Good food focus of submissions
Health advocates are asking for Nelson to become a Good Food City.
Nelson Marlborough Health (NMH) public health advocate Robert Beaglehole and health promotion manager Lauren Ensor submitted to the city council’s annual plan asking councillors to sign a ‘‘Good Food City’’ declaration.
The declaration is based on a report from EAT-Lancet researching how to sustainably and healthily feed a world population of 10 billion by the year 2050.
The guidelines produced in the report, called a Planetary Health Diet, are meant to decrease carbon emissions while maintaining or increasing global human health, and includes a shift towards more plant-based foods and more sustainable farming methods.
Ensor said the district health board was hopeful that the Nelson City Council would consider signing the declaration and working in partnership with the DHB on food resilience.
‘‘It’s more pressing than ever given the environment we find ourselves in post the Covid-19 shock ... it’s really important that food resilience is at the forefront, given the food insecurity that has really been exposed during this time.’’
Beaglehole said the DHB was ‘‘keen’’ on the declaration because ‘‘poor nutrition is actually the leading cause of death and disability in New Zealand, whether that’s obesity, heart disease, diabetes, strokes’’. He said it also increased equity, which he said the DHB and Ministry of Health held as a ‘‘main focus’’.
The declaration came with a series of goals to work towards by 2030, including improving food security and resilience, supporting increases in ‘‘healthy plantbased food’’, and reducing food loss and waste by 50 per cent from 2015 figures.
When asked by councillor Gaile Noonan if the DHB would ‘‘have a budget’’ as the council was ‘‘going to be limited’’.
Beaglehole did not say specifically if the DHB would be able to fund any progress towards the declaration but said ‘‘the DHB does have a budget to promote health’’ and said the DHB-city council partnership on smoke-free city streets was a good model.
Nelson GP Dr Taisia Cech also submitted, asking the council to become a Good Food City, saying it was ‘‘exciting to imagine what Nelson could look like’’ under the scheme. ‘‘A big part of being a Good Food City is looking at our food systems and how we’re producing food, what foods we’re eating, and how we’re letting our food [go to] waste.
‘‘Every day when I’m working I see young patients and old patients who could improve their health through nutrition ... Diet is the leading factor, above tobacco and alcohol, for health loss in New Zealand. We know that the agriculture sector produces the biggest emissions for New Zealand, about 48 per cent, so diet is the biggest factor for our environment as well.’’
She said the declaration didn’t need to be ‘‘all or nothing’’, but a slow shift towards a more sustainable and healthy food system.
Eleven health professionals and scientists, from dentists to family doctors, put their names to a submission on the Good Food City declaration.