Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. NUTRITION Gazette DOI: 10.1097/NT.0000000000000437 MOVERS AND SHAKERS of new business models and retail modernization, and fostering, strengthening, and supporting a culture of food Houlton Named Dean of Cornell's College of safety will reduce the number of foodborne illnesses, an- Agriculture and Life Sciences nounced in the FDA's New Era of Smarter Food Safety Benjamin Z. Houlton, director of the John Muir Institute of Blueprint. the Environment and professor of global environmental The blueprint is a 10-year framework for food safety that studies at the University of California, Davis, has been builds on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The named Cornell University's Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the plan describes how the government and industry will use College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He also will be technology to add to the goal of reducing the number of appointed a professor in the Departments of Ecology and cases of foodborne illness. Evolutionary Biology and of Global Development. This new set of guidelines, which were delayed by An accomplished environmental scientist, Houlton is 4 months because of the pandemic, revolve around 4 core recognized internationally for research collaborations into principles that require the use of digital tools and new ecosystem processes and solutions to ameliorate climate technologies such as blockchain, end-to-end traceability, change and to improve carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus e-commerce, big data, and predictive analytics to mod- cycles for energy and food production. ernize food safety. One of the pilot initiatives that the Houlton succeeds Kathryn Boor ‘80, who will become FDA is conducting is artificial intelligence and machine dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate learning review of imported foods at US ports of entry. education. The adequate intake will model historical shipment data Houlton will share responsibility for leadership of Cornell to assist with product screening and determine if products Cooperative Extension throughout New York State with meet US food safety standards. Rachel Dunifon, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean Food manufacturers and experts have been pushing for of Cornell's College of Human Ecology. blockchain technology and interactive packaging for years Houlton has served on the University of California, Davis, in order to increase supply chain traceability and give con- faculty since 2007, teaching global environmental studies, sumers more insight into their products' origins. The FDA and published more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles wants to use this plan to encourage more widespread in such leading journals as Nature, Science,andthePro- adoption of these technologies by incentivizing the crea- ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. tion of solutions with low and no cost, enabling food pro- In 2006, he won the Gene E. Likens Award from the ducers of all sizes to participate. Additionally, the FDA Ecological Society of America. The award is named for said it will implement an internal digital technology system Likens, who was a Cornell professor (1969–1983) in the to track data elements from industry and regulatory part- Section of Ecology and Systematics, the predecessor of ners. The blueprint also addresses business models that the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He did not exist when FSMA was passed, but are common to- has also received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Young day. It includes setting several standards for food delivery Investigator Award (2008) and an NSF CAREER Award (2011). safety, providing training for those who do food delivery Houlton earned a bachelor's degree in water chemistry as well as creating educational materials for consumers (1998) from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; a about the safety of foods that are delivered. It also outlines master's degree in environmental engineering (2000) from plans to work with retailers, reviewing the effectiveness of Syracuse University; and a doctorate in ecology and evolu- current ways they try to prevent foodborne illness and tionary biology (2005) from Princeton University. After- working with them on effective facility design. ward, he served for 2 years as a postdoctoral scholar in For more information, go to: https://www.fda.gov/ biological sciences at Stanford University and the Carnegie media/139868/download. Institute of Science at Stanford. Houlton grew up in Wisconsin, where his family roots span a long line of Midwestern dairy and poultry farmers. We wish him well in Ithaca! IN MEMORIAM Rod Leonard, Community Nutrition Institute FDA Releases Food Safety Blueprint That Uses Founder Set Minnesota and US Food Policies for Tech to Build on FSMA Decades The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes Rod Leonard, a key behind-the-scenes player in setting tech-enabled traceability, using smarter tools and approaches state and national food policies over several decades, died for prevention and outbreak response, taking advantage in August. He was 90. Rod, as he was known to one and all, 198 Nutrition Today® Volume 55, Number 5, September/October 2020 Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. was a wonderful communicator who was deeply commit- His academic research and contribution to the science ted to social justice, consumer issues, and, above all, to of human health launched and enhanced careers, touching what later became the USDA's food programs. Leonard many lives, while his professional support empowered sci- was a longtime assistant to the late Orville Freeman when entists across the world. In 1948, he won a place at he was governor of Minnesota and later when Freeman Downing College Cambridge to read Natural Sciences, was US secretary of agriculture under Presidents John F. earning a PhD in 1955. A 37-year career at the university Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. When Freeman was elected followed, during which he first became interested in the governor in 1954, he hired Leonard as his press secretary field of atherosclerosis. He was secretary and organizing and legislative troubleshooter, posts that he held for three committee member for the first International Symposium 2-year terms. When Kennedy was elected president in on Atherosclerosis held in Athens in 1966 and was an edi- 1960, he appointed Freeman as secretary of agriculture, tor of the proceedings. This led to research into obesity. He and Leonard went to Washington with him. Kennedy di- found and edited the International Journal of Obesity and rected Freeman to develop a pilot food assistance program became secretary of the Obesity Association—now known to address hunger and poverty, and Leonard, after or- as the Association for the Study of Obesity. In 1981, at the ganizing the Department of Agriculture's press office, age of 52, his life changed when he launched the Cambridge headed up that effort. There he helped create the Women, Diet, a protein supplement–modified fast-type formula. It Infants and Children supplemental nutrition program. was through this accomplishment that the Howard Foun- HecontinuedtoworkonfoodpolicyunderPresident dation was established a year later, overseeing some of Johnson, helping to develop a “food stamp” program sim- the profits, which were driven into charitable initiatives ilar to today's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and scientific research projects on how diet impacts health. known as SNAP. Howard received an honorary fellowship awarded to him After Johnson left the presidency in 1969, Leonard by Downing College and from WIT. In 2009, he received founded the Community Nutrition Institute in Washington, the Chancellor's 88th Anniversary Medal for outstanding DC, to advise policymakers on federal food assistance philanthropy, which was awarded to him by the Duke of programs and advocate for food safety. He returned to Edinburgh Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace. Dr Howard the White House a few years later to serve in President wished to be remembered as a scientist who found solu- Jimmy Carter's consumer affairs office, where he worked tions to enhancing human health. on food labeling efforts. After Carter's term ended, he went back to Community Nutrition Institute, where he re- CALENDAR sumed conducting research, writing, and advocating on Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Food & Nutrition Virtual food and farm issues. Conference & Expo Leonard also wrote 2 books on Freeman, one on his October 17 to 20, 2020 terms as governor and another on his stint as secretary of http://www.eatright.org agriculture. In his retirement, he joined the board of the In- APHA 2020—Creating the Healthiest Nation: Preventing stitute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, Violence where he continued to advocate for meat inspection and October 24 to 28, 2020 other food safety measures. Our condolences to his family. https://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual His benign presence in the field of nutrition will be sorely The Obesity Society ObesityWeek® 2020 Interactive missed. November 2 to 6, 2020 Alan Howard, PhD, Cambridge Diet Inventor https://obesityweek.org Alan Norman Howard, PhD, passed away this summer. He School Nutrition Association School Nutrition Industry was a pioneer in the field of nutrition and obesity whose Conference work achieved global commercial success. An entrepre- January 10 to 12, 2021 neur and scientist, Howard invented the Cambridge Diet, Tampa, Florida a very low-calorie diet, which was all the rage in the late http://schoolnutrition.org 1970s and 1980s and which later enabled him to establish American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology Vir- a charitable trust, the Howard Foundation. The man be- tual Annual Meeting hind the weight-loss plan influenced millions of people February 26 to March 1, 2021 with obesity. www.aaaai.org Volume 55, Number 5, September/October 2020 Nutrition Today® 199 Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.