an unprecedented analysis of ongoing changes in the U.S. food supply (read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC5721674\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crosswalk research project<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2015, our team recognized expanding international partnerships and research work by adopting a new name, the Global Food Research Program. With principal funding from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.org\/public-health\/promoting-healthy-food-choices\/food-policy-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bloomberg Philanthropies<\/a> as part of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.org\/public-health\/promoting-healthy-food-choices\/food-policy-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Food Policy Program<\/a>, we began a multi-year, ongoing project to evaluate emerging nutrition policies in low- and middle-income countries around the world. (Read more about the global <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/home\/global-evaluation-advisory-committee\/\">Evaluation Advisory Committee<\/a>, co-chaired by Barry Popkin.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, our team has grown to include over 40 faculty, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds, including epidemiologists, economists, programmers, dietitians and nutritionists, and experts in communications and health behaviors. We collaborate with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/methods\/#collaborations\">research teams<\/a> at universities spanning the globe, while also continuing important domestic research on nutrition interventions and food supply changes in the United States, funded by a mixture of foundation and federal sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Future work: funding opportunity for innovative policy evaluations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Funding is available through Bloomberg Philanthropies\u2019&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.org\/public-health\/promoting-healthy-food-choices\/food-policy-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Food Policy Program<\/a>&nbsp;to evaluate emerging unique, national-level policy interventions aimed at improving the food environment and reducing non-communicable diseases on a population level. Research teams interested in pursuing funding are encouraged to read about the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/two-step-application-process-for-food-policy-program-policy-evaluations\/\">two-step application process<\/a>&nbsp;to determine whether your policy meets program criteria and learn how to submit a proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a project of the Carolina Population Center. Our team collaborates with diverse partners around the world to carefully evaluate food and nutrition policies and to develop in-depth, longitudinal research on large-scale obesity prevention efforts. Our mission is to provide the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>About - Global Food Research Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About - Global Food Research Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a project of the Carolina Population Center. 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