How one innovator is making it easier to grow high-quality, health-supporting food, boost yields, and protect our waters
Food Is Medicine programs are expanding fast, but they only work if growers can supply enough truly high-quality, health-supporting food. That’s where NutriHarvest®, an organic fertilizer innovator, comes in - recovering waste nutrients from the food system and turning them into OMRI-listed fertilizers that help organic growers boost yields while protecting soil and water.
Why “Food Is Medicine” Is Having a Moment
If you’ve noticed more doctors, health systems, and policymakers talking about prescribing food, you’re not imagining it. The Food Is Medicine (FIM) movement is exploding.
At Tufts University’s 2025 Food Is Medicine National Summit, researchers shared data from a national poll: roughly nine in ten Americans believe eating healthier foods is important to prevent disease, and nearly as many believe healthy food should be a priority in treating major conditions, yet people are still confused about how to eat well in practice.[1]Tufts Now
That confusion is happening against a pretty stark backdrop:
- About 60% of U.S. adults live with at least one diet-related chronic disease, like heart disease, diabetes, or obesity.[2]Health.gov
- An estimated 86% of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual health-care spending is tied to chronic conditions, many of them linked to poor diet.[2]
In response, Food Is Medicine programs are weaving nutrition directly into health care through:
- Medically tailored meals
- Medically tailored groceries
- Produce prescriptions
- Nutrition incentives and education
These interventions are showing serious impact—reduced hospitalizations, better blood pressure and A1C control, and lower health-care costs.[1][3]Tufts Now+1
One analysis from Tufts’ Food Is Medicine Institute found that providing medically tailored meals to eligible patients nationwide could save about $32.1 billion a year and prevent 3.5 million hospitalizations, just from that one intervention.[4]Food & Wine
All of that depends on one very practical question:
If “food is medicine,” who’s growing the medicine, and how do we help them grow more of it, easily?
That’s where organic growers, and tools like NutriHarvest, come in.
Food Is Medicine Starts in the Field
Food Is Medicine is often described as what happens in clinics, hospitals, and health plans—prescriptions, benefits, and billing codes. But the quality of the food itself starts much earlier, in the soil.
Healthy, nutrient-rich food depends on:
- Biologically active soil, rich in organic matter and microbial life
- Balanced and available nutrients, not just NPK dumped all at once
- Clean water and farming systems that don’t send waste nutrients into rivers and lakes
Simply labeling food “organic” doesn’t automatically make it more nutrient-dense than conventional; large reviews find basic vitamin and mineral levels are broadly similar. Research comparing organic and conventional foods shows that basic vitamin and mineral levels are broadly similar, although some organic fruits and vegetables do have slightly higher levels of certain antioxidants and lower pesticide residues. In practice, nutrient density is shaped more by soil health, crop variety, ripeness, and handling than by the label alone—which is why we focus on building biologically active soils and balanced fertility, not just checking the “organic” box.
If we want medically meaningful produce and grains, we need fertilizers and soil amendments that:
- Feed the soil, not just the plant
- Avoid nutrient losses, especially nitrogen and phosphorus runoff
- Fit into real-world organic operations, from backyard gardens to small farms to large certified-organic operations
That’s the design problem NutriHarvest set out to solve.
What NutriHarvest Actually Does, in Plain-English
NutriHarvest isn’t “just another organic fertilizer.” At its core, it’s a nutrient-recovery and plant biostimulant platform.
Here’s the simple version:
NutriHarvest turns waste nutrients in organic by-product streams from farms and food-related operations into OMRI-listed, granular organic fertilizers that are easy for organic growers to apply with their existing equipment.
Instead of letting nutrient-rich by-products—from dairy, food and beverage processing, or other organic streams—become pollution, NutriHarvest captures those nutrients, stabilizes them, and transforms them into high-performance organic plant fertilizers and biostimulants growers can spread, blend, or side-dress just like familiar products.[5][6][7] NutriHarvest+2
For growers, that translates to three big wins:
- High-performing organic fertility
- Compatiblity with existing tools (spreaders, seeders, side-dressers, drip systems)
- A cleaner, circular nutrient story that resonates with health-focused consumers and FIM programs
Now let’s tie this directly to Food Is Medicine.
