Pathways for the Health

1
Pathways for the Health Nutrition of Communities

• Opportunities for Linking the Good Work of
  Farmers Markets with Health
• Jack Salo, Executive Director
• Rural Health Network of South Central NY
• Whitney Point, N.Y.

2
A Map of the World, 1502The Cantino Planisphere
from Wikipedia
3
Health Locally Produced Food Largely
Unexplored Territory?

• Yes

4
Who Says So.

• Dr. Ross M. Welch USDA-ARS, U.S. Plant, Soil
  Nutrition Laboratory, Cornell University
• From his Presentation Farming for Improved
  Health, at the N.Y.S. Farmers Direct Marketing
  Conference in January 2007 -

5
Agriculture and human health have never been
generally recognized as closely linked
disciplines

• Dr. Ross M. Welch

6
How to Link Agriculture to Human Health?

• The nutrition and health sector must start to use
  agricultural interventions to solve malnutrition
  and diet-related diseases in sustainable ways.
• Ross M. Welch, PhD.

7
Health Locally Produced Food Largely
Unexplored Territory?

• Yes

8
Who Says So?

• Wendell Berry
• From his speech at a Spirituality and Healing
  conference at Louisville, Kentucky on October 17,
  1994

9
the medical industry makes only the most
tenuous connection between health and food and no
connection between health and the soil.
Industrial medicine is as little interested in
ecological health as is industrial
agriculture. Wendell Berry, 1994
10
What Can Farmers Markets Do to Discover Pathways
Between Locally Produced Food and Health?
11
What are some of the Pathways?
Dentists Dental Associations
Rural Health Networks
Primary Care Offices
Local Hospital Systems Community Health
Programs, etc
Community Health Centers
Population Specific Health Programs Elderly,
Pre-school School age children, people with
disabilities, etc.
Public Health Agencies Screenings, etc.
Your Farmers' Market
Chronic Disease Organizations
Higher Education Health Programs
Health Insurance Companies
Diabetes Assoc.
Cancer Society
Heart Assoc.
Specialists Offices
Workplace Health Wellness Programs
Others ???
12
One Idea For Building a Path To Health Health
Care

• Lets consider one food and lifestyle related
  health issue that is a cornerstone of poor health
  and chronic disease...

13
Obesity Trends Among U.S. Adults between 1985 and
2005

• Source of the data
• The data shown in these maps were collected
  through CDCs Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
  System (BRFSS). Each year, state health
  departments use standard procedures to collect
  data through a series of monthly telephone
  interviews with U.S. adults.

14
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1985
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
15
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1986
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
16
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1987
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
17
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1988
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
18
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1989
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
19
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1990
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
20
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1991
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
21
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1992
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
22
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1993
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
23
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1994
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
24
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1995
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
25
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1996
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
26
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1997
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
27
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1998
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
28
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1999
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
29
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2000
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
30
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2001
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
31
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2002
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
32
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2003
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
33
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2004
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
34
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2005
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
30
35
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1990,
1995, 2005
(BMI ?30, or about 30 lbs overweight for 54
person)
1995
1990
2005
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
30
36

• The Obesity Epidemic What Can Your Role Be?
• What Else Can You Do to Forge Paths between Your
  Market and Health?

37
Another Idea Feature and Promote Farmers -
Vendors That Make an Investment in Health Through
Their Practices and Products

• The nutrition and health sector must start to
  use agricultural interventions to solve
  diet-related diseases in sustainable ways.
• Ross M. Welch, PhD.

38
What Agricultural Interventions (and Products)
Meet Dr. Welchs Health Sustainability Criteria?
Whitney Point Farmers Market
39
One Example We Have Grass, and Grass Farming is
40
Sustainable
41
And Yields Significant Health Benefits.
42

• Jo Robinson, Eat Wild http//www.eatwild.com/

43
A Map of the World, 1502The Cantino Planisphere
from Wikipedia
44
Care To Join in An Exploration of The New World?

• Or are You Going to Watch Our Small Ship Fall
  Off the End of the Earth?