Food Policy

Do you want an apple, banana or orange?


This is my backpack and it’s full of fruits, isn’t it?

Do I always carry fruits like this? No. These are fruits that I was given at one event.

The other day, I attended a four-hour-long seminar about nutrition at Teachers College called “bringing policy to the table.” It basically explains how NY and NJ can bring food policy into practice in a big scale.
Panels included a mayor of Newark(NJ), politicians, food policy makers and academia.
what I liked about this event was that not only did I learn about the food policies but also panels, especially the mayor and politicians, were really good at public speaking.

They would start talking with an impact phrase like this.

“Although medical skills and technology have been improved, there are lots of diseases that we don’t know how to fix.
(Pause)
However, Hunger and Obesity are solvable problems!!(applause)
What we need is a food policy that makes a change in stead of spending lots of money on military, (pause)
A policy that is ‘Fast, Fresh and Free!!(applause) “

The main purpose of the food policy is to expand affordable green market in lower income community.
[Why important?] ・Economy: Food policy will bring more job markets
・Education: It helps some sick children who cannot go to school because of malnutrition.
・Human rights: It supports and empower low income families

[Some challenges] ・Evaluation: Multiple data source needed because it’s hard to see the change in behaviors
・No model: there is no one-size-fit-all approach

[3 important factors] 1. Access to good and affordable foods
2. Relevancy for sustainability (motivation and effort among both consumers and suppliers)
3. Skills (knowing how to bring foods to the table)

It sounds familiar, right? (This is indeed true of education, too. )
The lesson that I learned was as fallows:

We tend to care about outside (appearance), not what’s going on inside of our body. If we don’t take care of ourselves, nobody else will do it. we have to change what we are doing (make an effort) to make a change

It’s been 3 weeks since I started taking juice(veg and fruits). Although I lost 4 kg, I stay energetic. Let’s see what kind of change I can make.

Surprisingly, when I looked around in the event, there were less than 10% of male audiences (1 man per more than 10 women).
Do men care less about nutrition than women?

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