Feeding 9 billion people in a way that does not jeopardize animal health, human health or the environment is no easy task.

CSU is hosting a campus wide discussion this week to solve this problem, entitled “Global One Health,” a trendy topic in the world of health and the environment.

The colloquium continues today from 1:30 p.m to 5 p.m. in the Lory Student Center covering health communication, radiation and how to operate Global One Health locally.

Mark Stetter, Dean of College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences chose the topic this year because it addresses where the planet is going in the next 50 years.

“When we think about science and how people solve problems, they do it in their area of specialty (human health, animal health, environmental health),” Stetter said.

CSU does a lot already in relation to Global One Health, according to Stetter and there is already a Global One Health club with 120 student members. The conference also brings in sources outside of the university such as the CDC, the USDA, as well as the Natural Resource Center.

Global One Health only works as an interdisciplinary discussion, and this year the College of Business, Health and Human Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability are all involved.

The College of Business hosted a panel discussion Tuesday afternoon where CSU alumna and Senior Vice President for sustainability of Wal-Mart, Andrea Thomas, discussed what Wal-Mart’s role is in the greater environment.

“One other thing that the Colloquium highlights is that although we don’t have a medical school at CSU, we do tremendous amount of work and research related to human health,” Stetter said.

Jac Nickoloff, environmental and radiological health sciences professor teamed up with colleagues from the Medical Center of Denver as well as experts from Japan to discuss the future of cutting-edge cancer treatment during a panel on Tuesday.

One panel hosted by Brian Dunbar, executive director for Institute for the Built Environment, discussed how the design and construction buildings are related to human health.

“We talked about what the best buildings are doing to be proactive with health. CSU is on top of it,” Dunbar said. “They are doing great things to assure that their buildings are healthy for the occupants.”

Diana Wall, the director of CSU’s school of global environmental sustainability, returned again this year to cover cover health impacts of global environmental change on a panel discussion on Wednesday.

“I think they are big issues in the environment as we all know and we somehow disconnect what happens to human and animal health from what’s going on in the environment,” Wall said. “That is what the school of Global Environmental Sustainability is all about.”

Cooney said enthusiasm is higher this year than in years past. Since the first international colloquium five years ago, the numbers have varied from 800 to 1,000 in attendance.

“We never know how many students are going to come. We cross our fingers,” Cooney said.

According to Cooney, the colloquium is not aimed toward just the experts. This is supposed to reach everyone from faculty to students to the Fort Collins community.

“We absolutely gear this for non-experts,” Cooney said. “It is supposed to be for the non-experts, aimed for students.”

Collegian Diversity Beat Reporter Hannah Hemperly can be reached at news@collegian.com.

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