The challenges facing the life sciences and the entire agriculture enterprise are to deliver on the promise of prevention. The models established for small molecules as drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry and delivered through the clinical profession as curative therapeutics are not appropriate when it comes to foods for prevention. This failure does not mean that we compromise the quality of science, the rigors of regulation nor the expectations for efficacy. New models capable of enhancing safety, efficacy and personal benefits from foods constitute the 21st century’s most vivid opportunity to improve the human condition. The University of California, Davis, has assembled the multiple disciplines to respond to such an opportunity.