Roni Neff, PhD, MS

rnell@jsph.edu

For four years, the Environment and Food and Nutrition Sections have collaborated around public health issues at the intersection of food, agriculture and environment.  We would love to expand this collaboration to the OHS Section, bringing in members interested in agricultural and food production/processing/distribution worker safety and health, and helping to forge better cross-disciplinary discussion and work on opportunities to improve food, environment and worker rights and health simultaneously. 

Public health issues, as described in the Association's new (2007) position paper "Towards a Healthy, Sustainable

Food System," http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1361, arise from the industrialization of agriculture, its intensive use of water, antibiotics, chemical inputs, fossil fuels and other resources, low regulation of worker safety and health, an often low wage and immigrant workforce and powerful agribusiness firms.  The results include significant worker safety and health threats in the United States and abroad, and contributions to climate change, environmental pollution, water and soil depletion, the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections, and other infectious and non-infectious health threats to workers, communities and food consumers.  This industrialized food system also has nutritional implications, such as its contribution to the lack of access to healthy foods and to obesity. Public health professionals are increasingly at the forefront of challenging these threats, and also of promoting alternatives. Food and environment issues continue to gain visibility and traction with increased public interest in local and sustainably produced foods, the obesity epidemic, the recent passage of the Farm Bill, and the international crisis of rising food prices.

Bridging sections, the "food and environment working group" has sought to encourage interdisciplinary scientific, social and policy interchange.  Four years ago, the group began efforts to bring people together through the APHA scientific program; we have continued to highlight sessions of joint interest, now formalized in a joint track of sessions.  In last year’s flyer, we also highlighted relevant OHS Section sessions.  To encourage informal interchange, we’ve also organized social events; two years ago at the APHA Annual Meeting in Boston, at least 70 people attended an evening event featuring locally sourced food and wines.  At last year's conference in D.C., more than 100 came out to Clyde's of Gallery Place to eat, drink and share ideas.  The event coincided with APHA's August 2007 W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to support organizing in selected communities around public health and agricultural policy issues.

Planning is well under way for the 2008 social event, to be held on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m.  We hope you will join us to sample San Diego's freshest and local-est.  We are also seeking to raise money to bring individuals engaged in the San Diego food system to the conference, and to support other activities to build the profile of food and agriculture issues within public health.  Many of us are already looking to "Farm Bill 2012" and developing activities aimed at building a stronger and more influential public health voice in the debates.