Improving Public Health Through Innovations in Government Procurement

Governments often use their regulatory authority to directly impact public health outcomes.  However, as a major purchaser of food, governments also have the advantage of market power, meaning that they can change how healthy foods are offered on the market through their purchasing authority.  Our presentation would describe what steps can be taken by the government to use its purchasing power to promote behavior change, particularly with regard to government efforts to increase consumption of healthy foods.  We believe this incentive-based approach can be a powerful complement to the use of mandatory regulations to effect change.  Based on our recently published piece in Journal of Public Health Policy, A Procurement-Based Pathway for Promoting Public Health: Innovative Purchasing Approaches for State and Local Government Agencies, we will present a causal diagram that describes various influence points in the procurement process and highlights where governments can use procurement to change standards and practices.  In this presentation, we will also review innovative emerging examples of government procurement practices and identify opportunities for governments to act. One key audience for this presentation is public officials who can work within government to encourage procurement and purchasing practices that can advance healthy food consumption.  However, other key individuals and organizations in the public health arena would benefit from learning how to identify procurement as a government option and advocate for leveraging purchasing power to increase healthy food consumption