jerusha klemperer's health | tech | food speaking points
DESCRIPTION
Jerusha Klemperer, of Slow Food, provided these speaking points to stimulate discussion at the Health | Tech | Food event on February 8, 2011 in New York City.TRANSCRIPT
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Slow Food USA is a network of volunteer chapters all over the
country who are working to transform the food system, both
locally and nationally.twitter: @SlowFoodUSA
Join the movement for a good, clean & fair food system
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What is a Food System?
Food system: A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items. • Seed to Table• Farm to Fork• Ground to Garbage
People like me are interested in a systems approach to transformation of food in this country.
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What is a Foodshed?
Foodshed: A foodshed is everything between where a food is produced and where a food is consumed -- the land it grows on, the routes it travels, the markets it goes through, the tables it ends up gracing.
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What’s Broken in Our Food System Nationally?(i.e. “the food is so bad – and the portions are terrible!”)• Federal policy is not supporting a good, clean, fair system (GE alfalfa, subsidies)
– Subsidies (of commodity crops, via The (Food and) Farm Bill– Moves like recent GE alfalfa decision, presents major hardship to organic industry
• Access. Good, real, healthy food not accessible to everyone (cost, access)– Food Deserts– Food pricing
• Health. Food, and the way we are relating to it, is making us unhealthy: – We are totally disconnected from the story behind our food: How did it get to our plate? Who grew it? How was it
grown? How did it get to the farmers market/store/FreshDirect? How did it get to my plate?– People are willfully blind—even people who are beginning to be interested can practice willful blindness—we rely on
labels like organic or free-range to make us feel OK and get us off the hook from knowing what was really involved in making this food.• 93% of children can identify McDonald’s golden arches, but most can’t identify basic fruits and vegetables• We don’t understand how to eat: Michael Pollan’s food rules (“chew slowly”), recent USDA dietary guidelines: “Enjoy
your food, eat less.” Speaking of eating less:– Obesity/Diabetes. The true cost of cheap food:
• In the 60s, Americans spent 17% of household budget on food, 6% on health care. Now, 9% on food, 16% on health care.• this generation first to have shorter life span than their parents• nearly 1 in 3 children in America are overweight or obese. • 1/3 of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives (if it’s children of color it
might be as high as 1 in 2); many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.
• 4 of top ten biggest killers right now are diet-related diseases
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Jeepers! It all sounds like very bad news.
• So…..Answers:– Fix federal policy– Address food deserts and food pricing– Spend more on food, encourage food as preventative medicine– Learn the story behind your food
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That was a National Framework
Food especially is an issue that can be addressed nationally but sometimes better to look at on a local level. What about on a local level? What are some things we need to fix in NYC?
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Problem Statements to Solve for:
• How can we use social technology to connect peri urban, suburban and rural farmers to consumers to bring more fresh fruit & vegetables to the city to improve the health of New Yorkers?
• How can we use social technology to increase access to fresh fruit and vegetables specifically in food deserts?
• How can we use social technology to help New Yorkers learn the story behind their food so that they make better choices?
• How can social technology reconnect New Yorkers with scratch cooking knowledge and the cooking traditions of their great grandmothers?
• How can social technology empower New Yorkers to grow some of their own food in their communities/on their windowsills & roofs & backyards?
• How can social technology increase opportunities for people to share food & share knowledge/skills about how to can/preserve/pickle, decreasing New Yorkers’ reliance on processed and prepared foods?
• How can we use social technology to help New Yorkers decipher food labels in order to make healthier choices?
FYI: Christine Quinn’s report: Nov 22, “FoodWorks,” examination of the whole system –“ground to garbage”—and proposed solutions for NYC and foodshed.