John Risley, President of Clearwater Fine Foods, presented his first idea for rural development a few months back: a small Atlantic Canadian community could self-select to become the ‘greenest’ town in the world. The idea in this article follows that lead. Risley suggests an Atlantic Canadian community take on the goal of becoming the world’s healthiest town.
With healthcare costs out of control, and child obesity and diabetes becoming pressing issues, people are increasingly looking at preventative approaches to health care. But, with health care being a subject politicians won’t touch, it is up to the people to make these approaches a reality. Risley’s idea includes an extensive measuring process, and an amended curriculum with physical education. Local restaurants would serve healthy foods. Nutritionists from across the world would be invited to participate in the development process. External communities, governments and pharmaceutical companies would benefit from this experiment.
In Let’s Get Started, Risley lays out his idea for the world’s healthiest community in greater detail. He concludes hoping Atlantic Canadians will take on such an idea here, and abandon the thinking that it has to be done somewhere else first.
Click here to read the full commentary.
