White House (1962–1965) Berg began his
public service in nutrition as a staff member and then deputy director of the
White House's
Food for Peace program under
John F. Kennedy and
Lyndon B. Johnson.
India (1966–1970) Berg was then selected by Ambassador
Chester Bowles as head of the U.S. government's first national-scale, nutrition program. Berg also initiated in 1969 the concept of Double Fortified Salt, adding iron as well as iodine to common salt, with the aim of reducing iron deficiency anemia without requiring changes in dietary practices. When
famine struck India in 1966-67, Berg coordinated a massive
food aid distribution effort that is recognized as having saved millions of lives. The intervention earned him the U.S. government's annual award as the Outstanding Young Civil Servant in 1968.
Lester R. Brown, often a critic of U.S. policies, later praised that relief effort: "For the United States, this was one of our finest moments." During his appointment in India, Berg published in
Foreign Affairs, "Malnutrition and National Development," the first in a series of articles and books arguing the case for inclusion of nutrition on the international development agenda. The writings cited evidence from numerous countries on the harmful effects of malnutrition, not only on child development and mortality, but also on economic growth. The book was reviewed by multiple
academic journals. It was nominated for a
National Book Award, cited the effect of poor nutritional status on mortality and on the cognitive development of survivors, underlining the far-reaching consequences of malnutrition. During these years, Berg also chaired the Nutrition Panel of the National Academy of Sciences' World Food and Nutrition Study (1975). His work attracted the attention of policymakers and is largely recognized with establishing nutrition as a crucial aspect of international development strategies and devising multisectoral planning tools to address it.
World Bank (1972–1995) In 1972, Berg joined
World Bank as Deputy Director of the new Population and Nutrition Projects Department after an invitation by the president of
World Bank,
Robert McNamara to join the organization. During the twenty-three years of Berg's tenure, the size of nutrition operations generated by the Bank (free-standing nutrition projects and nutrition components of
health,
education,
agriculture,
rural development, and
social protection projects), earlier negligible, totaled $2.1 billion, significantly more than the spending of all other donors combined. Berg's call for due attention to nutrition, as a key component of both economic development and human wellbeing, has been widely acknowledged within the World Bank and internationally. One prominent Bank official publicly referred to him as "the conscience of the Bank on hunger issues."
Global nutrition advocacy (1995–present) Following Berg's retirement from the World Bank in 1995, he has served as an
adviser or
consultant to a number of international
non-governmental organizations, as well as the World Bank through 2014. He also, through 2010, returned to the Brookings Institution as a Guest Scholar. He continues to serve as a board member of the public health organization Calcutta Kids, providing health and nutrition services to mothers and young children in Indian slums. He maintains active involvement in the development of
double-fortified salt. In addition, Berg has written articles and opinion pieces for
Foreign Affairs,
The New York Times, Harvard Business Review,
The Washington Post, and
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, among other publications. == Bibliography ==