Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People

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The APLU Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA) and Board on Human Sciences (BoHS) joined together to develop a broad-based programmatic initiative linking research, Extension, and academic programs that focus on integrating nutrition, health, environment, and agricultural systems.

The Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People Steering Committee was created and charged with producing a document to help secure future funding to improve the linkage of agriculture/food and nutrition systems with health care — with the primary goal of making a positive difference on human health and chronic disease. The Steering Committee has been asked to create a document—comprehensive in nature and includes strong research, outreach, and education pieces—that could warrant funding. The Steering Committee also has been asked to identify ways to leverage other national competitive funding opportunities.

This effort began in July 2014 with a joint BAA-BoHS discussion to set priorities, identify funding opportunities, and adopt integrated approaches to address vexing national and global issues related to health.

After the release of the Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People report, an implementation team was constituted and charged with developing an implementation strategy to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the report, including developing a budget for the recommended implementation actions and funding/advocacy strategy. The Healthy Food Systems, Healthy People Implementation Team released a draft implementation report on July 12, 2016.