Introduction to the US Food System : Public Health, Environment, and Equity

 Content: Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; List of Figures and Tables; Introduction; Acknowledgments; About the Editor; Author Affiliations; About the Center for a Livable Future; Chapter 1 Food Systems; The Food System as a System; Focus 1.1. Complex Adaptive Systems; Focus 1.2. Food in the Food System; Public Health; The US Food System: An Overview; Perspective 1.1. When Your Boat Rocks, You Want Resilience Not Efficiency; Focus 1.3. Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System; Part 1 Outcomes; Chapter 2 Food System Public Health Effects; Dietary Health Perspective 2.1. Gut Bacteria, Diets and InflammationOccupational and Environmental Health; Focus 2.1. Pesticides and Children''s Health; Focus 2.2. Food System Workers at Risk; Food Safety; Focus 2.3. Bisphenol-A: A Ubiquitous Food System Contaminant; Chapter 3 Ecological Threats to and from Food Systems; Status of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services Essential to Food Systems; Focus 3.1. Assessing Ecological Integrity of Food Systems; Focus 3.2. Farmland Protection; Focus 3.3. Virtual Water and Food Systems; Processes Through Which Ecological Health is Threatened Moving Toward More Environmentally Sustainable PracticesPerspective 3.1. A Farmer''s Thoughts on Defining Sustainable Farming; Perspective 3.2. Consumer Perceptions of Environmentally Sustainable Foods; Chapter 4 The Food System and Health Inequities; Health Inequities and Food Systems in the United States; Perspective 4.1. Foodies on a Mission; Elaborating the Pathways; Perspective 4.2. Realizing Justice in Local Food Systems; Perspective 4.3. The People Who Touch Your Food; Perspective 4.4. Contract Chicken Farming Perspective 4.5. Food, Equity, and Health: Making the Connections in Public Health PracticeChapter 5 Public Health Implications of Household Food Insecurity; Definition, Distribution, and Determinants of Food Insecurity; Perspective 5.1. Witnesses to Hunger: Participation by Those Who Know Poverty and Hunger Firsthand; Nutrition Assistance Programs; Perspective 5.2. The Wrong Path Forward: Restricting Food Choices in SNAP; Perspective 5.3. A Defense of Excluding Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value from SNAP; Perspective 5.4. The Public Health Case for Universal Free School Meals Focus 5.1. What Do People Do When They Are Worried about Feeding Their Families?Broader Perspectives; Chapter 6 Community Food Security; History and Evolution of CFS; Focus 6.1. Food Hubs: Supporting Healthy Farms, Healthy People, Healthy Economy; Measuring Community Food Security; CFS Policies at Multiple Levels; How Does CFS Change Happen?; Focus 6.2. Case Study: Iowa Food Systems Council, a Second-Generation Food Policy Council; CFS and Public Health; Challenges for the CFS Field; Perspective 6.1. The City That Ended Hunger; Part 2 Drivers of the Food System
 Abstract:             A public health approach to the US food system Introduction to the US Food System: Public Health, Environment, and Equity is a comprehensive and engaging textbook that offers students an overview of today''s US food system, with particular focus on the food system''s interrelationships with public health, the environment, equity, and society. Using a classroom-friendly approach, the text covers the core content of the food system and provides evidence-based perspectives reflecting the tremendous breadth of issues and ideas important to understanding today''s US food system. The book is rich wi