Welcome to Rio2012. Spirals from a temple, a bowl, a street painting, a
jet engine, a fern, a staircase, from all continents, like our participants

Yes, just in case you hadn't noticed, this is the month of Rio2012! The spirals here come from Seoul, Durban, Valparaiso, somewhere in the US (the engine), a wood (the fern), and Barcelona. The 'master' spiral at top is that of the New Nutrition Science project.

Our new members

Fabio Gomes and Isabela Sattamini of the membership team warn us that so many people are applying to be members now, that we'd better start featuring a dozen a month. But to do this, we need applicants to write their profiles for publication on our site. If you are a member with no profile posted, or if you are applying now, please write your profile now, and send it to Isabela at wphnamembership@gmail.com. Please follow the format and the style you will find under 'membership' on our site. This month's featured members are all coming to Rio2012, with one exception. You will also see that the imbalance between male and female Association members is gradually righting itself.

From the Americas, Africa, Europe, Iran, Oceania: Joyce Slater Laura Rowe, Sandra Mutuma , Farzad Amirabdollahian, Christina Black, Chrisa Arcan

Empowering our profession

This month WN publishes two important letters. The first, from Roger Hughes, Roger Shrimpton, Elisabetta Recine and Barrie Margetts, responds to the letter we published last month from Claudio Schuftan and Urban Jonsson, on developing professional competencies for the profession of public health nutrition. The second, from Arun Gupta, Claudio Schuftan (yes, it's that activist again), Flavio Valente, Patti Rundall and Radha Holla, challenges the notion that commercial ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF) can be a solution to malnutrition, other than in emergencies. Debate is part of the lifeblood of any vigorous organisation.

Reggie is back, every month!

Our columnist Reggie Annan is back in his home country of Ghana now, so our African columnist is writing columns from Africa. Even better news, now that Reggie has moved and is beginning to settle, and is working at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, he can resume monthly columns. Hooray! And this month's column is a real eye-opener. Did you know that International Women's Day, here being celebrated in Cameroon last month, was originally inspired just over 100 years ago by a Spartacist, a German revolutionary Communist who was a close friend and comrade of Rosa Luxemburg? No, nor did we! Keep 'em coming, Reggie!

The meaning of Bovril

In his column this month, Geoffrey Cannon delves into a history of industrialised food, and specifically of Bovril, which began in the 1870s as beef rendered down into paste, and as you see here, advertised not only as a source of health, strength and beauty, but also as a patriotic potion and even as having infallible powers like the Pope. They don't make ads like this any more!

But even more fascinating is the story of why the name Bovril. The Bo bit is obvious: these are the first letters for the word meaning bull in various language, or for cattle in general, as in 'bovine'. But 'vril'? Now read this! The novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote one of the first ever science fiction novels, published in 1870. It was called The Coming Race. It was all about a super-race from the planet Vril-Ya, who derived their powers from an electromagnetic substance called, yes you've got it in one, Vril. John Lawson Johnston, the holder of the patent of the paste, had his own brainwave. Thus 'Johnston's Fluid Beef' devised to nourish the armies of Napoleon III in his wars with the Prussians, became Bovril. In 1932, according to Time magazine, the Bovril company owned 1,300,000 acres of cattle-land in Argentina and 9,000,000 acres in Australia. Johnston's descendant Lord Luke of Pavenham, is one of the 92 hereditary peers who still sit in the British House of Lords. Thus we bring you another story of food policy and practice, and the power of processing...