"As preventable illnesses and injuries are the most significant drivers of increasing health care costs," the Oakland-based Prevention Institute said in a letter to the White House, "it is essential that we reorient our health care system from an after-the-fact approach to one that focuses on keeping people healthy in the first place."

Health care leaders are broadening their awareness to include the need to address the food system as a means to individual, public, and global health, above and beyond basic nutritional factors.  Health care involvement in policy and advocacy is vital to solve the expanding ecological health crises facing our nation and globe and will require an urgency that may be unprecedented. By Leslie Mikkelson and Linda Shak.

Setting the Record Straight: Nutritionists and Health Professionals Define Healthful Food puts forth a definition of healthful food that looks beyond nutrients to acknowledge that truly healthful food comes from a food system where food is produced, processed, transported, and marketed in ways that are environmentally sound, sustainable and just.

The article, which discusses Gary Slutkin's Chicago CeaseFire anti-violence program, notes Prevention Institute and UNITY's national violence prevention strategies for cities to devise successful long-term plans.