It has been more than 50 years since the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health. Hundreds of stakeholders and policymakers plan to be in attendance at the summit at the White House on September 28 to discuss how to deliver on President Joe Biden’s goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030, so that fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases— while reducing related health disparities.
In addition to President Joe Biden speaking in the afternoon at the event, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and chef José Andrés, will speak at the meeting, according to the White House.
Earlier in September, 12 agricultural organizations sent a letter to Biden requesting a seat at the table during the conference. American Soybean Association CEO Steve Censky is planning on attending the event. And National Corn Growers Association President Jon Doggett is attending virtually.
National strategy unveiled
Unveiled the day before the event, the White House released its national strategy to serve as the playbook to meet this vital goal. “It calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-America approach to addressing the challenges we face,” Biden said in the executive summary of the strategy.
In 2021, 1 in 10 households experienced food insecurity, meaning their access to food was limited by lack of money or other resources. Moreover, diet-related diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. New data show that 19 states and two territories have an obesity prevalence at or above 35%, more than double the number of states from 2018.4 One in 10 Americans have diabetes.5 One in 3 people will have cancer in their lifetime.6 And, more than 4 in 10 Americans have hypertension (high blood pressure).
The strategy provides a roadmap for actions that the federal government will take administratively, a number of proposals that will require congressional action, and a call to action for non-government entities who wrote about the changes necessary to reach the goals, shared a White House official ahead of the event.
“We know that hunger and diet related diseases are largely preventable, and that we have the tools to solve them,” the White House official adds.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the strategy is a “defining moment for our nation” that lays out a path to end hunger, enhance nutrition and improve health outcomes.