Institutional Transition to Organic Food Purchase

Dear Anne,

In Denmark, many public institutions have made that transition. In 2005, 36% of the food bought by the 1200 institutions run by Copenhagen municipality was organic. A pdf-file describing the project in Copenhagen can be downloaded from http://www.miljoe.kk.dk/oekologi (which is in Danish, but there is a link to an English-language file describing "The Dogme Organic Project" at the front page).

Best wishes,
John Thoegersen, Professor, dr. merc.

Aarhus School of Business,
Department of Marketing & Statistics
Haslegaardsvej 10, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark
Tel.: +45 8948 6440.
Fax. +45 8615 3988
http://www.asb.dk/staff/ms/jbt.aspx
Journal of Consumer Policy, Editor http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/0168-7034/contents

There is so much going on in this area in my state and region in the Midwestern US it's hard to know what to recommend. I would start with the ATTRA news -- January-14 2006 edition. It's featured topic was Delivering Local Food to Local Institutions, which included health care facilities and schools. A couple of their recommendations for health care facilities are listed below. ATTRA publishes incredible resource materials on every aspect of sustainable agriculture, small livestock production, fruit and vegetable production, small irrigation, on-farm use of renewable energy, appropriate technology, etc. and best of all all of their information is free and can be downloaded from their web page. www.attra.ncat.org. NCAT is the National Center for Appropriate Technology. ATTRA has something to do with the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Links on this topic from the article: "Bringing Local Food to Local Institutions: A Resource Guide for Farm-to-School and Farm-to-Institution Programs", ATTRA publication IP242. , www.attra.ncat.org. "Healthy Food, Healthy Hospitals, Healthy Communities", www.iatp.org "Food and Food Purchases: A Role for Health Care", www.noharm.org. You might do a google search for Kamyar Enshayan and read any articles he has written. He has been working tirelessly in Iowa (Midwest US) to get institutions and local restaurants to buy their products from local sustainable farmers and has a wealth of information on what works and what doesn't. He has worked through both. the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Practical Farmers of Iowa (both in Iowa). What we're finding is that the demand for organic and sustainably produced food of every sort (dairy, meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables, etc.) from schools, universities, other institutions, and the public at large is so great we don't have enough farmers producing it. There are so many chicken and egg issues in this whole topic, i.e. where do you start -- creating supply, creating demand, etc.

Good luck with your project!
Nancy Adams

Hello ,

At the recent Clean Med conference in Seattle, there were quite a few healthcare institutions that had changed to organics. Some presentations are available at:http://www.cleanmed.org/2006/downloads.html. You may be able to find some contacts through those as well.

Cheers,
Sue

This magazine is supposed to have info on hospitals chnaging to organics in the US>
H2E -- Hospitals for A Healthy Environment Info Exchange Listserve ([email protected])
Health Care Without Harm is happy to announce Clean Design magazine, a publication full of editorial content from CleanMed 2006. The magazine was produced in partnership with the Vendome Publishing Group and the staff of Healthcare Design magazine. If you are on the membership lists of HCWH or H2E, if you attended CleanMed, or if you are a Healthcare Design subscriber, you should have already received your copy in the mail. In addition, the magazine is posted online in its entirety at: http://www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/CleanDesign.htm