By Antonia Herzog, Ph.D., Associate Director of Partnerships, Advocacy and Equity, Health Care Without Harm Our health care systems are facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing threat to community health and resilience from the climate crisis. Climate-related disasters leave health care facilities vulnerable to suspended services…

From delicious climate solutions to donating food to neighboring nonprofits to prioritizing purchasing from local businesses owned by people of color, going into 2022, health care food service has become a force for healing. — As the pandemic continued through 2021, we witnessed the amazing resilience of our network of health care systems and professionals to simultaneously respond to the immediate needs of their communities while innovating and collaborating to create long-term and systemic solutions to address community health and resilience. This was especially evident…

Our food and agriculture system was part of the conversation at the international climate negotiations (COP26) that just wrapped up in Glasgow, Scotland — an important issue to address considering food-related emissions represent 33% of global greenhouse gases and without it we can’t reach global targets of less than 1.5°C…

When Phalla Nol’s father decided to follow his dream and become a farmer in Massachusetts, she helped him translate the classes he took into their native Khmer but struggled to see how they would make a living working the land. Once she began to negotiate with local businesses to sell…

Gary Cohen — While COVID-19 has pushed the health care sector to its limits, another public health emergency is strengthening. This time, the health sector itself is part of the problem. But now, with help from a new White House initiative, the sector can be part of the solution. The other health emergency…

Sarah Hsu — I always knew I wanted to explore the intersection of health and the environment. In my first year of college, I wrote a paper on the broader health and environmental impacts of hospitals. It didn’t take long for Health Care Without Harm to turn up in my research. My undergraduate…

James Beard Award-winning chef and best-selling author Mark Bittman’s new book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk, is a sweeping view of our food and agriculture systems, which are negatively impacting our health and the environment. Bittman details how hospitals and other institutions can help transform the market to benefit people, communities, and…

Health system leads on protecting workers — From Pakistani children sharpening surgical scalpels in grimy workshops to debt-bonded Bangladeshi migrants manufacturing disposable gloves, forced labor has long been an insidious part of the convoluted global supply chains that provide vital medical equipment. Now, U.S. health care giant CommonSpirit Health wants its pledge to “do no harm” to…

By Robyn Rothman, Associate Director of State Policy Programs, Health Care Without Harm Emergency departments are overwhelmed. Patient beds are lining hallways. Hospitals are at capacity. Patient transfers are delayed due to ambulances scrambling to respond to emergency calls for help. Older adults, outdoor workers, people experiencing homelessness or living…