Subject: Farm Bill Deadline June 1st

Dear Dr.  (EDIT)
        
The 2007 Nutrition and Health conference was wonderful! Among the
highlights were several speakers who shed light on the Farm Bill.  They
described how it plays a key contributory role to obesity and other
diet-related disease in the U.S.   Michael Pollan, author of the
bestselling Omnivore's Dilemma, challenged us to make the Farm Bill into
a  Food Bill.

The Farm Bill is a complex, $80 billion per year omnibus bill that
incorporates everything from Food Stamps to food and nutritional
research, to programs that support corn and soybean farmers. Congress
reauthorizes the Farm Bill every 5 years or so, and this is the year. In
fact, key decisions about the Farm Bill are being made in the next 4
weeks.

For the last 3 decades, our Farm Bills have promoted the production of
cheap grains and soybeans, which in turn contributes to our schools and
communities being flooded with high calorie, nutrient poor, highly
processed foods made from the cheap starches, added fats and sweeteners
derived from these commodity crops.

I ended the conference by promising to let attendees know what they,
personally, could do to inform the 2007 Farm Bill debate  By mid-June,
the key negotiators on the House and Senate Agriculture committees will
be determining the details of their respective Farm Bill legislation.

(EDIT) and I are therefore are asking you to consider adding your
signature to ours on the  letter below by June 1st. The letter is a
sign-on letter from physicians and other clinicians to the four top
members on these two committees. If you decide to sign on, please email
(EDIT) the following by June 1st: Your
name and credentials (e.g. M.D., PhD, RN, NP), and the city and state
where you reside.

We aim to make the letter public and ensure it gets widely distributed
to members of Congress.

thanks!

(EDIT)


Rep. Collin C. Petersen
Chair, House Committee on Agriculture
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, VA,
Ranking Minority Member, House Committee on Agriculture
Sen. Tom Harkin
Chairman, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
Sen. Saxby Chambliss
Ranking Republican Member, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Committee

Re: Strengthening the Farm Bill to Reduce Childhood Obesity, and Improve
our Environment and Nation's Health

Dear Sirs,
We, the undersigned, are physicians, healers and health professionals,
not farmers. But we eat, we have patients and families who eat, and so
we care about what farmers grow. We want to see the 2007 Farm Bill
become a "Healthy Food Bill".
Obesity and unhealthy eating constitute a national crisis, with $117
billion per year in estimated treatment and indirect costs. The epidemic
of child obesity, however, promises a worse crisis in the making - these
children will have more heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke, in
some cases not long after they become adults.

Today's agricultural policies are inconsistent with healthy eating. They
help flood our communities, including our schools, with high-calorie,
nutrient poor, highly processed foods made from cheap starches,
sweeteners and oils derived from grains and soybeans.  These foods are a
big part of the health problems we face. We must do better.

U.S. agricultural policy helps to make unhealthy foods some of the
cheapest, "most affordable" to buy. It also contributes to a population
deficient in healthful omega-3 fatty acids, with likely impacts on
inflammation and other chronic disease - heart disease, stroke, and
diabetes.

We must do better.

We also care about how farmers grow our food. Current farm policy
promotes agricultural methods that deplete water resources, and use
pesticides and fossil fuels intensively, with impacts on consumers,
communities and our climate. By underwriting the industrial-scale
production of animals raised on grain, our farm policy also supports
significant air and water pollution.

Grain-fed animals raised under confinement can be more disease-prone
than those raised in traditional pasture-based systems.  These animals
are routinely fed human antibiotics to counter disease and to promote
more rapid growth. The Institutes of Medicine confirm this practice
hastens the spread of antibiotic resistance, while in medicine we are
losing our arsenal of antibiotics that work. We must support healthier
agriculture.
  
With the 2007 Farm Bill, our government has the opportunity to invest
taxpayer dollars in a food system that promotes rather than hinders
individual health. Farmers, communities, and the health of our
environment would benefit as well.
  
We urge you to make your vote count. Make sure this Farm Bill advances
Americans' health and well-being. The Farm Bill should:

o    Give all Americans better access to healthy foods (fresh fruits
and vegetables, whole rather than refined grains, and better fats), and
especially to locally produced foods that will support farmers and
strengthen the economic and environmental health of our communities.

o    Help ensure better school access to healthy foods, making the
diets of schoolchildren more consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans.

o    Take proactive steps to make fresh produce and other healthy
foods more affordable relative to unhealthy foods, as well as to help
build the infrastructure needed to get these foods into even our
lowest-income communities.  
We thank you. And we look forward to a "Healthy Food Bill" that becomes
the first step in putting Americans on the path to healthier eating,
food production, and living.

Sincerely,

(EDIT)