131plaining why we should “go local”, namely for Culture,
Health, Environment, Economics and Food security.
In addition, and perhaps most important of all, it
was important that the leaders of the activity were
passionate about their work, that the activities
planned were fun and that people carrying out the
activities also be involved in planning them.
- Conclusions
To conclude, a food-based approach has many ad-
vantages to vitamin A supplementation in alleviating
vitamin A deficiency in Micronesia. Heed should be
taken of the paper by Latham et all. (2010) referring
to the universal vitamin A supplementation pro-
gramme as a “fiasco” and the need to question its
wisdom and validity. Vitamin supplementation pro-
grammes can block food-based approaches.
It should always be remembered that whole foods
can provide a wealth of nutrients, whereas supple-
mentation programmes may focus only on one or a
few nutrients. Food-based approaches and local
foods are important for many benefits. The “CHEEF”
acronym stresses the benefits of local food, which
are: Culture, Health, Environment, Economics and
Food security. So let’s support food-based ap-
proaches and let’s go local!
Acknowledgements
Warm thanks are extended to our many partners
and support agencies, including the FSM National
and State Governments, College of Micronesia-
FSM, Mand and other communities, V6AH Radio,
Kaselehlie Press, local NGOs and businesses, US
Forestry/United States Department of Agriculture,
Secretariat of Pacific Community, Center for In-
digenous People’s Nutrition and Environment
(CINE), GEF Small Grants Programme, Papa Ola
Lokahi, Pacific.German Regional Forestry Project,
PATS Foundation, US Peace Corps Micronesia,
Global Greengrants Fund, Bioversity International,
CDC/UNICEF, Sight and Life, Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, Japan Embassy,
Japanese JICA, Australia, New Zealand Embassy,
and German Embassy, University of Queensland,
University of Adelaide, Emory University, University
of Hawaii, University of Sydney, University of Ari-
zona, Institute of Applied Sciences/University of
South Pacific, New York Botanical Garden, and Proj-
ect Eden. Warm thanks are also given to Professor
Harriet Kuhnlein for her review of the manuscript.References
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