Healthcare Food and Environmental Health

1
Healthcare Food and Environmental Health

• An H2E presentation
• Jamie Harvie,
• Institute for a Sustainable Future

2
(No Transcript)
3
Is it just personal choice?
4

It is unreasonable to expect that people will
change their behavior easily when so many forces
in the social, cultural, and physical
environment conspire against such change.

Institute of Medicine
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
The Food System
8
Food System - Contributors to Poor Health

• Over Production of Unhealthy Food Products
• Use of and Exposure to Pesticides
• Antibiotic Resistance
• Food borne Illness
• Impaired Drinking Water
• Respiratory Illness and Poor Air Quality
• Socioeconomic Concerns

9
(No Transcript)
10
Nutrition and Health

• High-sugar or high-fat foods including soft
  drinks, salty snacks sweets and desserts,
  comprise almost 30 percent of all calories
  consumed by Americans.
• Research suggests soda and fast food consumption
  linked to increased risk of weight gain and
  diabetes.

11
(No Transcript)
12
Top Ten Agricultural Crop Subsidies
1 billion 1985 - 2002
34,552,627,460 17,247,966,489 13,018,173,
430 10,967,530,537 10,663,566,847 7,795,7
99,116 3,193,985,171 2,256,567,708 2,018,
407,457 1,411,386,147
1. Corn subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 2. Wheat subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 3. Conservation Reserve Program . .
. 4. Soybean subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Cotton subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 6. Rice subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 7. Sorghum subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 8. Livestock subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . .
9. Dairy Program subsidies . . . . . . .
10. Barley subsidies . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
13
Access to supermarkets increases fruit and
vegetable intake

• Black Americans reported an average 32 increase
  in their fruit and vegetable intake for each
  supermarket in their census tract.
• Consumption for White
• Americans increased
• by 11.
• (Morland et al., AJPH, 2002)
• (

14
Shifting to a More Sustainable Food System
ENV1007_SW Marketing CCG 03/08/05
15
Ecological Thinking

• Looking at things in their whole context, while
  seeking to also understand the interconnections
  between parts.
• Nothing exists in isolation everything is part
  of a larger system.

16
Food Industry Consolidation

• Tyson Food responsible for 25 or all US chicken
  sales
• The average broiler chicken farm sells nearly one
  million birds annually.
• 54 percent of U.S. livestock are now concentrated
  on 5 percent of livestock farms.
• 5 Seed companies control 75 of global seed sales

17
Food Industry Consolidation

• Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland control 75 of
  global market for cereal grains.
• 6 cents of every dollar spent on a loaf of bread
  goes to the wheat farmer about as much as is
  spent on the plastic, petroleum-based wrapper
• Four companies control over 80 of beef packing

18
Use of and Exposure to Pesticides
19
Pesticides

• Use of agricultural chemicals known to cause
  cancer in CA increased 127 from 1991 to 1998.
• In CA 90 of pesticides used are prone to drift.
• In CA farmworkers are 59-70 more likely to
  develop various forms of cancer that the rest of
  the population.
• Atrazine, a widely used herbicide is found
  regularly in rain and drinking water in the USA.

• EPA estimates over 1 million Americans drink
  water from agricultural pesticides.
• Average person has 13 pesticides in their body

20
Pesticides

• Potential impacts of fetal exposure include
  reduced infant birth weight, low sperm counts and
  other fertility problems later in life,
  disruption of neurological development infancy,
  other neurobehavioral problems.

21
Combined Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOS)

• Generate an estimated 575 billion pounds of
  animal manure yearly
• Manure uneconomical to transport distance,
  typically stored in open or covered pits or
  lagoons
• Public health problems, including the overuse of
  antibiotics and food borne illness. 

22
CAFOs Water Quality

• Human pathogens from manure applied fields
• Manure land application can lead to excess
  nitrogen and phosphorus in soil

23
CAFOs and Air Quality

• Dust, molds, bacterial endotoxins and manure
  generated gases ammonia and hydrogen sulfide,
  known airway irritants, allergens or respiratory
  hazards
• CAFO Communities - eye and respiratory symptoms
  similar to more prevalent and severe symptoms
  experienced by CAFO workers who are exposed at
  much higher concentrations of mixed emissions,

24
CAFOs and Community Health

• Since 1986 independent hog operations declined by
  72 - a loss of 247,500 farms.
• CAFOs associated with declines in local economic
  and social indicators which undermine the
  socioeconomic and social foundations of community
  health (APHA)

25
Community and Economic Health

• A hospitals long-term vitality depends in large
  part on the economic health of the broader
  community. Every step of the food chain where
  ownership falls outside the community is a
  potential drain on the health and vitality of the
  local community.
• US Family Farmers typically lose money every
  year. In 2001 alone, income declined by 60.
• Suicide is a leading cause of death among
  farmers.

26
Antibiotic Resistance

• U.S. Institute of Medicine /National Academy of
  Science
• Clearly, a decrease in antimicrobial use in
  human medicine alone will have little effect on
  the current antibiotic-resistant situation.
  Substantial efforts must be made to decrease
  inappropriate overuse in animals and agriculture
  as well.

27
(No Transcript)
28
ABX
29
ABX

• Used for growth promotion and disease prevention
• Medically important and non-medically important
• Floroquinolone use
• AMA and AAP Contribute to resistance and create
  a danger to humans.

30
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH)

• Banned in Canada, Western Europe, Japan, and
  Australia
• Cancer risks
• Antibiotic resistance concerns
• Animal welfare concerns
• Economic impacts

31
Food Miles

• Trucks moving food freight account for 40 of
  road freight in UK
• Head of CA lettuce shipped to Washington
  D.C.require 36x fuel energy to transport than
  food energy it provides.
• Typical food item now travels from 1,500 to 2,400
  miles from farm
• Resultant air pollution

32
Ecolabels

• Meaningful and Verifiable
• verifiable by the certifier or another
  independent inspection organization.
• Consistent and Clear
• same meaning if used on other products.
• can be verified.
• Transparent
• organizational structure, funding, etc pulic
• No Conflict of Interest
• Opportunities for Public Comment
• Input from stakeholders

• Examples
• Food Alliance
• Transfair
• USDA Organic

33
Healthcare Explores

• Creating weekly farmers markets on hospital
  grounds
• Creating hospital gardens to grow fresh produce
  as well as provide patient exercise opportunities
• Instituting policies to buy only meat raised
  without non-therapeutic antibiotics or hormones.
  
• Setting goals and exploring new relationships
  designed to increase the purchase of
  locally-produced, fresh produce
• Buying more certified food products
• Making hospital campuses fast food-free zones
• Purchasing foods providing fair prices, and a
  living wage, to the people who produce them
• Buying milk produced without use of synthetic
  hormones, like rBGH
• Buying coffee certified as Fair Trade

34
(No Transcript)