President’s Speaker Series highlights fresh research supporting ‘Food is Medicine’

By Caitlin Fillmore

The benefits of regenerative agriculture go beyond just soil health, enhancing a plant’s inner chemistry and nutritional value, according to emerging research. That was the topic for this year’s second President’s Speaker Series, held on Wednesday, March 18. 

“The impact of food systems on the well-being of our community is profound,” said Cal State Monterey Bay President Vanya Quiñones in her welcome remarks at the event. “Food affects physical and mental health, academic success, economic mobility, environmental quality and social cohesion. Access to healthy, affordable food can reduce disparities, strengthen families, support local producers and businesses, and enhance resilience in the face of climate change.”

The event included a keynote speaker and interdisciplinary panelists who explored the complex concept of how “Food is Medicine.”

“How we farm and grow food shapes the medicinal power of our food,” said Erin O’Dwyer Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Prevention Research Center and the event’s keynote speaker. O’Dwyer works with the Gardner Lab and the Plant-Based Diet Initiative, part of the university’s medical school. 

“I want to be clear: this isn’t a metaphor. Food literally is medicine,” O’Dwyer said. “Whole, real foods contain compounds that interact with our biology in profound ways we are only beginning to understand.”

Regenerative agriculture uses an “ancient and bold” approach that produces crops while nurturing the environment, O’Dwyer explained. Concepts such as planting cover crops, integrating beneficial livestock and increasing plant diversity form the regenerative agriculture model. 

Plants grown in regenerative agriculture don’t rely on added chemicals to survive and instead develop the root structures and cellular strength needed for long-term resiliency. They are often referred to as “the dark matter of nutrition.”

“Plants defend themselves with this chemistry and when we eat them, we inherit that arsenal,” O’Dwyer said. “Those same compounds, after hundreds of millions of years of co-evolution, interact with our cells to fight inflammation, support healing and reduce our risk of chronic disease.”

Regenerative agriculture practices support the development of these “dark matter” compounds. O’Dwyer shared emerging research that found spinach grown regeneratively contained four times the phenolic content, which protects against cell aging, cancer and other chronic diseases.

O’Dwyer challenged attendees to shift their perspectives beyond a product’s limited nutrition label or “what should I eat?” to consider the complex food system and ask “how was this grown?” 

Following O’Dwyer’s keynote was a panel discussion, featuring Wei-ting Chen Ph.D., executive director of Stanford’s Food for Health Equity Lab; Prunedale’s JAS Family Farms Organics President Tony Serrano, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jarrett Strachan, and Juan Pablo “JP” Dundore-Arias Ph.D., professor and director of agricultural plant and soil science at CSUMB. The panel was moderated by Patricia Santana, MD, director of health and wellness for the Regenerative Organic Sustainable Institute.

The panel focused on the importance of interconnected systems to amplify the “food is medicine” message. Chen discussed her work coordinating between hospitals, patients and farmers to connect people in need with programs such as fruit and vegetable prescriptions from their doctors. Strachan emphasized partnerships with schools.

“Teaching our zucchini is better than theirs, more nutrient-dense, is very hard to do because they look exactly the same,” Strachan said. “We should start young with education and that will take us forward into the future.” 

Dundore-Arias said he is passionate about his work in plant pathology as a first-generation immigrant, former grower and first-generation student.

“My patients are the plants that get sick,” Dundore-Arias said. “The work that we do with undergraduate researchers studies bad microbes to make plants safe … and the good microbes that enhance plant and soil health.”

Serrano provided a farmer’s perspective and said it took a lot of expense and five years to transition his land to the “optimum soil” of his regenerative model. JAS Family Farms Organics is the first specialty crop farm to be certified regenerative, Serrano said.

The event took place during the recent heat wave across the West Coast. Serrano said a phone call earlier that day revealed his farm managers had not been watering their delicate spring crops this week.

“I freaked out,” Serrano said, worried that the soil would be dry and impermeable. “But our soil did not look [dry] at all. I ran my fingers down into the soil, which is what regenerative farming says will happen.”

If I know my plants are growing the right way, how can it get better?” Serrano said. “There is a spot for me in heaven after that.”