Growth Economy
Ohio could create $257.4 million in annual revenue for small and midsize farmers and support 16,120 jobs if Food is Medicine reaches scale, according to a new report recently published in USA Today. Getting there will require something bigger than another nutrition program: Ohio must deliberately build a market.
The opportunity sounds almost too simple: use food to improve health, then make sure more of the food and services are purchased in Ohio.
The Rockefeller Foundation estimates that scaling locally sourced Food is Medicine programs could create $257.4 million in potential annual revenue for Ohio farmers and support 16,120 jobs. Nationally, the model could generate more than $45 billion in economic activity.
But the $257 million is not a grant waiting for Ohio. It is a market Ohio would have to create.
First, Build the Buyers
The first step is not planting more crops. It is creating reliable demand.
Food is Medicine includes produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries and medically tailored meals for people with diet-related conditions. To reach meaningful scale, those services need sustainable payment from the health-care system.
That means Ohio should build on existing Medicaid and waiver pathways where nutrition services are covered, while bringing Medicaid managed-care plans, commercial insurers, self-insured employers and health systems into the market. Philanthropy can fund pilots and infrastructure, but the long-term goal should be reimbursement and contracts, not permanent charitable subsidy.
A simple progression should guide the strategy: grant to pilot, pilot to evidence, evidence to reimbursement, reimbursement to scale.
Create One Ohio Marketplace
Ohio should establish an Ohio Food is Medicine Collaborative, a public-private partnership that brings health care, agriculture, business, universities and philanthropy to one table.
Its role should not be to become another food provider. It should organize the market: establish standards, aggregate demand, certify suppliers, connect buyers with Ohio producers and publicly measure results.
Ohio could also create a purchasing exchange where hospitals, insurers and other buyers can source medically appropriate food from qualified Ohio growers, processors, kitchens and distributors. The state should track one number relentlessly: how much Food is Medicine spending stays in Ohio.
“Clinical decisions should determine who receives Food is Medicine. Economic-development strategy should determine how much of that spending benefits Ohio.”
Build an Ohio Supply Chain Around Health
The economic impact extends far beyond farms. Food has to be aggregated, processed, stored, prepared, packaged, transported and delivered. Programs also need software, nutrition services, enrollment systems and health-outcome measurement.
That creates opportunities for commercial kitchens, food manufacturers, cold storage, trucking, last-mile delivery, technology companies and entrepreneurs.
Ohio should create a Food is Medicine supplier certification and technical-assistance program so small and midsize farms can compete for health-care contracts rather than leaving the emerging market primarily to large national vendors.
Finance the Infrastructure
Ohio will also need capital before it can capture the full opportunity. Farms may need equipment. Food businesses may need larger kitchens. Regional networks may need aggregation facilities, refrigeration, vehicles and technology.
A proposed Ohio Food is Medicine Growth Fund could combine philanthropy, impact investment, health-system participation and eligible economic-development resources to finance that infrastructure.
The principle should be straightforward: use one-time capital to build the system, then use recurring health-care revenue to sustain it.
Manage It Regionally, Measure It Statewide
Food is local. Ohio should therefore operate through regional hubs rather than one centralized distribution system. Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland/Akron, Northwest Ohio and Southeast/Appalachian Ohio could each develop networks suited to their growers, health systems and populations.
But measurement should be statewide.
Ohio should publish an annual Food is Medicine dashboard tracking farmer revenue, jobs, Ohio-sourced purchasing, participating farms and businesses, patients served, health outcomes, health-care utilization and dollars retained in the Ohio economy.
Why Cincinnati Could Lead
Cincinnati may be one of Ohio’s strongest places to prove the model.
The region already has major health systems, Kroger and Kroger Health, the University of Cincinnati, food and consumer-products expertise, logistics infrastructure, farmers, food entrepreneurs, Freestore Foodbank and Findlay Market.
A Cincinnati Food is Medicine Innovation Hub could bring those assets together. Health systems and insurers create demand. Ohio growers and food companies supply it. UC measures outcomes. Philanthropy finances early experimentation. Entrepreneurs build the meals, software, logistics and services required to scale.
If it works, Cincinnati becomes more than a beneficiary of the statewide opportunity. It becomes a laboratory for an industry Ohio can expand.
The Bigger Opportunity
The goal should not simply be to ask how Ohio gets $257 million to farmers.
The better question is how Ohio can use health-care spending that produces measurable patient benefit to build a permanent food, agriculture, logistics and health-innovation economy.
The $257 million in potential farmer revenue is the headline. The bigger opportunity is everything that can be built around it.
