206502 A Vision for Healthful Food: Expanding the Lens From Nutrients to Food Systems

Monday, November 9, 2009: 9:10 AM

Sana Chehimi, MPH , Prevention Institute, Oakland, CA
Leslie Mikkelsen, MPH, RD , Prevention Institute, Oakland, CA
Juliet Sims, RD, MPH , Prevention Institute, Oakland, CA
  
Communities across the country are recognizing the importance of access to healthy food in order to prevent chronic disease. Yet concerns over our current food system have caused many health and nutrition professionals to be increasingly interested in sustainable food systems that promote human health, protect the environment, and provide a livable income and fair working conditions for growers and laborers. In consultation with nutrition experts, Prevention Institute has developed a Vision for Healthful Food, which formally recognizes that healthful food comes from a food system where food is produced, processed, transported, and marketed in ways that reflect dietary guidelines, and prevents the exploitation of farmers, workers, natural resources, and the cruel treatment of animals.

The Vision delineates a set of healthful-food principles that provide a framework for developing programs, shaping community food systems, and advocating for food, nutrition, and agriculture policies which truly promote health. For governments, institutions, and workplaces seeking to develop sustainable food policies and practices, Vision principles can act as the foundation, ensuring that policies promote nutrition as well as sustainable food systems.

The session will introduce participants to the Vision and provide instruction on how it can be utilized to shape food, nutrition, and agriculture policies. Additionally, the presentation will emphasize several examples of promising food and nutrition policies that incorporate sustainable food systems and reflect Vision principles.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session the participant will be able to: 1.Describe the broader health impacts of the current industrial food system on farmers, workers, farm animals, consumers, and the natural environment 2.List 2-3 examples of food policies and programs championed by health and nutrition professionals that incorporate a sustainable food systems perspective 3.Identify additional sectors (e.g., environmental, sustainable agriculture, and economic development) that represent potential partners for health and nutrition professionals working to promote sustainable food systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: EDUCATION 2001-2003—UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA MPH, Health and Social Behavior, International Health Specialty Area 1994-1998—Columbia University, New York, NY BA, Cellular and Molecular Biology Sana Chehimi is a Program Manager at Prevention Institute, a national non-profit dedicated to advancing community wellbeing through primary prevention. Ms. Chehimi is co-editor of Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being, a text on primary prevention published in March 2007 by Jossey Bass. Sana focuses her efforts on developing tools and strategies to advance primary prevention practice, with a particular emphasis on promoting environments that promote healthy eating and physical activity. She leads the development of the Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool (ENACT), a web-based resource designed to improve local nutrition and physical activity environments and oversees the Institute’s media advocacy efforts through the California based Rapid Response Media Network. Sana’s current consulting efforts include the creation of a county wide plan to reduce childhood obesity amongst children 0-5 in Contra Costa County, California. Sana has authored numerous reports and publications for Prevention Institute, including The Impact of the Neighborhood Food Environment on Children’s Dietary Behavior (2004), Healthy Eating and Physical Activity: Addressing Inequities in Urban Environments (2007) and Beyond Brochures: The Imperative of Primary Prevention (book chapter, 2007). Prior to joining Prevention Institute, she worked on basic science research in HIV and as a community treatment advocate for individuals living with HIV. She received her Masters in Public Health from the University of California Berkeley with an emphasis on Health and Social Behavior.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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