Healthy food systems support health & wellness and fair treatment of all workers. These characteristics become even more important when we face emergencies such as climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. The current industrialized food system undermines health and fails to achieve these goals — and it is a major cause of global warming and climate disruption!
We will take our long-standing interest in healthy food to a new level, starting from the assumption that food must contribute to the health of the individual who eats it and of the community as a whole, looking at impacts on climate, the environment, health, and social justice.
For example:
- What is healthy food? (See food.sustainlv.org for more information.)
- Why does much of the food served by institutions & restaurants undermine health & contribute to climate change
- Can we achieve food sovereignty?
- What are the barriers to a sustainable food system?
- How can we promote more healthy, sustainable dining?
This internship can take several different directions, depending in part on the intern’s specific interest. For example, we could look at ways to implement concepts such as environmental nutrition (as pioneered by Health Care Without Harm), on impacts of the industrialized food system, or working for change in local cafés & restaurants or campus dining.
The specific activities are based partly on what is happening in the community at the time, but an intern can expect to work on some or all of the following:
- Understand and update research on environmental nutrition and showing the effects of the industrialized food system
- Meet with food-system stakeholders
- Engage and work with community organizations to develop and implement strategies to improve the food system
- Take action to raise both public & professional awareness of the need to purchase and serve food that is grown without harmful chemicals, comes from local farms, and for which food producers and workers are paid fairly
- Create posters, articles, fact sheets, and/or oral presentations to groups to raise awareness various aspects of sustainability in the food system
- Develop ways to reduce waste, pollution, and climate impacts
Some previous interns’ work on food and health: