Exploring Health and Environmental Costs of Food Workshop Summary (2012) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Understanding Measures and Strategies
3 Understanding Measures and Strategies
Pages 13-34
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 13... ...
is used to evaluate the health impacts of a policy, plan, program, or project. He emphasized that there is no single HIA approach, rather a range of approaches, and he provided some examples.
|
From page 14... ...
History of LCA Heller described the current state of LCA methodology as being in a "mid- to late adolescent stage." The first LCA studies were conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the impacts of different beverage containers, initially for Coca-Cola and later for the U.S. Environmental 1 This section summarizes the presentation of Marty Heller.
|
From page 15... ...
Another early series of LCA studies was conducted on the impacts of cloth versus disposable diapers, again yielding mixed results. According to Heller, the mixed results from these early studies were partly a reflection of the variable methodologies being used.
|
From page 16... ...
That is, the goal is not to examine absolute impacts, rather impacts relative to some defined unit. The functional unit not only helps to define how flows across a life cycle relate to each other, but it also allows for apple-to-apple comparisons across different systems that produce the same function.
|
From page 17... ...
, uses economic input and output data, usually country-level economic data, and involves examining economic flow between sectors and then connecting those flows with environmental impacts. So rather than looking at a particular type of meat, for example, IO-LCA looks at all meat products.
|
From page 18... ...
" Impact Assessment The third and final stage of an LCA, impact assessment, involves interpreting the environmental significance of the examined material and energy flows. Commonly assessed impacts include energy use, global warming potential, eutrophication, acidification, and tropospheric ozone.
|
From page 19... ...
According to Heller, while linking LCA results to additional endpoints adds more levels of uncertainty, a number of methodologies are available for making those links. However, the methodology is not without its challenges.
|
From page 20... ...
They are ecosystems -- and ecosystems typically have distinct carry ing capacities, or the maximum load that can beof Food indefinitely by R02326-True Cost supported the environment without uneditable bitmapped that carrying capacity deterioration; exceeding image can have dire consequences, regardless of whether the system is able to produce more for less impact. HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT2 HIA is not a single method, but rather a systematic process that uses a wide array of data sources, analytical methods, and stakeholder input to determine the potential effects of a proposed policy, plan, program, or project on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within the population.
|
From page 21... ...
Fielding observed that many policy decisions in non-health sectors impact public health. For example, agricultural subsidy policy can impact the availability of nutritious foods, mass transportation policy can impact opportunities for walking and bicycling, and environmental policy can impact the availability of clean air.
|
From page 22... ...
Although the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires an analysis of health effects of proposed actions,3 Fielding said the requirement was not enforced. Had it been enforced, HIA as a key set of approaches to considering health effects would have probably come into use much earlier.
|
From page 23... ...
Since then, more recent data have become available that show a negative effect given current production technology. As an example of a local policy-oriented HIA, Fielding described an LA County HIA of a county government food procurement policy on sodium reduction (Gase et al., 2011)
|
From page 24... ...
Thus, the HIA investigators concluded that food procurement policy could have a positive health impact in LA County. Opportunities and Challenges for Using HIA in a Study on the Cost of Food In conclusion, Fielding emphasized that HIA is only one of many tools that can be used to inform and improve health policies.
|
From page 25... ...
Antle shared some thoughts about the challenges of valuing social costs and benefits and discussed the opportunities and challenges of a multidimensional impact assessment modeling approach that he and colleagues have been using to quantify environmental externalities, one that considers not just environmental but also economic and social outcomes. The Challenge of Valuing Social Costs and Benefits Traditional agricultural policy is focused on farmer income.
|
From page 26... ...
He suggested focusing on a small number of key indicators, being careful not to leave out any important ones, and understanding those indicators well enough that their estimated values can actually have a policy impact. Multidimensional Impact Assessment Multidimensional impact assessment is a modeling methodology that takes into account economic, environmental, and social impacts -- what Antle referred to as the "three pillars of sustainability." The approach involves quantifying key indicators and their relationships, with a focus on trade-offs and synergies.
|
From page 27... ...
. Also, remotely sensed data are yielding more accurate annual land use and crop yield data, improving the capability to not only conduct multidimensional impact assessment modeling, but also make it more dynamic.
|
From page 28... ...
attach value. Identify Exposure Hammitt identified five major exposure pathways in the food system: (1)
|
From page 29... ...
Attach Value The third and final step is valuation. Because multiple health effects can arise, with the same food sometimes having both "good" and "bad" effects (e.g., eating fish can be cardio-protective because of its omega-3 fatty acid content, while at the same time serving as a major exposure pathway to methyl mercury, which has negative health effects)
|
From page 30... ...
All stages of the food life cycle use commercial energy. Hammitt identified production and processing, packaging, and possibly distribution as the most energy-intensive stages, with the main exposure pathways being environmental release of stressors, mostly air pollutants.
|
From page 31... ...
For example, they are asked to assume that they are going to live the rest of their life, say 40 years, in a specific health state with a chronic illness and decide at what point they would exchange that future life for a shorter life in perfect health.
|
From page 32... ...
Defining Externality in the Context of Noneconomic Behavior The concept of externality is not well defined outside the classical economic model -- that is, when individuals do not behave as fully informed rational agents as economic theory assumes they do. Hammitt identified several questions to consider before embarking on a study of the external costs and benefits of food.
|
From page 33... ...
2011. Estimating the potential health impact and costs of implementing a local policy for food procurement to reduce the consumption of sodium in the County of Los Angeles.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.