How NutriHarvest Supports the Food Is Medicine Movement
1. Turning waste streams into soil health—and healthier food
Food Is Medicine is built on a simple premise: nutritious food can prevent and treat disease.[2][3] But nutritious food doesn’t start in the grocery aisle. It starts with balanced, living soil.
NutriHarvest’s process takes nutrient-rich “waste” from across the food system and turns it into organic fertilizers and biostimulants that:
- Add stable organic matter to the soil
- Support beneficial microbial communities
- Deliver nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients in a slow, plant-available form
The result for organic growers:
- Stronger root systems
- Better nutrient uptake
- More resilient plants in the face of stress
In other words, you’re not just feeding plants—you’re building the biological foundation that helps vegetables, fruits, and grains reach their full nutrient potential for Food Is Medicine programs.
2. Backed by real-world yield gains—not just theory
For health systems and payers, “Food Is Medicine” only works if there’s enough high-quality food to supply meals, grocery boxes, and produce prescriptions affordably.
That’s where yield really matters.
In university extension-led field trials, NutriHarvest organic fertilizer was compared side-by-side with other organic and conventional fertilizers. The trials found that NutriHarvest:
- Outperformed several leading organic options (like hemp seed meal and a popular organic fertilizer brand) and urea
- Delivered much higher tomato yields—often in the range of 40–90% more harvest depending on the comparison product
- Showed significantly more tomatoes per plant in replicated field plots[5]
Because real farms and gardens vary, NutriHarvest uses a conservative figure in its messaging: an average yield boost of about 48% compared to other organic fertilizers, based on those trials.[5]
For organic growers participating in Food Is Medicine supply chains (like:
- regional produce prescription programs,
- medically tailored meal vendors sourcing organic ingredients,
- or hospital/community-supported agriculture partnerships),
those yield gains matter. More yield per bed or acre means:
- Lower cost per pound of nutrient-dense produce
- Better ability to meet contract volumes
- Stronger economics for “food as medicine” models that depend on premium-quality food but still have to pencil out financially
3. Reducing nutrient loss and protecting waterways
Food Is Medicine isn’t just about individual health—it’s also about community and environmental health. Federal Food Is Medicine guidance highlights the need for approaches that support health equity, local ecosystems, and community resilience.[2]Health.gov
Traditional fertilizer losses—especially nitrogen and phosphorus—don’t just waste money. They:
- Fuel algal blooms and “dead zones”
- Contaminate drinking water
- Undermine public trust in agriculture
NutriHarvest tackles this from both ends:
- Upstream, by recovering nutrients from organic wastewater and by-product streams that would otherwise pollute rivers and lakes
- Downstream, by delivering those nutrients in stable organic forms that are less prone to runoff and leaching
NutriHarvest’s own materials highlight that its fertilizers are manufactured with processes designed to reduce nutrient runoff and safeguard lakes and waterways.[5][6][7] NutriHarvest+2
For organic growers working with health-care partners or mission-driven buyers, this creates a uniquely powerful story:
The same fertilizer that’s feeding our crops is also keeping nutrients out of rivers and protecting the water our communities drink.
That’s Food Is Medicine at the ecosystem level.
4. Making organic fertility simpler for busy growers
One of the big takeaways from the Tufts Food Is Medicine survey: even when people want to eat better, complexity is a barrier—cost, confusion, access, time, and skills all get in the way.[1]Tufts Now
Growers face their own version of that problem. Many organic fertilizers are:
- Dusty or awkward to handle
- Hard to spread evenly or meter into equipment
- Inconsistent in nutrient content
NutriHarvest is intentionally designed to lower friction:
- Granular and dry formats that run through standard spreaders, seeders, side-dressers, and many broadcast tools
- Clear nutrient labeling (NPK plus biostimulant claims where applicable) to simplify planning
- OMRI listing and USDA-certified biobased status for several products, helping organic growers stay compliant and giving buyers confidence in the inputs being used[6]NutriHarvest
For organic producers supplying health-care systems, schools, or institutional buyers, that simplicity matters. It reduces operational headaches and makes it easier to scale Food Is Medicine–aligned growing systems without reinventing your entire fertility program. So that more time goes into growing high-quality, health-supporting crops for Food Is Medicine programs.
