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food deserts 
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Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 14:46:19 PM PDT
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What do you do if your city has a food swamp, an area with lots of food and none of it healthy? Los Angeles put a moratorium on new fast food joints in one such area, but I like New York's solution better. They are going to provide incentives to draw supermarkets into areas with high rates of diabetes and little fresh food. This measure goes hand in hand with previous efforts like deploying food carts, improving health standards for all meals provided by the city, and encouraging corner stores to sell healthy food.
Now, in a city known more for hot dogs and egg creams than the apple of its nickname, officials want to establish an even bigger beachhead for healthy food - new supermarkets in areas where fresh produce is scarce and where poverty, obesity and diabetes run high.
Under a proposal the City Planning Commission unanimously approved on Wednesday, the city would offer zoning and tax incentives to spur the development of full-service grocery stores that devote a certain amount of space to fresh produce, meats, dairy and other perishables.
The plan - which has broad support among food-policy experts, supermarket executives and City Council members, whose approval is needed - would permit developers to construct larger buildings than existing zoning would ordinarily allow, and give tax abatements and exemptions for approved stores in large swaths of northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn and the South Bronx, as well as downtown Jamaica in Queens.
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Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 17:42:45 PM PDT
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A few years back, I was wondering what it would take to make a widespread, large-scale project like this happen back in Newark. Yesterday, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was on hand with other officials to celebrate the beginning of a pilot project which is already rolling through Detroit -
Operating much like ice cream vendors, trucks bearing fresh fruits and vegetables and sporting logos of MI Neighborhood Food Movers are to drive through city neighborhoods on designated routes and during assigned times.
The project was helped along by a small low-interest loan from the state, and through collaboration of three local nonprofits. Another article on this program from last weekend well worth reading -
"The older people say it reminds them of when they were young," Robinson said. "The younger people like it because it's new. It's rare to go down one street for three blocks and not have someone flag me down."
In the future, as more funding becomes available, those involved here hope to branch out into offering cooking classes, supporting more urban gardens and expanding delivery routes and providing other services.
This also shows, yet again, just how little it takes to make things like this happen. $75,000 in low-interest loans is all it took from the state to help move this project along.
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Thu Jun 25, 2009 at 22:29:30 PM PDT
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Today the USDA released a report on food deserts. The report was the result of a 1-year study, required by the 2008 farm bill. While those familiar with the term "food desert" know immediately what the report is about - areas of the U.S. where healthy food is unavailable - it's also important to note that the term has garnered some controversy lately. Another term I've heard offered up instead is "food apartheid," to highlight the injustice of the situation. The Washington Post's Jane Black uses another term: food swamp... areas that are totally saturated with fast food, convenience stores, and liquor stores that peddle junk. More on the report's findings below.
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Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 17:37:07 PM PDT
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- Farmers' markets in Oregon have been affected by the Bush Depression...in a good way. Record crowds have been counted at markets here in Portland this year, and purchases are up over 20 percent from last year. Also, people on food assistance have spent almost 3 times as much at some markets as compared to last year, and markets are receiving many more vendor booth applications than they have space for.
- David Suzuki and SeaChoice have teamed up with a regional chain of supermarkets, who will no longer carry yellowfin tuna, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and other non-sustainable seafood at their 117 locations throughout British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.
- Should the Washington Farmers Market Association allow nuts from around the world to be sold at farmers' market booths? One local hazelnut grower thinks not.
- "They've survived ice ages, asteroids colliding. They've seen the dinosaurs come and go. And now they're going extinct in unprecedented numbers." - that's Kerry Kriger, founder of Save the Frogs. They may have met their match in us. Native amphibians in Oregon are disappearing at an alarming rate.
- The (Vancouver / Victoria, BC) Tyee takes a look at the ongoing battle between two rival forestry certification non profits who certify eco-friendly wood products - the industry-created "Sustainable Forestry Initiative", and the "Forest Stewardship Council", a group formed by environmental activists.
- Nevin Cohen takes a look at New York City's recently unveiled "Food Retail Expansion to Support Health" (FRESH) plan to bring more supermarkets into low-income sections of the South Bronx, Upper Manhattan, Central Brooklyn, and Downtown Jamaica (Queens).
