Issues in Sustainable, Healthy Agriculture Martin T Donohoe, MD, FACP Chief Science Advisor Campaign for Safe Food Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Issues in Sustainable, Healthy Agriculture

Martin T Donohoe, MD, FACPChief Science Advisor

Campaign for Safe FoodOregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Sustainable Foods

A sustainable food system is one in which the environmental, social, and economic impacts of our decisions both sustain the needs of the current generation and allow for future generations to do the same

Sustainable Foods

• Produced, processed, stored and transported with minimal use of non-renewable energy sources

• Produced and handled in a way that supports strong regional economies

• Healthy as part of a balanced diet and do not contain harmful biological or chemical contaminants

Sustainable Foods

• Fairly or cooperatively traded between producers, processors, retailers, and consumers

• Non-exploiting of employees in the food sector in terms of rights, pay and work conditions

• Environmentally beneficial or benign in production and processing

• Accessible in terms of geographic access and affordability

Sustainable Foods

• High animal welfare standards in both production and transport

• Socially inclusive of all people in society

• Encourage knowledge and understanding of food and food culture

Overview

• Local, Sustainable Foods– Locally-grown food < 1% of $900 billion food industry

in the US– Food typically travels 1500 miles from field to fork

(25% increase over 1980)– 16% of vegetables sold in US come from abroad;

44% of fruit– Air pollution, global warming

• Dietary Considerations/Components• Pesticides

– Worker health and safety• Factory Farms/CAFOs/Agricultural Antibiotics

Overview

• GMOs

• Biopharming

• Food Irradiation

• rBGH

Overview

• Cloned Meats

• COOL

• Famine, Biofuels

• Conclusions re Role of Health Care Institutions

Local Foods

• ↓ transportation costs

–1/3 of agricultural energy costs go to processing, packaging, and transportation

• ↓ air pollution

• ↓ global warming

Local Foods

• Supports local economies

–Financial

–Local environments

–Social cohesion

• Enhanced purchaser-supplier relationships

Wasted Food

• Household food waste adds up to $43 billion/yr in the U.S.

• An average American family of four tosses out $590/yr food

• Americans discarded 3 times as much food in 2005 as in 1985

Dietary Components/Considerations

• Health choices– Dietary information labels– Eliminate soda machines– Healthy snack machines– No bottled water– Animal/vegetable products

• ↓ fast foods• ↓ trans fats• ↓ obesity

– Contributes to 300K deaths/yr in US– Major contributor to disease

Pesticides

• Air/water pollution

• ↓soil quality/fertility/diversity, inhibit nitrogen fixation, decrease crop yields

• 5.5 billion lbs/yr worldwide– 1.2 billion lbs/yr in US

• Air pollution/global warming

Pesticides and Human Health

• EPA: U.S. farm workers suffer up to 300,000 pesticide-related acute illnesses and injuries per year

• NAS: Pesticides in food could cause up to 1 million cancers in the current generation of Americans

• WHO: 1,000,000 people killed by pesticides over the last 6 years

Pesticides

• Farm worker health issues

• Floriculture, farm workers, and human rights

–Hospital gift shops

Factory Farms/CAFOs

• Factory farms have replaced industrial factories as the # 1 polluters of American waterways

• Livestock responsible for more greenhouse gas

emissions than the entire transportation sector

– Methane, CO2, and NO

– Grass-fed cattle produce less methane,

contain less saturated fat

Factory Farms/CAFOs

• 1.4 billion tons animal waste generated/yr–130 x human waste

• Waste pollutes air, waterways–Fish kills–Human infections: Pfisteria

Factory Farms/CAFOs

• Farm subsidies favor factory farms– One week of developed world farm

subsidies = annual cost of food aid to solve world hunger

• Decline of small, family farms and rural communities

Overuse of Agricultural Antibiotics

• Agriculture accounts for 70% of U.S. antibiotic use

• Use up 50% over the last 15 years

Agricultural Antibiotics and Food-Borne Human Infections

• CDC: “Antibiotic use in food animals is the dominant source of antibiotic resistance among food-borne pathogens.”

