We all know fresh fruits and vegetables are good for our health – but did you know that the soil and surrounding environment the crops grow in also matters to our health and well-being?
The Administration’s new Make American Healthy Again report highlights how surrounding environmental factors, including chemical exposure, can impact our health. Regardless of what side of the aisle we sit on, the health of our fellow citizens, both adults and children, is a concern we all share.
This new report opens the opportunity to address the issue head on by advancing nature’s first defense against disease: our food. Or more specifically, how our food is grown. When produced in harmony with nature, our food has the potential to benefit human health, while improving the lands, waters and wildlife we all depend on.
American farmers—the men, women and families who grow our food, contribute to our economy and steward our agricultural lands—have a crucial role to play in making America healthy.
But for our farmers to adopt new practices, we have to provide them with the incentives and the support to make these changes affordable and accessible. At the Nature Conservancy, this is something we’ve put into action.
We know the wide-scale adoption of conservation management practices can help reverse the upward trend of chronic disease suffered by an estimated 129 million Americans. When farmers have the opportunity and resources needed to use practices like precision fertilizer management, cover crops and buffer strips at the edges of their fields, they can keep fertilizers and other agricultural inputs on the fields and out of the air and water we all share.
Data show certain farming practices can have serious unintended health consequences. Scientists have documented that unintentional exposure to excess fertilizers and animal waste byproducts is a public health problem impacting both rural and urban communities, with evidence pointing to increased risk of cancer, thyroid disease, respiratory illness and prenatal conditions in developing children. As a doctor, I know how devastating these illnesses can be for patients and their families. Farmers take these risks seriously, but, unfortunately, current policies and programs are not creating enough demand for farming practices that could support better health outcomes, and too many farmers lack the necessary funding and resources to adopt management practices that can help.
Research also recognizes that well-managed farm fields can reduce the runoff of nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals into our waterways. Cover crops, reduced tillage, effective manure management, and optimizing when, where and how much fertilizer is applied to the fields all reduce excess chemicals in water and air.
At the edges of fields, practices like vegetated buffers, constructed wetlands and prairie strips can capture fertilizer and crop treatment byproducts from leaving fields and keep them from entering waterways. Capturing excess nutrient runoff from crop fields is good for both public health and the environment. Riparian buffers are something my wife Tracy and I have put in place on our own farm in Sinking Creek, Virginia, which has notably impacted the water quality in the surrounding creeks and streams.
Water and air quality are not the only ways farmers contribute to improving health. Food safety is an important issue for all Americans. Some of the pathogens that harm consumers come from the farm. Contamination on leafy greens, for instance, costs $5 billion every year in the U.S. Some food safety regulations have encouraged farmers to remove vegetation around fields and to kill wildlife that could be potential pathogen vectors. Yet science shows the opposite: native vegetation and diverse wildlife can be protective against pathogen transmission, while also supporting native pollinators that benefit crop yields and native pest control measures that can reduce need for pesticide use. While livestock and wildlife need careful management around farm fields, farming practices can benefit both food safety and the environment.
Farmers are increasingly adopting conservation farming practices due to their health benefits, positive environmental impact, improved soil fertility, and lower costs. Federal and state programs have further supported this shift, leading to the implementation of these practices across millions of acres in the Mississippi River Basin and Chesapeake Bay regions—resulting in measurable improvements in water quality.
In my home state of Tennessee, for example, the Agricultural Resources Conservation Fund provides cost share for management practices that help recover our impaired waters. Federal programs play a vital role as well—during my time in the U.S. Senate, we were able to expand access to on-farm conservation practices nationwide through new programs that reduced costs for producers and helped farmers and ranchers establish sustainable grazing operations.
Despite the impact of these federal and state programs, we still need greater adoption to see progress in human and environmental health. Many farmers still need better access to funding, technical assistance, equipment and other resources to implement these practices on their farms. Voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs authorized by the U.S. Farm Bill are popular among American farmers. Unfortunately, applications for these programs still far exceed available funding.
How can we turn the tide and accelerate and expand the use of these practices on the nation’s working lands? The Make America Healthy Again Commission has an opportunity to embrace several effective tactics in its upcoming strategy document due out this summer.
One example they could undertake is to expand state programs and federal cost-sharing programs that encourage adoption in ways that are flexible to farmers’ needs. Farmers would also benefit from new policies that incentivize adoption of conservation management strategies, while safeguarding against financial risk. These policies could include reducing crop insurance premiums for farmers who implement nutrient management plans, buffer strips, and other important practices. Another example would be to offer tailored lending rates to producers who are interested in purchasing precision agriculture equipment that would optimize their fertilizer use. Additionally, the Commission could suggest introducing a government procurement preference for crops grown using conservation farming practices. All these policies would make it easier and more economical for farmers to adopt these approaches.
Nature-based agriculture practices are proven, science-based strategies that benefit both human health and the health of the land, water and air. But there is still much to do. We, as a nation at both the federal and state levels, need to support farmers as they strive to keep America’s farms and people healthy, now and far into the future.