ABSTRACT

Nutritionists have typically been employed in health education in designing feeding programmes, or as advisers on food and nutrition policy. They have been expected to measure the nutritional status of populations and monitor the nutritional qualities of foods, and give warning of toxicity problems, or point out where the fortification of staples could be of benefit. With the emphasis of so much agricultural research and planning on production, those individuals who feel that agriculture ought also to be concerned with nutritional welfare or with creating jobs are apt to experience a discontinuity between their values and this narrowly defined economic purpose. Goals reflecting consumer interests or social needs often prove to be surprisingly incompatible with both economic goals and scientific interests. The consumer sovereignty model works best in practice where there is a large number of individual consumers and where many small businesses or producers service their needs.