Eating Ourselves Sick — Congressman Jonathan Jackson on Nutrition Justice

At the Tufts Food is Medicine Capitol Hill Luncheon: “Eating Ourselves Sick – Ultraprocessed Foods & Policy,” Congressman Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), a member of the House Agricultural Committee, spoke about diet-related disease as one of the most destructive — and preventable — public health crises in America.

In a nation of abundance, marginalized and low-income communities are disproportionately surrounded by ultraprocessed foods engineered for profit, not health. These products, high in sugar, salt, and chemical additives, fuel obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and premature death.

Jackson emphasized that this is not about personal choice alone:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce in many neighborhoods

• Urban food deserts and rural scarcity stem from decades of segregation and disinvestment

• Access to healthy food remains tied to wealth and geography
  
  

He framed nutrition as a matter of justice, economics, and morality. Trillions are spent treating preventable disease, while the root causes — food access and social determinants of health — remain under-addressed.

His vision for change:

• Build grocery stores and make nutritious food economically viable

• Support farmers and local food systems

• Teach children both nutrition science and the history of food inequity

• Treat access to healthy food as a right, not a privilege

“The measure of a civilization,” Jackson said, “is not its wealth, but the well-being of its poorest.”