American Medical Association Passes Resolution Supporting Sustainable Food System

The American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a new policy resolution that recognizes the link between better health and a healthy and ecologically sustainable food system. This resolution supports cooperative work between the AMA and health care and public health organizations in order to educate the public about the importance of being able to “provide food and beverages of naturally high nutritional quality.”
The AMA’s new Sustainable Food policy in based on a report from its Council on Science and Public Health, which notes that locally produced and organic foods “reduce the use of fuel, decrease the need for packaging and resultant waste disposal, preserve farmland . . . [and] the related reduced fuel emissions contribute to cleaner air and in turn, lower the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.”