Emily Melby, registered dietician and wellness coordinator at Allergy Associates in Onalaska, picks tomatoes in the allergy care provider’s straw bale vegetable garden Tuesday. Allergy Associates is one of 21 companies honored Tuesday for participation in the Well County Workplace program.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: lacrossetribune.com

Imagine a world where doctors prescribed "one dose of a garden" for a pre-diabetes patient. They get a $100 voucher and pick their gardening supplies at the local garden center. Six bales, fertilizer, 18 plants/seedpacks a couple of cattle panels, and a sheet of instructions. Now they get excersize, eat better, even accomplish something great doing a new hobby. They get healthier without even realizing what happened, no diets or programs, it is simply a life changing prescription! Talk about preventative medicine! I call this UPSTREAM healthcare, and it is the answer to so many of the huge problems our country faces with diseases related to what food people are eating. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even depression, can all be directly traced to the diet, and treating these diseases is draining our countries resources fast. Lets change that, encourage your friends to grow a garden…a straw bale garden is a great way to start.