Incidents of noncommunicable disease and chronic illness are rising globally, not only in the developed world.
Diabetes is increasingly common in parts of Asia and even in some countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy is up, but so are cancer rates. Medical professionals are racing to keep up with new medicines and treatments, but it isn’t enough.
A quiet, subtle health revolution is now gradually picking up speed and hoping to turn the tide.
Many doctors, public health officials, and scientists are coming to better understand that true health starts at the farm and with the foods we eat. This includes the smallholder farms that grow the bulk of the crops sustaining developing countries. Armed with evidence, these new health acolytes are saying that smart investments in agriculture are also smart investments in public health, and their voices are growing louder.
Some call it the “food is medicine” movement. However it’s described, experts are increasingly in agreement that investments in better agriculture and better food systems would transform the health of billions of people, dramatically lowering healthcare costs and improving human well-being in the process.
Healthy farming = healthy people
For decades, investing in agriculture meant investing in ways to help farmers grow more food. The focus has long been on quantity over quality. This emphasis is still warranted in many contexts, especially in terms of assisting smallholder farmers.
Grow Further is investing in research to boost smallholder farmers’ yields because we know this will improve farm incomes, boost the availability of food, and help keep food costs lower. Better incomes and lower food costs will help farmers and consumers alike eat more food and consume a greater variety of foods, improving health outcomes in the process. But food quantity can’t be the only consideration, especially when we need to focus on improving health and nutrition outcomes. Food quality matters just as much, and sometimes more.
For example, some argue that public health may be better served by encouraging more organic farming practices and expanding the availability of foods free of pesticides and other chemicals.
As one study in Agronomy puts it, “eating organic food, especially fruits and vegetables, can largely eliminate the risks posed by pesticide dietary exposure.” The authors recommend authorities promote wider use of organic agricultural practices to improve public health. The options they recommend include using beneficial insects to keep pests under control, cover cropping, crop rotations, and growing “green manures” among other ways to avoid exposing crops to large volumes of herbicides and pesticides.
That’s just one team’s opinion. The jury is still out on whether organic foods are truly healthier for people compared to conventionally produced grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, organic farming practices reduce certain environmental impacts and in the long run may lead to healthier soils and populations.
Disease from poor diets
Growing and encouraging the consumption of more nutritious foods could also reduce instances of non-communicable diseases like heart disease, some types of cancers, and diabetes. These diseases and chronic illnesses are often tied to poor diets, overnutrition, and obesity in the developed world. Though less common, these diseases are rising in the developing world, as well.
“Globally, nearly one in three people have at least one form of malnutrition,” researchers said in the journal BMJ, “and this will reach one in two by 2025 based on current trends.” They see rising risks of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases at both ends of the food security spectrum. Too little food and an overreliance on a limited variety of foods can cause children to become underweight and stunted. Consuming too much food and mostly nutritionally poor foods leads to illnesses associated with being overweight.
There are clear links between undernutrition, unhealthy diets, and non-communicable diseases, and the rise of NCDs is a consequence of how the world has been pursuing agriculture, the BMJ researchers insist.
“A focus on efficiency has seen an increase in the availability of inexpensive, high-calorie foods, often from staple cereal crops, which has reduced hunger for many,” they explain. “This has, however, often been at the expense of diversity and has displaced local, often healthier, diets.” Reversing the damage, they say, could mean encouraging farmers to turn to growing more fruits, vegetables, and nuts while encouraging consumers to eat a greater variety of these foods. In some countries, it may also mean encouraging households to rely more on the culturally traditional diets that have kept communities healthy for thousands of years.
There are other ways to promote better nutrition.
For example, biofortification seeks to take commonly grown staples and make them more nutritious by cultivating varieties that are richer in essential vitamins and minerals. That’s why Grow Further is sponsoring a project in Zimbabwe that aims to introduce to smallholder farmers improved biofortified pearl millet rich in iron to combat iron deficiency.
Food is medicine
Eating healthy food is a critical part of maintaining a healthy body. For too long, doctors have overlooked this important piece of the total health puzzle. They’ve rightly looked at unhealthy habits like smoking and excess drinking, family health histories, and environmental risk factors. Increasingly, doctors are not only asking patients whether they smoke, drink alcohol, or regularly exercise, but they’re also asking their patients what they are eating.
Some want to go further and see doctors prescribing healthier groceries and meal plans just as they would prescribe medications.
Researchers at Tufts University put together a comprehensive report on the Food is Medicine (FIM) movement. Proponents argue that FIM holds huge promise, potentially eliminating wasteful, excessive health care spending while helping turn the corner on the world’s declining health for FIM interventions, defined as “food-based nutritional interventions that aim to treat or prevent disease.”
Tufts concludes that FIM approaches work wonders “by placing a stronger emphasis on providing nourishing food as a specific intervention for treating and preventing diet-related chronic disease.”
One could argue that the FIM movement must start on the farm. By investing in the healthier farming of healthier foods, we can reduce people’s exposure to chemicals and simultaneously fight malnutrition through the consumption of a wider variety of nutritious foods.
Investments in smallholder farm innovations are investments in better food security. Likewise, investments in sustainable, more environmentally friendly farming practices and in the cultivation of healthier, more nutritious foods are investments in the long-term improvement of everyone’s health. Doctors, consult with your farmers today.
— Grow Further
Photo credit: Healthy produce sold at a farmers market. United States Department of Agriculture (public domain).