Policy Change
Existing research provides
clear evidence that food deserts exist in numerous low-income communities and
communities of color across the country, and that they have significant
negative impacts on health, social equity, and local economic development. The
balance of the research strongly suggests that making affordable, healthy foods
more available to under served residents will lead to their making healthier
choices about what to eat and, ultimately, better health, while contributing to
economic and neighborhood revitalization.
While there is general
agreement in the literature about the lack of access to healthy foods and
increasing evidence about its consequences, fewer researchers have focused on
the question of what are the most effective solutions. This search has largely
been taken up by impacted communities and their advocates and supporters.
Across the country, they are:
• Attracting or developing
grocery stores and supermarkets;
• Developing other retail
outlets such as farmers’ markets, public markets, cooperatives, farm stands,
community supported agriculture programs, and mobile vendors (and ensuring
public benefits can be used at these venues);
• Increasing the stock of
fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods at neighborhood corner stores or
small groceries;
• Growing food locally
through backyard and community gardens and larger scale urban agriculture; and
• Improving transportation
to grocery stores and farmers’ markets.
Communities are using a
variety of strategies to increase access to healthy foods, and their efforts
provide several lessons for policymakers at the local, state, and federal
level.
Until more systemic
solutions are instituted, transportation barriers to fresh food markets need to
be removed. Community groups and planners should evaluate existing
transportation routes and improve coordination of bus routes, bus stops, and schedules
or add van pools or shuttles to maximize transit access to grocery stores and
farmers’ markets.
Longer-term transportation
and land use planning should promote the co-location of food retail, transit
access, and affordable homes. Communities and retailers can launch programs
such as mobile markets, grocery shuttles, and grocery van delivery to improve
access to healthy food. Community groups, residents, researchers, and government
agencies should work together to identify areas that lack access to healthy
food and to understand local economic conditions and regional food systems.
Areas lacking access should be prioritized, strategies for action need to
identified, and then advocates need to demand the resources, programs, and
policies to solve the access problem.
Once underway, efforts
should be monitored to examine progress over time, and advocates should seek
the expansion of successful approaches.
Cities have many policy tools they can use to incentivize and promote
healthy food retail including land use planning, zoning, economic development
and redevelopment, and nutrition assistance. A recent analysis of retailers’
location decisions found that the land availability, market demand (and data
demonstrating that demand), construction and operations costs, and approval/zoning
requirements all pose barriers to locating in underserved urban areas.
Cities can help overcome
these barriers by providing publicly owned land for food retailers, helping
with land assembly, and identifying and marketing sites for grocery store
development. Several cities have conducted internal assessments to understand how
their agencies and departments can foster healthy food retail in under served
neighborhoods.
Successful policies and
programs need to be replicated and brought to a greater scale to increase
healthy food access. A problem with such broad and negative impacts on health, economy,
and equity warrants a focus at all levels—community, state, and national. Now
is the time for bold, nationwide efforts to ensure that healthy food choices
are available to all.
So after reading this what do
you think about the policies to remove certain foods from the shelves?
According this when presented with a healthy choice most often people will make
the better choice of fuel. So where is the government in all of this? The quiet
is deafening when it comes to the topic of our poor health directly caused by
the foods that are denied to poorer communities. As a result we often choose
what is available and if you are poor whether urban or rural, it is unlikely
the best fuels will be available.
It is funny when you set out
to do one thing and find yourself being drawn to a broader topic. I believe it
will probably become what propels me to get involved again since it will take
more than my blog to demand this issue is addressed. I know this is as major a long
term threat as there is to the future of our communities and our country as any
that exist. Our government allows the lobbyist pay for the policies that are in
their monetary best interest without one concern for what happens to you and I.
Look around you, “Are you better off?” In the context of health, the answer is
a definitive and loud No!
Question is what do we do
about it? Well first you need to get involved and educate yourself. Second
share the information with your family and friends and encourage them to do
something different. Third use the tools available to contact your local
legislators and attend the community meetings to voice your concern. We cannot
sit back and wait. Our health is getting worse and we are ingesting more
chemicals in order to merely function. So Get Up Get Moving, to improve your
health and the health of your community.
Remember, “CHIT CHAT WON’T BURN FAT”
