"Two years ago, it struck me that Berg has saved millions of lives, but nobody has heard of him. No one in the United States thinks about global malnutrition despite it affecting 900 million people currently across the world," says Steve Schear, Theo's father, who has co-produced the documentary with Jodie Levin-Epstein. The 69-year-old lawyer is Berg's second cousin. "Berg and I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Our mothers were close, and grew closer when Berg's father passed away when he was just two. He is 20 years older to me, so I began to get to know him much later in life."

An undated picture shows Alan Berg delivering a talk in India

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Berg grew up in an impoverished family, and that, says Steve, makes this a relevant film. A man who saw poverty, conquered it, and used his skill to eradicate malnutrition plaguing the poor. What will be of particular interest to the Indian viewer is that Berg pulled off a worthwhile stint in India between 1966 and 1970. Recruited by advertising professional and American ambassador to India Chester Bowles, Berg arrived here to work with the government as head of the US government's first national-scale, multifaceted nutrition project. Although he was based in Delhi, he travelled across the country on field work. Between 1966 and '67, Bihar was struck by a drought that threatened to take millions of lives. Berg managed to coordinate large-scale food aid distribution that went on to be recognised as having helped save thousands of lives. The timely intervention earned him the US government's annual award for Outstanding Young Civil Servant in 1968. The following year, he invited Steve to visit him in India. "I had just finished high school. As an 18-year-old, I hitchhiked across Europe and flew from Istanbul to Kashmir, where I met him," says Steve, who travelled through Mumbai, Chennai and Kerala during the six-week trip.

In an interview to Secure Nutrition, Berg had said that if his focus on malnutrition had to be pinned down to a single epiphany, it would have to be hearing a paper presented at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in 1964. "There, a youngish Mexican pediatrician, Juaquin Cravioto, introduced the notion of a relationship between malnutrition and mental development. I was stunned. For years we had acknowledged the effects of malnutrition on physical development... Now it was being suggested that these kids might be cognitively impaired. And we were talking about as many as two thirds of the children in many developing countries. How could we talk about national development without worrying about this?" he said.

Theo and Steve Schear

Even after leaving the country, Berg continued to help develop nutrition programmes, including one for Tamil Nadu. He was then with the World Bank as deputy director of the Population and Nutrition Projects Department. "In the first project, severe malnutrition declined by 50 per cent among six to 60 month-olds. In the second project, severe malnutrition numbers fell by 44 per cent and moderate malnutrition, by 23 per cent. An external evaluation of these projects found that malnutrition prevalence fell by 1.5 to 2 per cent every year [during his stint], unequaled by any other large-scale nutrition undertaking during the 1980s and '90s."

Steve says that when the team first screened the film in Washington, where Berg now lives, he was embarrassed. He agreed to file a small address note for the audience, but later refused to give the talk. "He is way too modest to speak of his own work. I think that is what makes him special."

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