Healthy Parks & Healthy People

By Glenn Eugster, Assistant Regional Director, Partnerships Office,
National Capital Region, National Park Service, Washington, DC.

In August 2001, in Washington, DC, the Smithsonian's National Air
and Space Museum announced that in spring 2002 it would open a new
restaurant with three well-known restaurant operations. McDonald's,
Boston Market and Donatos will be joined together in a single
facility designed especially for the National Air and Space
Museum--a destination that attracts more than 9 million visitors a
year.

McDonald's, which recently bought Boston Market and Donatos
Pizzeria, will operate the restaurant through a 10-year lease
agreement overseen by Smithsonian Business Ventures, which manages
all the Institution's revenue-producing activities.

Shortly after the Smithsonian announcement, in Chicago, IL, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a research
report indicating that nearly 40 million American adults are obese.
The research revealed that more than half of Americans--56.4 percent
are overweight.The report notes that obesity is on the increase and
is linked to diabetes.

The Centers research attributes the decade-long increase in obesity
to a modern lifestyle that relies on long commutes, fast food and
sedentary entertainment such as television.It also notes the serious
public health implications, in terms of disease and health-care
costs, and urges a variety of ways for Americans to improve their
diet and exercise.Specifically, the research encourages communities
to provide safe, well-lit areas for physical activity, and urges
fast-food restaurants to offer alternatives to fatty, high calorie
foods.

As the National Park Service continues its efforts to increase
revenue generation, encourage sustainable "best management
practices" and help to meet recreation needs, the agency would do
itself and the public well to look closely at the Smithsonian's
recent decision and the research on the health of Americans.
Smithsonian's decision to use a federally supported facility to
partner with McDonald's could have easily been an NPS decision.

Increasingly NPS is partnering with corporate America as a way to
help provide important services to the public while generating
revenue. It doesn't take much to imagine McDonald's as a "Proud
Partner" of NPS and the National Park Foundation and Big Mac's and
fries being sold to our park visitors through some sort of
concession operation.

The obesity research findings are too serious health and budget-wise
for any federal agency to ignore, whether it is for its employees or
visitors. It is certain that serious health problems and health-care
costs will increase in response to people's reluctance to maintain a
sensible diet and get plenty of exercise. These costs (e.g. diabetes
alone accounts for $100 billion in health-care spending each year)
will impact the federal workforce and reduce the amount of federal
funds available for other purposes, such as National Parks and NPS
programs.

Perhaps one nexus between Smithsonian's plans and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention research findings is the National
Park Service's Sustainable Practices & Opportunities Plan (SPOP).
The Plan identifies ways to improve the health of the National
Park's fiscal condition by strengthening its environmental balance
sheet. These plans explore ways that parks can incorporate
sustainable practices into their daily activities.

Although the Sustainable Practices effort encourages a variety of
"green practices" to rethink the way we go about business it does
not appear to address the quality of food provided by
concessionaires and its link to human health. It seems that federal
facilities, such as National Parks, are important places where we
can demonstrate ways to change old habits are harmful to people,
living resources and places.

Two ideas seem appropriate for NPS to take. One is to look at the
food and drink that we provide at National Parks as one of our
Sustainable Practices. As Sarah Callard and Diane Millis write in
their book "Green Living", "If you wish to live a green life you
cannot afford to ignore what you eat and drink". It seems that if we
are entrusted with managing a federally supported facility that
provides services to visitors, these services need to meet a level
of quality commensurate with the setting. Healthy food and drink
seems to go naturally with healthy landscapes.

NPS could recognize parks where we are making the switch from
providing our visitors with fat-laden foods and chemically-laced
beverages to serving healthier "green foods and drinks". We could
document parks that are using this practice to support local
agriculture. We could work to replicate these examples elsewhere and
make healthy foods, within healthy National Parks, the rule rather
than the exception. Facing the facts, NPS could use its leadership
position to educate Americans--young or old, about the value of
eating properly and exercising regularly. Encouraging people to
consume food such as McDonald's is neither healthy, wise,
economically sound, nor a good use of our position as federal
leaders.

A second idea is to approach food, drink and exercise in a way
similar to how the U.S. is dealing with our over-reliance on oil as
an energy source. The Federal Energy Policy Act and Presidential
Executive Order # 12844 encourages all federal agencies and fuel
providers to increase the use of alternative fuel vehicles in order
to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and reduce the costs of air
pollution-related health care (e.g. $45 billion annually). The
approach has proven to be a good way to increase the public use of
electric, methanol, natural gas, and other fuel vehicles.Its also
placed agencies like NPS in a quiet enabling leadership role.

Perhaps we could look at obesity in a similar way. Each federal
agency could be asked to help the Nation deal with our health
problem by making commitments to implement the diet and exercise
recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
National Parks are ideal places to demonstrate the value in healthy
food and exercise and what it means to be a healthy consumer,
employer and concessionaire.

Although I must admit periodic cravings for pizza, double
cheeseburgers, shakes and fries, I have learned the value of broiled
seafood, "Bocca Burgers", fruit smoothies and fresh vegetables. If
we are truly serious about sustainable practices we need to go
beyond green buildings, porous pavement, native plants, and other
facility-based practices. Americans have had a long and quite
wonderful tradition of food in the U.S. However, if we are to truly
"meet the needs of the present without impairing the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs" then we need to continue
to change old habits that don't make sense anymore. It's time for
federal agencies such as the National Park Service to look at the
food we serve to our visitors and the important roll that our lands,
and leadership, play in helping the U.S. become sustainable.