Happy summer to all!  I hope you are all finding time to enjoy the longer days and warmer weather.  Over the past quarter, the Section has been busy working on policy resolutions and position papers and collaborating with organizations and individuals across disciplines and professions to elevate awareness of important and time-sensitive environmental issues including climate change and healthy food systems.  Thanks to our policy subcommittee and very active members, we submitted three resolutions and one position paper to the Joint Policy Committee:

1)     Addressing the Urgent Threat of Global Climate Change to Public Health and the Environment;

2)     Addressing the Potential Risks of Genetically Engineered Food Crops and Pharmaceutical/Industrial Crops;

3)     Supporting Green Chemistry Innovation, Education and Regulatory Reform of Industrial Chemicals;

4)     Towards a Healthier Sustainable Food System.

We also had a successful and well-attended Mid-Year meeting on March 20; members came in from mid-Atlantic region to participate and a dedicated group joined the Section by phone for a large portion of the meeting.  Dr. Benjamin and APHA staff joined the Section throughout the afternoon to discuss issues related to membership, scientific program planning, section affairs and policy.  Dr. Roni Neff, our lead author on the Sustainable Food System position paper, presented the report to the Section and led a thoughtful discussion of how the Section should move forward on this issue.  Roni and I, together with Don Hoppert at APHA, also attended several meetings on the Hill to discuss the upcoming Farm Bill authorization.  We also had the opportunity to attend the Community Food Security Coalition meeting in Baltimore, which was attended by folks from across the spectrum of food systems including farmers, health practitioners, ecologists, activists and community development specialists.  If you are not familiar with this organization, take a break and check out all of the activities and information it has prepared on sustainability and food systems at <http://www.foodsecurity.org/>.

    Finally, please mark your calendars for the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4-7, 2007.  We hope you will consider attending and joining the Section for its annual tour on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2:00 (details will be forthcoming), the Calver Award on Monday, Nov. 5 at 12:30 and the Social Hour on Monday evening.  We will continue to disseminate details about the meeting over the course of the summer and early fall. 

In Peace and Action,

Jill Litt, Chair, Environment Section

<jill.litt@uchsc.edu>