Register for the Speaker Series Here

What do farmers and health care practitioners have to learn from each other? How can we broaden the food as medicine conversation to include the impact of how and where food is grown? How can our agricultural and medical communities collaborate for better human health? And how can we work towards better health and simultaneously address equity, access, and justice in our communities?

These are the questions that we’re asking with our 2022 Regional Food for Health Speaker Series, beginning January 6th. Exploring the complex and dynamic intersection of agriculture and human health, this series aims to shed light on the actions we can take as health care practitioners, farmers and citizens to transform systems for better health.

The three talks in this Speaker Series will include a stellar group of physicians, farmers, activists, practice managers, research scientists, and chefs. These practitioners and leaders will shed light on how our health benefits from a closer connection to farms, and ways that the medical and agricultural communities can collaborate for better health, equity, and justice. In a world that has become increasingly specialized and siloed, we don’t often create these opportunities to examine the connections between seemingly disparate systems and areas of expertise. But in uncovering these connections, we can illuminate pathways to deeper positive impact.

By bringing this interdisciplinary group together, we know that new and unexpected interconnections will come to light, but here are a few that we are seeing now:

• At their best, farming and medicine share a common goal–to support human health and allow people to thrive.
• Scale matters and relationships matter, both in food systems and health care systems.
• Soil health is the foundation to all farming systems. What’s more,our personal connection to the soil, and the quality of that soil, greatly impacts our health.
• The injustices and exploitation embedded in our modern agriculture and health care systems are deep wounds that go all the way back to colonization, and healing them will require a reexamining of our cultural values.
• Not only are there parallels between the food and healthcare systems, they are deeply entwined. Transforming agriculture to more regenerative, equitable systems has the power to transform human health as well.

We can’t wait to see what else will emerge. Our hope is that this series will spark new conversations, inspire action, and contribute to a movement aimed at transforming the interdependent web of healthcare and agriculture.

The speaker series begins January 6, so register now to hold your place. The first 100 registrants will also receive a free copy of Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel. You can learn more about each event and register for the series here, and you can read more about each speaker here. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Michelle Lynn Hughes at mhughes@glynwood.org.