Exploring the True Costs of Food
April 23 and 24, 2012
The Pew Charitable Trusts
901 E Street, NW
Americas Room, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20004
Meeting Goals
- Discuss the environmental and public health effects and trade-offs of the practices that occur at all life cycle stages (e.g., production, processing, packaging, distribution, preparation, and consumption) for all foods in the U.S. food system.
- Identify the types of information sources and methodologies required to recognize and estimate the costs and benefits of environmental and public health consequences associated with the U.S. food system.
- Discuss potential issues and challenges to estimating/quantifying the hidden costs of the U.S. food system.
- Consider the kind of research strategy and feasibility of conducting a full-scale accounting of the environmental and public health effects for all food products of the U.S. food system.
DAY 1: April 23, 2012
8:00 a.m. | Registration |
8:30 | Welcoming Remarks Helen Jensen, Workshop Planning Committee Chair Iowa State University |
8:35 | Sponsor Remarks Anne Haddix, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
8:50 | KEYNOTE |
The Economics of Food Prices and Considerations for Valuing Food Katherine (Kitty) Smith, American Farmland Trust |
|
9:15 | Q&A |
Session 1 – Understanding Measures and Strategies for Estimating the Costs of Food |
|
9:30 | Life Cycle Assessment Martin Heller, University of Michigan |
10:00 | Health Impact Assessment Jonathan Fielding, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (via phone) |
10:30 | Break |
10:45 | Environmental Consequences John Antle, Oregon State University |
11:15 | Public Health Consequences James Hammitt, Harvard University |
11:45 | Discussion |
12:15 p.m. | Lunch |
Session 2 – Identifying External Effects |
|
1:15 | Working Group Introductions Helen Jensen |
1:30 |
Working Groups (two rotations: 1:30-3:00 and 3:00-4:30) • Energy and greenhouse gas emissions |
• Soil, water, and other environmental consequences • Consequences of antimicrobial use in agriculture • Other public health consequences |
|
4:30 | Reflections and Reactions All Participants |
5:00 | Adjourn |
DAY 2: April 24, 2012
8:00 a.m. | Registration |
8:30 | Welcoming Remarks Helen Jensen, Planning Committee Chair |
8:45 | Reports from Working Groups |
9:45 | Panel on the Social and Ecological Dimensions of the Food Supply Ecological services: Scott Swinton, Michigan State University Health inequalities: Steven Wing, University of North Carolina Accessibility to food: Ricardo Salvador, Union of Concerned Scientists Animal welfare: Jayson Lusk, Oklahoma State University |
Session 3 – Quantification Methods |
|
11:00 | Lessons from The Hidden Costs of Energy Report James Hammitt, Harvard University |
11:30 | Valuing Agricultural Externalities and Public Health Impacts Anna Alberini, University of Maryland |
12:00 p.m. | Concluding Thoughts and Discussion of Next Steps Helen Jensen |
12:15 | Adjourn |
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