We Are What We Eat…and What We Build
The Center for a Livable Future and the Department of Environmental Health Sciences Grand Rounds bring you the 14th Annual Edward & Nancy Dodge Lecture
May 9, 2014
Program Brochure | Flyer | Interview with Richard Jackson | Event Video
Richard Jackson’s epiphany came to him in his car on a seven-lane highway, as he watched an elderly woman attempt to cross the street. It was a summer day in Atlanta, and the woman was stooped as she carried a bag of groceries in each hand. If she has a heart attack, he thought, her death would be classified as heat stroke. If she gets hit by a car, her death would be classed as an automobile accident. But the real cause of death would be a lack of public transportation, lack of sidewalks, and poor access to supermarkets.
His epiphany was this: when we talk about health on the cellular level, we’re talking about things that are too far away. “We should be talking about things people care about,” he said. “People care about what kind of places their kids live in, and where their parents live.”
A guest of the Center for a Livable Future and the featured speaker of the 14th Edward and Nancy Dodge Lecture at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Richard Jackson addressed the public health implications of the built environment. The chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health–UCLA, Jackson gave a talk titled, “We Are What We Eat … and What We Build.”
A veteran pediatrician and epidemiologist, Jackson focused on the intersection of public health and urban planning. “Our young people are really struggling with the world they’re living in,” he said. In the time that he’s been practicing medicine, he’s seen obesity, diabetes, and depression soar. At the same time, the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that the U.S. spends on health care has risen to 19 percent. Our health care isn’t working, he says. These struggles have not only economic and medical origins, but also environmental.
“The best approach I know of for preventing and treating diabetes,” he said, “is to eat less and walk more.” And yet, as a nation, we’re building homes in which the garage is king and that are far from city centers. “We took finest farmland in the U.S. and put it into housing,” he said. The resulting commutes are making people unhealthy and unhappy. “Commutes are killing us,” he said.
The good news, says Jackson, is that architects and designers are beginning to incorporate health considerations into how they build homes, offices, and even cities. Some of the “second-tier” cities, Oklahoma City and Tampa for example, are finding success at re-designing themselves to healthy communities that encourage outdoor activity, reduce automobile use, and promote social structure. New York’s High-Line is a shining example of a development project that promotes healthy activities while drawing tourists.
“Homebuyers want walkable, bikeable communities,” he said. We’re being to realize that there is no distinction between personal health and sustainable development.
—Christine Grillo
The Edward and Nancy Dodge Lecture is supported through the R. Edward Dodge, Jr. and Nancy L. Dodge Family Foundation Endowment, established through the generosity of Dr. Edward Dodge, MPH ’67, and his late wife Nancy to provide core funding for the Center for a Livable Future.