Why This Matters to Organic Growers (and the People They Feed)
Put all of this together, and a clear picture emerges:
- Food Is Medicine is scaling fast, with growing bipartisan policy support, large demonstrations in Medicare and Medicaid, and significant evidence of cost savings and better outcomes.[1–4]
- These programs will increasingly need reliable supply of nutrient-dense, sustainably grown food, upported by healthy soils and good agronomy, preferably from regional and local farms.
- Organic growers who can tell a soil-to-soil health story—showing how they prevent nutrient pollution and boost yields—are incredibly well-positioned partners.
NutriHarvest sits right at that intersection:
- For growers, it offers high-performing, easy-to-use organic fertilizers and biostimulants that improve yield and soil health.
- For health systems and Food Is Medicine programs, it helps ensure that the “medicine” being prescribed—fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs—is grown in ways that align with environmental and community health goals.
In short, it helps bridge the gap between public health ambition and on-the-ground agronomy.
How Organic Growers Can Plug Into the Food Is Medicine Future
If you’re an organic grower, here are a few practical ways to lean into this movement:
- Frame your fertility program as part of a health story
-
- Highlight how you use soil-building organic fertilizers and reduced-runoff practices.
- Share simple before/after visuals of crop vigor, soil structure, or yield.
- Connect with Food Is Medicine stakeholders in your region
-
- Look for medically tailored meal providers, produce prescription programs, or hospital wellness initiatives.
- Offer to pilot supply relationships with clear quality specs and storytelling support.
- Use inputs that fit both organic compliance and health narratives
-
- Fertilizers like NutriHarvest can help you say, truthfully:
- “We’re not just organic—we’re using inputs that recover nutrients and protect waterways.”
- Tell your story where patients and consumers already are
-
- QR codes on CSA boxes or farmstand signs linking to stories about your soil, inputs, and stewardship
- Collaborations with local clinics, employers, or health educators who are already teaching “food as medicine”
A Simple Bottom Line
The Food Is Medicine movement is making something very old feel new again: the idea that what we eat is central to how healthy we are.
But to turn that idea into reality—into medically tailored meals, grocery prescriptions, and nutrition programs that actually work—we need farmers and growers who can produce nutrient-dense food at scale, without sacrificing soil or water quality.
That’s the space NutriHarvest is designed for: helping organic growers grow more, grow better, and grow cleaner, so that Food Is Medicine has a strong, healthy supply chain from the ground up.
References
- Tufts University. Food Is Medicine: A Movement at a Tipping Point. Tufts Now, October 15, 2025. https://now.tufts.edu/2025/10/15/food-medicine-movement-tipping-point
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Food Is Medicine Landscape Summary. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2024. https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/Food%20Is%20Medicine%20Landscape%20Summary%20FINAL%20508.pdf
- Tufts / Informing Nutrition Policy. Food Is Medicine. Nutrition Policy Initiative. https://informingnutritionpolicy.org/food-is-medicine/
- Leasca S. A New Study Says ‘Food Is Medicine’ Programs Could Save the US More Than $32 Billion a Year. Food & Wine, April 15, 2025, summarizing Health Affairs analysis from Tufts researchers. https://www.foodandwine.com/food-is-medicine-saves-money-hospital-visits-11714571
- NutriHarvest® Unveils Organic Fertilizer That Boosts Yields up to 48% and Protects Waterways. EINPresswire, April 23, 2025. https://www.einpresswire.com/article/805648081/nutriharvest-unveils-organic-fertilizer-that-boosts-yields-up-to-48-and-protects-waterways
- NutriHarvest®. NutriHarvest® Organic Fertilizers. Product collection page. https://www.nutriharvest.com/collections/organic-fertilizers
- NutriHarvest®. The Future is Here: The Ultimate Organic Fertilizer That’s Saving Our Waters and Revolutionizing Farming! NutriHarvest Blog, January 9, 2024. https://www.nutriharvest.com/blogs/news/the-future-is-here-the-ultimate-organic-fertilizer-thats-saving-our-waters-and-revolutionizing-farming
About the Author
Passionate about organic gardening for healthy food, our NutriHarvest staff writer has been cultivating organic vegetables & fruits for over decades. Sharing knowledge and tips to help fellow gardeners achieve bountiful and organically grown harvests is our mission.
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