Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Tomorrow! The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, & Health
At 9:09 on Sunday night, I received a rather lat-minute invitation to this conference. I think it’s worth going to, and will.
Whatever it turns out to be, this will be an historic occasion.
Almost everything public about it is on the conference website.
Here’s what it says will happen:
On Wednesday, September 28, the Biden-Harris Administration will host the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The Administration will also release a National Strategy with actions the federal government will take to drive solutions to these challenges.
As it happens, the White House released The Biden-Harris Administration National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health yesterday. I will say more about this tomorrow, but here’s a summary of Pillar 1:
Improving food access and affordability, including by advancing economic security; increasing access to free and nourishing school meals; providing Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) benefits to more children; and expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility to more underserved populations.
The opening speakers have been announced:
- President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
- Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff
- Ambassador Susan E. Rice, White House Domestic Policy Advisor
- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
- Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra
- Chef José Andrés
It can be watched online:
It will be interesting to see what the National Strategy might be, and what emerges from the conference.
In the meantime, to inform the conference:
- Feeding America has just published a report on the results of the pre-conference listening sessions, “Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together: Community-Driven Solutions to Address America’s Hunger Crisis.”
- The Meridian Institute, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Bread for the World, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Farm, Food, Environment Policy Consulting, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) have produced a memo: A Food Systems Approach to Nutrition.
- Bill Frist writes: It’s Time To Prioritize Nutrition: Better Diet Quality [in SNAP] Leads To Better Health And Wellbeing For Americans
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Coming soon! My memoir, October 4.
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