Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Nutrition

Description

The award is for one year, with renewal for a second year upon successful completion of first year goals, and carries a stipend of $40,000 per year with an additional $2,500 per year for research expenses. The focus of this Fellowship Program is the interrelation among food, environment and public health. It is specifically designed to investigate the impact of food production, processing, distribution and consumption on the environment and public health.

This position will focus on research and writing. The candidate chosen will work concurrently with the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Department of Nutrition. A schedule of research topics and activities will be designed in coordination with the two departments. Presentations at two scientific conferences each year and a minimum of five publishable papers will be expected as the outcome of this two year appointment.

Background

There is substantial evidence linking agricultural production and environmental degradation. Growing public awareness of various environmental issues such as global warming, toxic residues in food, and biodiversity loss has brought about a call for sustainable food production practices. Against a backdrop of an increasing world population, a key issue in future food supply is that, even in well-endowed areas, there are limits to the impact that the natural and human systems of the environment can tolerate. Thus, daily food choices by large segments of the population can ultimately result in an effect on the environment and may have public health consequences. Moreover, it has been suggested that global climate change will alter agricultural productivity across wide geographic areas, decreasing food security and resulting in changes in population food patterns.

Requirements

Candidates interested in applying to the fellowship program must have a doctoral degree in a field related to the area of interest, such as environmental health, nutrition, food science, epidemiology, biology, ecology, sociology, or economics. Candidates must also have an interest in inter- and trans-disciplinary research and, ideally, a strong background or training experience in public health or in two or more of the disciplines listed above. A working knowledge of vegetarian nutrition will be helpful. Candidates should possess proven quantitative skills as well as professional English writing skills and must be eligible to work in the United States for at least two years. US citizenship is not required.

How to apply

Interested applicants should send a cover letter and current CV to Loma Linda University, Department of Nutrition. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and should briefly describe the candidate’s interest in the topic of environmental nutrition, outlining experience and the relationship between completed doctoral studies and post doctoral goals. In addition please send contact information for three references including email addresses and phone numbers. This information must be received before an interview will be granted.

At least one sample of scientific writing should accompany the application letter. The candidate must be either first author or the author who completed the initial draft of the manuscript. Published articles are preferred but not mandatory.

Letters of interest will be accepted until the position is filled. Documents received by June 1, 2009 for appointment to begin in September 2009 will be given highest priority. Please send the documents to Janice Hilton at jhilton@llu.edu

or by postal mail to:

Environmental Nutrition Fellowship
Department of Nutrition, NH 1102
Loma Linda University
Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA

Selected Bibliography

For further reading on the subject of Environmental Nutrition we can recommend the following:

Baroni L, Cenci L, Tettamanti M, Berati M. 2007.  Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems.  European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61:279?286.

Carlsson-Kanyama, A. 1998. Climate change and dietary choices - how can emissions of greenhouse gases from food consumption be reduced? Food Policy, 23:277-293.

Carlsson-Kanyama, A. 2009. Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (in press).

Eshel G, Martin P.  2006. Diet, Energy and Global Warming.  Earth Interactions 10:1-17.

Eshel G, Martin P. 2009. Geophysics and nutritional science: toward a novel, unified, paradigm. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (in press).

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 2006. Livestock?s long shadow: environmental issues and options. Available: http:// ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0701e/a0701e00.pdf [accessed 12 March 2009].

Foster C, Green K, Bleda M, Dewick P, Evan B, Flynn A, Mylan J. 2006. Environmental Impacts of Food Production and Consumption: A Report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.  Manchester Business School. Defra, London.

Koneswaran G, Nierenberg D. 2008.  Global farm animal production and global warming: impacting and mitigating climate change. Environmental Health Perspectives 116: 578-582.

Leitzmann C. 2003. Nutrition ecology: the contribution of vegetarian diets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78 (Suppl), 657S?659S.

Marlow HJ, Hayes W, Sabate J, Carter R, Schwab E, Soret S. 2009. Diet and the environment: does it matter? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (in press).

McMichael AJ.  2005.  Integrating nutrition with ecology: balancing the health of humans and biosphere. Public Health Nutrition 8:706-15.

McMichael AJ, Powles JW, Butler CD, Uauy R. 2007.  Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health. Lancet 370:1253-63.

Ogino, A., Orito, H., Shimada, K. and H. Hirooka. 2007. Evaluating environmental impacts of the Japanese beef cow-calf system by the life cycle assessment method. Animal Science Journal 78:424-432.

Pew Comission on Industrial Animal Production. 2007. Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America. The Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Available: http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=38442 [accessed 12 March 2009].

Pimentel D, Pimentel M. 2003. Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78 (Suppl), 660S?663S.

Reijnders L, Soret S (2003). Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78 (Suppl), 664S?668S.

Subak S. 1999. Global environmental costs of beef production. Ecological Economics 30:79-91.

Thorne PS. 2007. Environmental health impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations: anticipating hazards?searching for solutions. Environ Health Perspectives 115:296?297. 

Information on the research conducted by Dr. Joan Sabaté and Dr. Sam Soret is available from the LLU Faculty Directory: 

http://www.llu.edu/llu/faculty/directory/faculty.html?uid=jsabate
http://www.llu.edu/llu/faculty/directory/faculty.html?uid=ssoret

Follow these links for additional information about the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Department of Nutrition.