Food Tank’s 13 Resolutions to Change the Food System in 2013

As we start the new year, approximately 180 million Americans have made a New Year’s resolution [1-3]. Two of the top five resolutions for 2013 focus on food, specifically weight loss (#1) and healthier eating (#5).

Ellen Gustafson and Danielle Nierenberg, co-founders of the food think tank Food Tank that launches on January 10th, have also been thinking about resolutions for the year ahead. They think eaters, farmers and policy-makers need new, bigger resolutions to fix the food system — real changes with long-term impacts on plates and in fields and boardrooms all over the world — and offer 13 resolutions to change the food system in 2013.

Food Tank

Interview: Andre Blackman, FastForward Health Film Festival

FastForward Health is an evening film festival highlighting those people innovating and developing new ideas to improve public and community health around the world.

FastForward Health
Andre Blackman

Founded by Andre Blackman (@MindofAndre) and David Haddad (@haddadda), FastForward Health launched on November 1st, 2011. As we near the end of year one, we sat down with co-founder Andre Blackman to talk about the project and where it’s headed.

Andre Blackman is Founder and Managing Editor of Pulse + Signal, a website that features highlights and commentary on the impact/usefulness of technology in the public health landscape. He is the former Director of Digital for the American Heart Association, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate. Andre is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media (over the years, we’ve interviewed two other board members: Phil Baumann and Bertalan Mesko).

Washington State Pertussis Epidemic Highlights Importance of Vaccination

In early April, the Washington State Department of Health declared a pertussis (whooping cough) epidemic. The state has seen over 1,200 cases so far this year, and officials suspect there will be at least another few thousand cases before year’s end; levels that haven’t been seen in over 60 years. In response to the declared epidemic, the state has been working to make vaccines more accessible to uninsured patients. Additional response measures have included urging employers to encourage employee vaccination and instructing hospitals to vaccinate new parents.

Pertussis

National Public Health Week: A Healthier America Begins Today

This week is National Public Health Week (NPHW). The annual observance brings U.S. communities together to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving the public’s health. The theme for National Public Health Week (NPHW) 2012 — A Healthier America Begins Today: Join the Movement — addresses the issue of prevention and wellness.

National Public Health Week

NIH Launches Online Resource on Behavioral and Social Science Research Methods

A Web-based interactive anthology will provide psychologists, economists, anthropologists, sociologists and other scientists with the latest research methods and tools to address emerging challenges in public health, such as the obesity epidemic and the rise of chronic diseases such as heart disease. The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health collaborated with New England Research Institutes to create the free resource, called e-Source.

OBSSR e-Source