Positive Change Through the Farm Bill: Empowering Dietitians as Experts and Citizens

This product is free for HEN DPG members.

This webinar was presented live on January 17, 2024.

Negotiated and signed every 5–7 years, the farm bill has tremendous implications for food production, nutrition assistance, international trade, and many other fields. As our government develops the 2023 farm bill, all consumers and healthcare providers need to understand its implications and opportunities for positive influence.

Speaker Christina Badaracco will review what the farm bill includes and how it affects various social and environmental factors, including how RDNs and their patients are affected as taxpayers and consumers. She will also present how RDNs can both advocate and strive for a more just, healthy, and sustainable food system through their work across practice areas.

CPE Level: 2
CPEU: 1.5
Performance Indicators: 3.2.1, 7.2.3, 12.4.3

Learning Objectives

• Identify influences behind the creation and evolution of the farm bill throughout US history.
• Explain the impacts of the current state of the US agricultural system on societal, economic, environmental, and health factors.
• Implement strategies in daily practice that advocate for and support food and farming systems that promote better health.

Speaker

Christina Badaracco, RDN

Christina Badaracco works as a healthcare consultant at Avalere, where she focuses on evidence generation and elevating the role of nutrition in healthcare. She also regularly writes, teaches, and presents about nutrition, cooking, and sustainable agriculture—including publishing The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide in 2019, publishing five cookbooks with the Transamerica Institute, and co-developing a culinary medicine elective at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Christina previously worked for the EPA, Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, Oakland Unified School District, NIH Clinical Center, and more. She is President-Elect of DCMAND and serves on the board for Slow Food DC, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Farm Bill Task Force, and other organizations.

She earned her Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and her bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with a minor in Italian Language and Culture, from Princeton University. She completed her dietetic internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and was selected as a 2021 Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year and as a 2023 Emerging Dietetic Leader by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.