Agricultural Antibiotics and Food-Borne Human Infections: Examples• Campylobacter fluoroquinolone resistance

• VREF (due to avoparcin use in chickens)

• MRSA in pork, chickens

• Gentamycin- and Cipro-resistant E. coli in chickens

Agricultural Antibiotics and Food-Borne Human Infections

• $4billion/yr to treat antibiotic-resistant infections in humans

• Alternatives– Vaccinate animals– Selective Dx/Rx– Control overcrowding and heat stress– Improve food handling and storage– Animal care/welfare– Worker welfare– Vegetarianism

Agricultural Antibiotics and Food-Borne Human Infections

• EU bans use of all antibiotic growth promoters effective 1/1/06

• Three years after a Danish ban on routine use of antibiotics in chicken farming, the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens dropped from 82% to 12%

• US Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act – awaiting vote

Genetically-Modified OrganismsGMOs

• Definition• Industrialization and corporatization of

agriculture• Inadequately regulated: USDA, EPA, FDA• Famine and developing world markets• Local bans/labeling laws

– Oregon’s failed Measure 27

• Biopharming– Oregon Biopharm Bill

Risks of GMOs

• Altered nutritional value of foodstuffs

• Allergies

• Gene transfer → superweeds

• ↑ pesticide/herbicide use

Risks of GMOs

• Ripple effects on other organisms

• Transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to livestock

• Interbreeding with wild relatives

–Adverse effects on organic farmers, world markets

Biopharming

• GMOs designed to produce industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals– Examples– Health and environmental risks

• Oregon Biopharm Bill– Other bills

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH, Posilac©)

• Produced by Monsanto

• Adverse animal health effects

• Adverse human health effects

–↑ IGF-1 → cancers

–? ↑ risk of Variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease

• Successes of OR PSR’s CSF, HCWH

Food Irradiation

• Rationale• Altered nutritional content of meat

– Lipid peroxides, benzene → cancers– ↓ antioxidant value– ↑ trans fatty acids– ↓ vitamin content

• Meat tastes worse• May encourage sloppy handling – avoids

roots of problem

Food Irradiation

• Animals fed irradiated foods show multiple adverse health effects

• Human health effects unknown

• Illegal in EU except for some herbs and spices

• Public/scientific opposition strong

Food Irradiation

• Labeling inadequate– Flower symbol, “electronically pasteurized,”

no labeling

• Large school districts opposed to use in National School Lunch Program

• Costly– USDA estimates 13-20 cents extra / lb meat

• Does not destroy prions

Food Irradiation

• Irradiation facilities costly to build and maintain

• Worker safety issues

• ↑ transportation costs

• Homeland security

Food Irradiation

• Production of radioactive cobalt and cesium requires commercial reprocessing of high level nuclear waste

• Alternate, cheaper, and safer means of decreasing bacteria and food-borne infections exist

Alternatives to Food Irradiation

• Vaccinate animals, control overcrowding and heat stress, and improve food handling and storage

• Hire more government meat inspectors and use better equipment in our present, technically-sound but under-funded food inspection programs

• Fully cook meat, especially ground beef• Improve sanitary conditions in cafeterias

Cloned Meats

• Approved by the FDA, 2008

• No requirement for labeling

• Problems:– Very expensive, ?growth potential?– 2007: 90% pre-natal failure rate– Surrogate suffering – spontaneous abortions,

“large offspring syndrome” leading to early-term and stressful C-sections

Cloned Meats

• Problems– Post-natal health problems:enlarged tongues,

heart/lung/liver/brain damage, kidney failure– High doses of hormones, antibiotics required

(pre- and post-natally)

• NAS (2004): It is “impossible to draw conclusions about the safety of food from cloned animals”

COOL:Country of Origin Labeling

• Fish and seafood - 2005

• Meats, poultry, fruits, and vegetables – 2008

• Processed foods exempted

Famine and Biofuels

• Food prices rising worldwide

– In part a consequence of rising oil prices (hydrocarbons necessary for transportation, fertilizing, and packaging)

• Corn, other food crops, being used for inefficient biofuels

Role of Health Care Institutions

• Practice nutritional ecology

• Support health of patients, staff, and local communities

• Set standards for other organizations

–Example: Burger King in hospital cafeteria vs. GE/NY Presbyterian Hospital; Tobacco

Role of Health Care Institutions

• Hold farmers’ markets on hospital grounds

• Create hospital gardens to grow fresh produce, herbs, and flowers

• Compost, divert, and reduce food waste

Role of Health Care Institutions

• Buy certified coffee

• Create a value chain: string of companies or collaborating players working together to satisfy market demands for specific products and services

Role of Health Care Institutions

• HCWH, ANA, AMA President (’07-’08) all oppose rBGH

• Role for everyone in food chain to contribute to sustainable foods

References, Further Information

• Campaign for Safe Food, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility: http://www.oregonpsr.org/programs/campaignSafeFood.html

• Food safety page of Public Health and Social Justice Website: http://phsj.org/?page_id=14

Further Information

• Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Campaign for Safe Food– http://

www.oregonpsr.org/programs/campaignSafeFood.html

• Thanks to Rick North, Neha Patel, and Karen Adams

Contact Information

Public Health and Social Justice Website

http://www.phsj.org

[email protected]