Food for thought

One idea from this week’s readings that deserves reflection is “the productivity imperative”, one of the five crucibles that were discussed in the article “What happens next?”. The authors made a number of suggestions for boosting our productivity, but there is one suggestion that I feel should be added to the conversation – improving the overall health of our population by ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, healthy food and understands how their diet impacts their health.

Hunger and diet-related disease decrease people’s physical and cognitive abilities. Hunger remains a key problem in the US, and one that disproportionately affects poor and minority populations. Just today, the USDA released the results of a 2010 study on household food security. The study found that in 2010, 14.5% of US households were food insecure (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Features/HouseholdFoodSecurity2010). In children, poor nutrition can have long-term impacts on their growth and brain development, affecting their productivity as adults. Poor nutrition also negatively affects the productivity of adults in workforces all around the world, as talked about in a 2005 ILO report (http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_005175/lang--en/index.htm). Diet-related disease has an enormous impact on the productivity of our workforce (no pun intended). According to the CDC, about 34% of adults and 17% of children in the US are obese. Diet-related diseases are among the leading causes of death in our country. There are countless ways that diet and nutrition affect the health of our citizens and their ability to be productive members of society. This issue should be an important part of the “productivity imperative” conversation.