1. Industrial Food and Public Health

2. Big Food vs. Big Insurance (by M. Pollan) U.S. spends billions for disease treatment: $147 bill. on obesity; $116 bill. on diabetes; 100s of bill. on cardiovascular, cancer. 30% of increase in health care spending over past 20 years  due to soaring rate of obesity.  1/10 of health care spending. Obesity = win for health care industry, BUT, obesity = loss for insurers. Big Food (corn-based, highly processed; high meat consumption) is a big culprit in soaring obesity and diabetes.

3. Big Food vs. Big Insurance (by M. Pollan) Could be sea change under Health Care Reform  preventing Type 2 diabetes = win for insurers’ profits. Health insurance industry will fight farm subsidies (Big Food)  just like they did against Big Tobacco. Insurers and MIT and Columbia Univ.  looking at designing a regional food economy (a “foodshed”)  this would improve the American diet. Health Care Reform is a first step, by promoting prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

4. Against Meat (Jonathan Saffron Foer) Factory farms produce 99% of animals eaten in U.S. (Farm Forward) Factory farming has made animal agriculture the #1 contributor to global warming  much more destructive than transportation. It is one of the top 2 or 3 causes of most serious environmental problems: air water pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity. Not eating meat is the solution. It can be culturally learned.

5. Big Food vs. Public Health (Food, Inc.) Failure of Public Health to protect public vs. industrial food system. U.S. food policy (massive corn, soy, wheat subsidies)  enables shift to corn-fed industrial food system. Deregulation of food oversight (FDA, USDA) Raw power of Big Agriculture: –Control of seeds. –Control of small farmers to grow for Big Food only. –Compromised food safety: e-coli, antibiotics out of control. Environmental disaster: CAFO’s feed global warming, water pollution (antibiotics, animal waste)

6. Big Food vs. Public Health (Food, Inc.) Public health disaster: diabetes, obesity, food poisoning –Cheap corn  fuels empty calorie diets, high meat consumption. –Low-income people suffer greatly: easy availability of low-quality, cheap food. –Public at serious risk for food poisoning, infectious diseases (swine flu?) Shift to ecological farming is necessary. e.g. grass-fed animals, regional markets (Polyface Farms) Food movement is on the rise. Organic, slow food, community-sustained agriculture.