The document discusses the alarming rates of diet-related illnesses in America, costing $72 billion annually, primarily due to insufficient fruit and vegetable intake. It advocates for a shift in farm bill spending from commodity crops to fruit and vegetable purchasing programs to promote healthier eating, particularly in school lunch programs. The farm bill will significantly influence the nation's health over the next five years, underscoring the need for urgent reform in agricultural policy.

1. a clean FARM
BILL of health

2. America is not eating well.
And we’re all paying for it.

3. Each year, diet-related sicknesses cost
$72 billion.
Half of this due to people not eating
enough fruits and vegetables.
cancer
heart disease
diabetes
stroke

4. Our government suggests we eat healthy, balanced meals.

5. But farm bill
spending doesn’t
reflect these
recommendations.

6. $33.1 billion
spent on
commodity crops
corn
soybeans
cotton
rice
wheat

7. $4.3 billion
spent on
specialty crops
fruits
nuts
vegetables

8. Shifting 10% of
commodity subsidies
into fruit & vegetable
purchasing programs

9. Shifting 10% of
commodity subsidies
into fruit & vegetable
purchasing programs
would pay for
doubling fruits &
veggies in US school
food programs.
And meet proposed new
USDA school lunch
guidelines.

10. This farm bill will
shape our nation’s health
for the next 5 years.

11. Let’s get the farm bill
in shape – now.
Support local, sustainable
fruit & vegetable farmers.

12. For info on how you can help out:
Environmental Working Group
Food & Water Watch
Food + Tech Connect
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Sustainable Table

13. RESOURCES
The $33 billion & $4.1 billion we mentioned were spent from 2008-2010.
Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Adolescents and Adults in the United States: Percentage Meeting
Individualized Recommendations: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654704
Produce for Better Health Foundation, The Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
Challenge:http://www.pbhfoundation.org/pdfs/about/res/pbh_res/2010gapanalysis.pdf
EWG farm subsidy database and unpublished EWG research on fruit, nut and vegetable spending.
“Healthy School Lunch: Pay Now, Save Later”:http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2011/01/healthy-school-
food-pay-now-save-later
For more info, contact
Kari Hamerschlag (kari@ewg.org)
Rebecca Klein (rklein@jhsph.edu)
clean BILL of health is a product of the Farm Bill Hackathon and is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at farmbillhack.wikispaces.com on Dec. 4, 2011; created in a collaboration by Jamie Leo,
Trey Shelton, Peter Krohmer, Illya Bomash, and Henry Lau, with the onsite support from Rebecca Klein of Johns
Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Kari Hamerschlag of Environmental Working Group.
Additional support from GRACE Communications Foundation.