Schettler is an advisor for health and climate organizations, and a former emergency physician. Sirois is the director of an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working to reduce the environmental footprint of healthcare.
While the media has been hyper-focused on how to address the recent avian influenza A (H5N1) outbreak in cattle, the situation also speaks to a larger story about industrialized food systems that prioritize production efficiency over animal, worker, and community health. This issue, and how to change the paradigm before it causes a crisis, has not received enough attention.
The primary problem is twofold: the heightened risk of infectious diseases and the climate impact. Firstly, the concentration of animals in large feeding operations increases the risk of infectious viruses, which can spread to other animals and humans. Farm workers are at particular risk of avian influenza because of their close contact with farm animals. While H5N1 has yet to spread to humans on a large scale during the current outbreak, the threat remains.
And secondly, animal agriculture is responsible for more than 16.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions; when outbreaks like H5N1 occur, many animals are culled whether infected or healthy, wasting resources and generating unnecessary emissions.
This should matter not only to the CDC and other government entities working to conduct research and ensure public safety around this emerging issue, but also to the healthcare sector. Healthcare systems can play an essential role in changing our food system to prevent these outbreaks in the future.
How so? Through the food that hospital cafeterias serve their patients, staff, and visitors.
It’s time for a big shift in hospital food purchasing standards.
Local Partnerships for Prevention
Many hospitals across the country are already purchasing from and supporting farmers who follow high animal welfare standards that inherently reduce the incidence and spread of disease. These same farms typically have workforce standards that provide for fair, healthy, and safe working conditions.
For example, the University of California Davis Medical Center sources almost half of its ingredients from farms and ranches within a 250-mile radius of the Sacramento Valley, and is committed to buying grass-fed meat from local ranchers. The University of Vermont Medical Center has been supporting its local farm and food system by partnering for nearly a decade with a local pasture-raised poultry farm — with a commitment to “whole chicken” practices to reduce food waste.
More than 120 U.S. hospitals have signed the Coolfood Pledge: a global, cross-sector initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food purchasing 25% by 2030. They are focusing on reducing purchases of animal products — often their largest food budget item — to make way for purchasing products with higher animal and worker welfare practices.
We’re encouraged by the hospitals that have made this shift to local, high-quality farms, but many have yet to do so. Every health system should make this change.
Hope for the Best, Prepare to Respond
While we are unsure at this point if the H5N1 outbreak poses a threat to public health on a large scale, hospitals and health systems should always be prepared.
Memories of how the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed our healthcare system are still fresh for hospitals and health systems, offering lessons for future crises. Supply chains were stretched and broken, staff overwhelmed and overworked. During the pandemic, hospitals found opportunities to shorten supply chains, build stronger regional food systems, and bolster their role as anchor institutions in the community.
New London Hospital in New Hampshire and Northern Light Blue Hill Hospital in Maine opened pop-up grocery stores for staff to provide reliable access to basic food and paper products, alleviating stress and anxiety caused by fractures in the local supply chain. Sutter Health in California began a pilot during the pandemic, donating over 65,000 pounds of food to more than 20 regional nonprofits to address growing food insecurity.
All health systems should have contingency plans in place for future crises.
Taking Steps to Protect the Planet
While hospitals across the country are innovating to create a more resilient, equitable, and climate-friendly food system through their purchasing, we’ve also seen healthcare organizations advocating for climate-friendly policies. Healthcare leaders have joined forces with other institutional sectors and advocacy groups to call for a federal strategy to leverage purchasing to create a just, healthy, resilient, and sustainable food system through the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition.
In the face of potential health threats, the healthcare sector must prioritize prevention over emergency response to reinforce its healing mission. By leveraging the sector’s immense purchasing power, expertise, and trusted voice, we can transform markets and influence decision-makers. Health professionals must be at the forefront of this advocacy and continue to seek solutions that safeguard the health of the communities they serve.
Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, is a science advisor for Health Care Without Harm, an international NGO working to reduce the environmental footprint of healthcare worldwide. He also serves as science director of the Science and Environmental Health Network. Schettler previously practiced emergency medicine, and has served on advisory committees of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Academy of Sciences.
Emma Sirois, MUEP, is national director of the healthy food in healthcare program at Health Care Without Harm.
Disclosures
Health Care Without Harm has partnered with several of the organizations and institutions mentioned in the piece.
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