is medicine and it can help our patients overall health according to the 2018 west virginia behavioral risk factor surveillance system west virginia is the second highest state in the prevalence of general health of adults as either fair or poor west virginia also ranks first in the nation for the prevalence of poor physical health poor mental health and activity limitations due to poor physical or mental health theresa toothman participated in grecos program in 2018 and plans to participate again at the end of this month i had never realized how much fruits and vegetables make a difference said toothman just having that salad at every meal makes a really big difference i owe that program a lot it turned my life around it really did more surprising ally sen mitch mcconnell pushes for farm bill that legalizes hemp farmacies have been able to net support because they are practical allison hess vice president of health at geisinger health in pennsylvania told abc news it costs us approximately 1200 per year in food costs and when you look at the price of medication its far more cost effective to provide food for the patients mark kleinschmidt president and chief executive officer of healthy harvest food bank in virginia also saw incredible results in his eightweek program we were able to lower patients blood pressure by 18 points on their top number and four points on their lower number said kleinschmidt we were also able to lower participants ldl cholesterol by 26 and their regular cholesterol by 7 in this photo from october 2018 a meal is prepared by participants at the healthy food pharmacy in warsaw va mark kleinschmidthealthy harvest food bank some groups however worry about the farm bills overall cost advocacy groups like americans for prosperity and freedom partners chamber of commerce opposed the initial farm bill in a press release published on the freedom partners website the group said overall this farm bill would continue a troubling pattern of irresponsible and reckless spending under this congress that began earlier this year with the 13 trillion omnibus spending bill nathan nascimento and brent gardner two representatives from the groups also wrote a joint letter to congress to oppose a measure in the agriculture and nutrition act of 2018 which modifies usda programs and agriculture and nutrition policies congress should undertake a fundamental reassessment of all government programs including those for agriculture and nutrition programs and respect american taxpayers by putting them on a fiscally responsible path said nascimento and gardner the farm bill should not be an exception despite push back the 2018 farm bill was signed into law by president trump on december 20 2018 funding applications are still open for produce prescription programs more trump tweets video of himself singing green acres with megan mullally at 2005 emmys in honor of farm bill as support for food faramacies grow new locations and pilots have started across the nation south norfolk virginia is set to