Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 8/24/16


Nine U.S. health systems, working with the non-profit Health Care Without Harm, have put out a call to producers and manufacturers to provide more meat and poultry without antibiotics from animals raised using sustainable methods, the non-profit organization said in a news release.

The goal is to increase the volume production of such items in hopes of seeing a drop in price.

“They’ve been working on their own efforts, and now we want to aggregate their voices and bring their purchasing power together to make a broader statement to the marketplace,” said Hillary Bisnett, National Procurement Director for Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care program, in an interview with Meatingplace.

The nine participating health systems are: Advocate Health Care; Catholic Health Initiatives; Dartmouth-Hitchcock; Gundersen Health System; HackensackUMC; Kaiser Permanente; Partners HealthCare; University Hospitals Health System; and Veterans Health Administration Nutrition and Food Services. They have been collaborating in a working group brought together by Health Care Without Harm for the last two years, Bisnett said. Each has a commitment to source at least 20 percent of the protein they serve as raised without antibiotics, she said.

But the capacity of U.S. hospitals to meet sustainable food purchasing goals remains out of reach until producers and the health care supply chain are able increase production and access to verified products, Bisnett contends.

The nine health care systems involved in the project combined spend more than $34 million per year on meat and poultry products. They also are backed by thousands of hospitals within the Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth networks that are actively working toward purchasing more sustainable products throughout their facilities.

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