The enviro-minded food-nerd that I am can’t help but get all warm & fuzzy when I hear doctors talkin’ about the future of food in medicine and medicine in food. So yes, I confess, I couldn’t find a better way to spend my last weekend than watching the full webcast of reTHINKfood 2015. The 3 day conference on technology, big data and the future of food was organized by MIT Media Lab, the Culinary Institute of America and counted IDEO as sponsor. Needless to say some of the best thinkers were around the table, and it couldn’t end with a better topic: “Revolutions in Healthcare: Impacts on the Future of the Food Industry” . I leave the suspense intact and invite everyone to take 90min off your busy schedule and watch this one session. This is really worth it… Ok, I’ll give you one clue: expect to see food take a bigger place in healthcare in the future.
Keeping up with the pace of research and knowledge today is clearly a challenge. What better than a screening and panel discussion to up the ante? Take for example the initiative connecting the food system and healthcare coming to our neck of the woods, on Toronto University strip: The MSH/UHN Antimicrobial Stewardship Program is hosting a documentary screening and panel discussion around the movie Resistance, on November 18, 2015, as part of Antibiotic Awareness Week 2015.
Resistance is an award-winning documentary that toured across North American universities and healthcare systems. It takes a hard look at antibiotic use in healthcare and agriculture, and discusses the paradox of limiting antibiotic use in healthcare, while the major user of antibiotics – namely conventional livestock farmers – get to use antibiotics as a preventive method.
To give you some perspective, the Canadian livestock industry consumes more than 1.6 million kilograms of antibiotics every year, according to the Canadian Animal Health Institute. 80% of all antibiotics used in Canada are used for livestock. The antibiotics used in animal agriculture are often closely related to those used for human therapy, and there is a growing body of evidence that links the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture to antibiotic resistance in human pathogens.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with thought leaders in the fields of healthcare, policy and agriculture. And, to make sure you stick around on a workday evening, light refreshments will be served.
The full list of panelists is coming, but you can expect the following:
Andrew Morris, MD – General Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases Physician and Medical Director of the MSH/UHN Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
Elizabeth Leung, Pharm.D, BCPS AQ-ID – Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist at St. Michael’s Hospital
Harry Stoddart – Ontario Farmer
Michael Graziano – Movie Director (via Skype)
Reserve your free seat at www.resistancefilmscreening.eventbrite.ca.
Hope to see you there.
Talkin' Trash With UHN 
Hi my name is Daniela. After watching the movie RESISTANCE at Mount Sinai Hospital I started a petition on change.org against the use of antibiotics in animal feed and to SAVE OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. I was deeply touched by the topic and although I heard about it before, I did not think that the health threat caused by resistant bacteria was so critical. I think this is a topic that needs to be addressed as fast as possible. Please sign my petition if you can. If they are other petitions out there that I could sign, let me know. I do not think that everybody is aware of this immediate health threat. And what are the solutions and how are we going forward from this?
https://www.change.org/p/dr-eric-hoskins-minister-of-health-amp-long-term-care-dr-jane-philpott-federal-health-minister-dipika-damerla-associate-minister-of-health-amp-long-term-care-save-the-medical-system-stop-the-use-of-antibiotics-in-animal-feed
Kind regards,
Daniela Ferreira
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