Health Administration Business Meeting II: Food Security in Virulent Influenza Pandemics - A Facilitated Workshop

Introduction A highly-virulent influenza pandemic would present a number of threats to food security that have not been sufficiently addressed by current preparedness efforts. Disruptions could occur at any and all staged from farm to fork, and the just-in-time food distribution network in the US may actually lead to a less resilient system than can be found in more resource-poor settings. Not only are there threats inherent to the pandemic, itself, but pubic health interventions such as social distancing, isolation & quarantine, and school / business closures could significantly increase the risks to the food security of households and individuals. But, while we have a strategic national stockpile (SNS) for drugs, there is no parallel structure for food.

Methods This session will consist of a facilitated workshop in which participants will identify the threats to food security during a highly-virulent influenza pandemic and brainstorm potential solutions. After the session has concluded, all interested participants will be invited to participate in winnowing down and elaborating upon these potential solutions through a nominal group technique, and to serve as co-authors on a consensus paper proposing a course of action.

Prospective participants are asked to prepare by reading the paper “Food, Nutrition and Livelihood Preparedness For A Pandemic Influenza Disaster Guidance For Low-Income Countries” by Steve Hansch and the H2P Food Security Working Group. The paper can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Hansch2008

Although it focuses on low-income countries, this paper raises a number of points that are equally (or even more) relevant to the US context.