Re: Should we welcome food industry funding of public health research?
Readers may be interested to know that this “head to head” was independently commissioned by the BMJ following an event convened by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) and MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge in December 2015, at which Paul Aveyard, Derek Yach, Anna Gilmore and Simon Capewell spoke for and against engagement with the food industry. The event - “Dietary Public Health Research and the Food Industry. Towards a consensus?” - brought together an invited group of dietary public health researchers, those who understand the food industry, policymakers, funders and journals (including a representative from the BMJ, among others).
Whilst the event started with the debate highlighted by this "head to head", the goal of the day was to identify whether the public health research community could find a way towards greater consensus on this important issue. The BMJ published a report on the event - "Scientists take first steps to form united front over interactions with global food industry" - which you can find here: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6859. You can also read a full report of the proceedings of the day at http://www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/diet-research-industry-2015/, where you can also find details about how to contribute to an ongoing project aiming to build on the constructive outputs of the event.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
26 May 2016
Martin White
Public health doctor and scientist
Oliver Francis, Jean Adams, Pablo Monsivais, Oliver Mytton, Nita Forouhi (all MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge)
Centre for Diet & Activity Reseach (CEDAR), MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
Box 285 Institute of Metabolic Sciences, School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, CB2 OQQ
Rapid Response:
Re: Should we welcome food industry funding of public health research?
Readers may be interested to know that this “head to head” was independently commissioned by the BMJ following an event convened by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) and MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge in December 2015, at which Paul Aveyard, Derek Yach, Anna Gilmore and Simon Capewell spoke for and against engagement with the food industry. The event - “Dietary Public Health Research and the Food Industry. Towards a consensus?” - brought together an invited group of dietary public health researchers, those who understand the food industry, policymakers, funders and journals (including a representative from the BMJ, among others).
Whilst the event started with the debate highlighted by this "head to head", the goal of the day was to identify whether the public health research community could find a way towards greater consensus on this important issue. The BMJ published a report on the event - "Scientists take first steps to form united front over interactions with global food industry" - which you can find here: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6859. You can also read a full report of the proceedings of the day at http://www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/diet-research-industry-2015/, where you can also find details about how to contribute to an ongoing project aiming to build on the constructive outputs of the event.
Competing interests: No competing interests