Sustaining Iowa: Making the Connection between Food, Health and the Land

Presented by Dr. Preston Maring, Associate Physician-in-Chief, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Oakland, California
November 10-11, 2008
Iowa City, Cedar Falls and Ames

Sponsored by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, and the Center for Health Effects of the Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa

"Good food is good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow it and it's really good for the planet" - Dr. Preston Maring

Dr. Preston Maring

Dr. Maring iis responsible for tertiary care services planning and development for Oakland’s 200,000 health plan members as well as members from around the Northern California region. He has been at the hospital for more than 37 years.

An enthusiastic cook, he helped start a Friday Fresh Farmers Market for hospital staff, visitors and the community in 2003. The project has resulted in different market models, community outreach and a program-wide focus on health eating. Markets are now offered at nearly 30 other Kaiser Permanente facilities in several states. He has his own blog that gets more than 50,000 page views each month with weekly recipes for fresh produce.

More recently, Maring worked with Kaiser Permanente and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers to create a system that sources product for inpatient meals from small family farmers. He believes that the availability of healthy food choices is fundamentally important in support of Kaiser Permanente's wide-reaching health education and health maintenance programs that are sponsored within the program and in the community.

More detailed Maring bio [PDF]

Event flier [PDF]

 

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 209 Curtiss Hall,
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1050 PH: (515)294-3711
Fax:(515)294-9696 Email: leocenter@iastate.edu