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Nerys Williams, Food at Work. Christopher Wanjek. Published by ILO Geneva, 2005. ISBN 92-2-117015-2. Price: 60 Swiss francs (hardback). 448 pp., Occupational Medicine, Volume 56, Issue 1, January 2006, Page 69, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqi173
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Extract
The issue of food at work has not been prominent in either occupational health or in public health consciousness. Yet the White Paper ‘Choosing Health’ identifies the workplace as a key site for the delivery of health promotion advice and for interventions to improve the health of the workforce. But even Choosing Health does not consider the issue of food supply as a means of enhancing worker productivity, a relationship which this book promotes through a series of case studies from a global perspective.
The author is a freelance health and science writer based in the USA who has a master's degree in environmental health. His perspective is one of a global need for improved access to food in the workplace. He makes a convincing argument for developing countries where there is a high rate of nutritional deficiencies in the workforce and where inexpensive simple measures taken by an employer can remedy ill-health both in the individual and in their families. There are some excellent case studies of such interventions in migrant workforces in the Indian subcontinent and in remote locations in Canada. The businesses showcased clearly revealed that there are benefits in ensuring the supply of food in terms of improved productivity and greater worker satisfaction. Whether the same benefits would be experienced in the developed world, however, is not really debated and there appear to be presumptions that what applies and works there will also work here.
