Check out this short piece from the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to using the power of information to protect human health and the environment. Bauman College supports the Environmental Working Group in their efforts to better support small and mid-sized farms, promote food safety and improve health. Read below to see how you can also support their efforts.
Did you know that just 4 percent of American adults eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables? It’s true. Shamefully, only a tiny fraction of our nation’s farm spending encourages Americans to eat and produce healthy foods.
That’s why Environmental Working Group is partnering with more than a dozen California organizations to ask Governor Jerry Brown and California’s Congressional delegation to stand up today for healthy national food and farm policies.
California is the nation’s largest agricultural producer. We must have a strong voice in the decisions that affect our nation’s food system. We have opportunities right now to affect the Super Committee and the decisions it will be making this fall. Will you tell California’s elected leaders to stand up for healthy food and farm policies?
Click here to sign our petition today. Help us get 10,000 Californians to sign by October 24, National Food Day.
California’s leaders must urge the Super Committee to support programs that protect healthy, sustainable farm and food programs that:
- prevent hunger and support healthy diets;
- expand access to healthy food and beverages in schools and communities;
- promote conservation practices and reduce chemical use on farms;
- foster the next generation of farmers and ranchers, and
- build thriving local and sustainable food systems.
With cost savings high on Congress’s “to do” list, it makes excellent sense to support programs that can help reduce the preventable health-care costs of diet-related diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Every year, poor diets and inactivity cost California more than $20 billion and the nation at least $150 billion in medical care costs. It’s clear we need a farm policy that promotes healthy food – not chemical agribusiness as usual.
Please stand with EWG and our California partners to demand better food and farm policy today.
Sincerely,
Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group
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Image from www.michiganhealthcoach.com/featured/fruits-vegetables-diet/