On Tuesday, the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research held a hearing examining the role good nutrition plays in preventing medical issues and how access to fresh food can impact health.
“I think here what we ought to strive for is how we narrow this into something that focuses purely on what’s got to be one of the most important things in our society,” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said at the hearing. “How do you eat well to avoid the healthcare system in the first place? How do you take care of yourself, so that you prevent it before you get there and have to spend a fortune on getting remediated.”
The senators heard from five different experts who specialized in either health or agriculture. One such expert was Martin Richards, the executive director of Community Farm Alliance, a Kentucky-based agriculture and nutrition organization.
“Building strong local food infrastructure is critical for communities to create food system consistency in the face of adversity,” Richards said at the hearing.
According to a report by Feeding America, the state ranks in the top ten nationally for rates of highest overall food insecurity. Further, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 5.6% of adults in Kentucky meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables.
“As a former farmer, this is unacceptable,” Richards said. “Kentucky is a proud farm state with over 74,000 family farms. Sixth most of any state in the country and we should be able to feed our neighbors.”
Richards highlighted some of the challenges that Kentucky faces when it comes to finding proper nutrition.
“The No. 1 reason people are food insecure or nutrition insecure is poverty,” Richards said. “Kentucky has a high rate of poverty.”
He also spoke about the initiatives enacted in the state, which include two specific programs designed by his organization to increase access.
“Kentucky ‘Double Dollars’ is a statewide program that allows folks to use their statewide nutrition benefits such as SNAP at farmers markets,” Richards said. “Another program is fresh ‘RX’ for moms, so that’s a fruit and vegetable program for mothers on Medicaid, so the whole point of that is healthy mom, healthy baby, healthy start on life.”
In September, the Biden administration hosted the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in 50 years. Richards called on lawmakers to take action to enact the goals set at the summit in the next Farm Bill – a package of agricultre-related legislation reauthorized every five years.
“Now it’s time to enact that stuff … or try to put those recommendations into effect. And the farm bill is one of the big ways of doing that,” Richards told Spectrum News.
The current Farm Bill, signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, is set to expire in 2023.
