Shifting U.S. Food and Farm Policy to Deliver Positive Health Outcomes

Recommendations Prepared for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

The 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health is an historic opportunity to address one key cause of our current public health crisis: the policy foundations of the system that produces our food. Our current food and farm policy is a major driver of poor health in the U.S. because our food system is dominated by a handful of powerful corporations singularly focused on amassing more money and control, at the expense of everyone else.

Farm Action addresses several key barriers to health in America with the below policy recommendations:

Shifting the priorities of our farm support systems away from the production of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and toward the nutrient-dense foods recommended by our federal dietary guidelines.
Emphasizing the importance of nutrition to health in our current and future physician training.
Making nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits and vegetables, more affordable and accessible to all consumers.
Protecting farmworkers and food system workers from hazardous working environments.
Protecting consumers from exposure to hazardous agrichemicals.
Helping farms transition away from systems that threaten public health.