- Big Ag's gonna hate this! Food, Inc. was the top-grossing independent film at the box office this weekend, finishing ahead of even Francis Ford Coppola's (director of the Godfather trilogy) new film. Reviews of the film can be found here from Jill and from me. See it!
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Sat May 23, 2009 at 15:42:28 PM PDT
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- New York is trying to bring grocery stores to food deserts. Yay! If they find a successful method of doing this, let's hope other cities steal their ideas.
- Interested in what Americans ate during the first Great Depression? Apparently beavers and squirrels were on the menu (hat tip to GastroNomalies)
- Vilsack plays dumb. Swine flu? Never heard of it. He only knows about the H1N1 flu. Riiight.
- Meanwhile, while the swine flu story is over for most of us, it's not over at the implicated Mexican Smithfield operation, which is still very invested in proving its innocence. Especially because its being sued.
- Why a school farm? The Atlantic has some ideas.
- Ever tried Mongolian cuisine? Most of us have probably never even thought about it. I had the opportunity to try some - once - and oh my god, I turned that opportunity down. When I lived in China I had 2 friends from Inner Mongolia. After a trip home, they returned to Beijing with a "treat" for me - some "Mongolian dairy snacks" as they put it. And that was NOT something I was interested in eating. The "snacks" were approximately the size and shape of Cheetos but they were white and looked moist. And there was no freaking way I was putting them in my mouth. I ate dog and testicles in China, but I had to draw the line somewhere. My friends wanted to see me taste them but I awkwardly explained that I wanted to share them with other Americans so I'd taste them later. Fortunately, the food described in this article sounds a bit more appetizing.
- BlogHer is having a foodie conference.
- Yay to the Center for Food Safety, who says that reliance on biotech in a food aid bill is a step in the wrong direction.
- IATP cleverly writes about "seeing the forest through the corn." With a title like that, you KNOW they are talking about Iowa - and a forest in Iowa that is home to many endangered and threatened species.
- In Israel, owls are replacing chemicals to do the job of pest control. Very cool!
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Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 10:11:39 AM PDT
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Tue Nov 18, 2008 at 09:00:00 AM PST
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Here's an article worth reading from Saturday's Oregonian describing the experiences of a family living in the same area of outer Northeast Portland that I did last year, one I described in this diary from a few months ago.
How fresh can you and your family really eat when the trip to the grocery store is a once-a-month event?
Calderon rests her hand on the wheeled wire basket that will haul home nearly a month's worth of groceries for her family of four.
It's after 5 p.m. on a Friday. Calderon and her daughter, Amelia, wait for the No. 72 bus.
From the bus shelter, Calderon has a good view of the neighborhood's most prominent business, The Sugar Shack, a vast strip club and adult business.
"Let's just suppose if they were to get rid of the strip joint across the street, if they put a store there," Calderon muses in Spanish.
Instead, the closest markets are convenience stores. They're sugar shacks of a kind, given their selection of cigarettes, beer and processed foods. At one, the produce section amounts to a few bruised tomatoes, limes and jalapenos. The other charges $4.89 for a gallon of milk, about $2 more than a regular supermarket.
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Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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The common term is food desert, but I have also heard it called "food apartheid." That's what a 32-square mile section of South L.A. is - a poor area of the city with tons of junk but little that is healthy to eat. Nearly 75% of all restaurants there are fast food restaurants.
This week, the city council approved a one year moratorium on new fast food joints in South L.A. (hat tip to Anna Lappe for sending around the article). I'm glad for the moratorium but also doubtful about its ability to help that part of the city. Keeping out new sources of junk isn't enough - South L.A. also needs its city to help bring in healthy food.
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Sat Jul 12, 2008 at 02:11:44 AM PDT
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(Excellent diary and an opportunity to discuss food & income. - promoted by Asinus Asinum Fricat)
A long, rambling thing that started out as a reply on another thread, but it got long enough as to where I felt it instead deserved to be fleshed out more and turned into a diary of its own. There's a point to be made about food access (in the most literal sense) beyond that which involves people on food assistance...or for that matter, even involving personal income levels at all. It has to do with the way neighborhoods are laid out, the businesses they attract, and even a large amount of simple 'dumb luck'. Below the fold, a look at the stark contrast in my very own personal situation regarding access to good food over the past few months here in the city of Portland, Oregon...
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