Health Care and Food System Change: Connecting the Dots

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
-Hippocrates

“The key purpose of food and farming is—or should be—to advance the health and well-being of the population.”
-Tim Land and Geof Rayner

"Food production, distribution, and consumption in the US and throughout the world lie at the intersection of diverse interests in nutrition, clinical medicine, public health, land use, economics, ecosystem health, labor concerns, immigration policies, justice, spirituality, and national security. Few issues are as fundamental, cross-cutting, and all-encompassing. Because of the wide reach of many aspects of food systems into personal and public life, the way that such a basic human need is met is the focus of attention of a large and diverse group of organizations and institutions."
-Ted Schettler MD, MPH. Read the whole article by clicking here: "Nutrition and Food Production, A Role for Health Care Institutions"

“Nothing is more important to people’s health than what they eat everyday,” says Dr. Preston Maring, a physician for 34 years and the creator of the first Kaiser Permanente hospital farmers market. By developing a farmers market at his hospital and inspiring the creation of 25 others in just two years, Dr. Maring is helping hospitals around the country illustrate the connection between food, diet, and health.
-Read the article on the Project for Public Spaces website by clicking here.

“As places of healing, hospitals have a natural incentive to provide food that's healthy for people and the environment in which we live. By supporting sustainable food systems, the healthcare sector can provide multiple public benefits to their patients, and local and global communities. The benefits are all linked to a broad public health agenda, and include improvements in water quality, wildlife, greenhouse gas reductions, farmer profitability, and community economics.”
-Jamie Harvie, Food Coordinator, Health Care Without Harm; Executive Director, Institute for a Sustainable Future

"Since diet is a leading contributor to morbidity and mortality in the US, supporting healthy food systems in health care is an opportunity to address major causes of disease. Hospitals can play a leadership role in promoting healthy agriculture and healthy foods."
-Ted Schettler MD, MPH

"The nation’s hospitals have a mission to promote both the health of their patients and the communities in which they are located. To meet this goal, they employ skilled staff and utilize the world’s most advanced medical technologies. But step away from operating rooms and labs into hospital cafeterias and kitchens, and the health mission often seems overlooked. Even as the nation faces an epidemic of obesity and diet-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, many hospitals, searching for ways to cut costs, are offering fast food meals and junk food-filled vending machines. Linking local farms and hospitals can improve the freshness, quality, and nutritional value of hospital food while opening new markets for small and medium sized farmers."
-Farm to Hospital: Supporting Local Agriculture and Improving Health Care by Moira Beery, Center for Food & Justice, and Kristen Markley, Community Food Security Coalition. July 2007

During most of the industrial period the food industry has been fixated on providing as much food as cheaply as possible. Any connections between farming, nutrition, food and health were either assumed or ignored. But human health cannot be maintained apart from eating healthy nutritious food, which requires healthy soil, clean water and healthy plants and animals. It’s all connected. -FARMING,FOOD AND HEALTH by Frederick Kirschenmann, Ph.D.