Download or read book The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, people living in low-income neighborhoods frequently do not have access to affordable healthy food venues, such as supermarkets. Instead, those living in "food deserts" must rely on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy food choices, such as fruits and vegetables. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened a two-day workshop on January 26-27, 2009, to provide input into a Congressionally-mandated food deserts study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. The workshop, summarized in this volume, provided a forum in which to discuss the public health effects of food deserts.

Download or read book Rapid Urbanisation Urban Food Deserts and Food Security in Africa written by Jonathan Crush and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates food security and the implications of hyper-urbanisation and rapid growth of urban populations in Africa. By means of a series of case studies involving African cities of various sizes, it argues that, while the concept of food security holds value, it needs to be reconfigured to fit the everyday realities and distinctive trajectory of urbanisation in the region. The book goes on to discuss the urban context, where food insecurity is more a problem of access and changing consumption patterns than of insufficient food production. In closing, it approaches food insecurity in Africa as an increasingly urban problem that requires different responses from those applied to rural populations.

Download or read book Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences written by Michele Ver Ploeg and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-02 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 directed the U.S. Dept. of Agr. to conduct a 1-year study to assess the extent of areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, identify characteristics and causes of such areas, consider how limited access affects local populations, and outline recommend. to address the problem. This report presents the findings of the study, which include results from two conferences of national and internat. authorities on food deserts and a set of research studies. It also includes reviews of existing literature, a national-level assessment of access to large grocery stores and supermarkets, analysis of the economic and public health effects of limited access, and a discussion of existing policy interventions. Illus.

Download or read book The Urban Food Revolution written by Peter Ladner and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our reliance on industrial agriculture has resulted in a food supply riddled with hidden environmental, economic and health care costs and beset by rising food prices. With only a handful of corporations responsible for the lion's share of the food on our supermarket shelves, we are incredibly vulnerable to supply chain disruption. The Urban Food Revolution provides a recipe for community food security based on leading innovations across North America. The author draws on his political and business experience to show that we have all the necessary ingredients to ensure that local, fresh sustainable food is affordable and widely available. He describes how cities are bringing food production home by: Growing community through neighborhood gardening, cooking and composting programs Rebuilding local food processing, storage and distribution systems Investing in farmers markets and community supported agriculture Reducing obesity through local fresh food initiatives in schools, colleges and universities. Ending inner-city food deserts Producing food locally makes people healthier, alleviates poverty, creates jobs, and makes cities safer and more beautiful. The Urban Food Revolution is an essential resource for anyone who has lost confidence in the global industrial food system and wants practical advice on how to join the local food revolution.

Download or read book Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts written by Paula Dutko and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introd. -- Literature -- Method for defining and measuring food deserts -- Descriptive analyses -- Results: comparing food desert tracts with all other tracts -- Changes in food desert tract characteristics over time -- Regression analysis: methodology -- Conclusion -- References.

Download or read book Overcoming Food Deserts in Your Community written by Cathy Harris and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book not only lays out several action plans to gain access to good, clean, organic foods, but it will help all family members gain access to job and business opportunities, while they eliminate food deserts in their communities. Face it we will never get back to totally living off the land like our ancestors did, but families must come together today for the sake of future generations. We need to seriously look at solutions because this is the first generation that will not outlive their parents. However, there are economically empowered ways we can feed, clothe and shelter our own families. Food is not always only about the most expedient way to suppress hunger. Many community organizations have long understood this and believe that food access and quality is tied to both racial and economic justice. Over the past few years we have heard quite a bit about food deserts, or high poverty areas where a lack of grocery stores makes it difficult for residents to purchase fresh food. However, we know far less about the food realities of people who live near stores where fresh food is sold, but because of their limited incomes, they simply cannot afford it. Affordable healthy food is an issue of both equity and justice that disproportionally affects working-class and poor people of color in cities and rural areas. Reducing the economic necessity for some to rely so heavily on food that is unhealthy, is not only a tool for fighting health concerns, there are other benefits too. Time and time again it shows when many schools team up with healthy venues and swap out soda machines and offer instead -- juices, water and low-sugar energy drinks and also prepared meals entirely free of additives and chemicals, but with abundant amounts of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole-grain breads, this have led to reduced behavioral problems, higher grades, lower expulsion rates, decreases in the use of ADD prescription drugs, and teachers are reporting that the students were more attentive and could concentrate for longer periods of time. Gaining access to clean, sustainability, grown food is a basic human right so we need venues to offer education to inspire family members to live healthy lives, by offering hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition and this is what this book will do.

Download or read book In Defense of Processed Food written by Robert L. Shewfelt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-23 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has become popular to blame the American obesity epidemic and many other health-related problems on processed food. Many of these criticisms are valid for some processed-food items, but many statements are overgeneralizations that unfairly target a wide range products that contribute to our health and well-being. In addition, many of the proposed dangers allegedly posed by eating processed food are exaggerations based on highly selective views of experimental studies. We crave simple answers to our questions about food, but the science behind the proclamations of food pundits is not nearly as clear as they would have you believe. This book presents a more nuanced view of the benefits and limitations of food processing and exposes some of the tricks both Big Food and its critics use to manipulate us to adopt their point of view. Food is a source of enjoyment, a part of our cultural heritage, a vital ingredient in maintaining health, and an expression of personal choice. We need to make those choices based on credible information and not be beguiled by the sophisticated marketing tools of Big Food nor the ideological appeals and gut feelings of self-appointed food gurus who have little or no background in nutrition.

Download or read book Food Between the Country and the City written by Nuno Domingos and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when the relationship between 'the country' and 'the city' is in flux worldwide, the value and meanings of food associated with both places continue to be debated. Building upon the foundation of Raymond Williams' classic work, The Country and the City, this volume examines how conceptions of the country and the city invoked in relation to food not only reflect their changing relationship but have also been used to alter the very dynamics through which countryside and cities, and the food grown and eaten within them, are produced and sustained. Leading scholars in the study of food offer ethnographic studies of peasant homesteads, family farms, community gardens, state food industries, transnational supermarkets, planning offices, tourist boards, and government ministries in locales across the globe. This fascinating collection provides vital new insight into the contested dynamics of food and will be key reading for upper-level students and scholars of food studies, anthropology, history and geography.

Download or read book The Neoliberal City written by Jason Hackworth and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shift in the ideological winds toward a "free-market" economy has brought profound effects in urban areas. The Neoliberal City presents an overview of the effect of these changes on today's cities. The term "neoliberalism" was originally used in reference to a set of practices that first-world institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose on third-world countries and cities. The support of unimpeded trade and individual freedoms and the discouragement of state regulation and social spending are the putative centerpieces of this vision. More and more, though, people have come to recognize that first-world cities are undergoing the same processes. In The Neoliberal City, Jason Hackworth argues that neoliberal policies are in fact having a profound effect on the nature and direction of urbanization in the United States and other wealthy countries, and that much can be learned from studying its effect. He explores the impact that neoliberalism has had on three aspects of urbanization in the United States: governance, urban form, and social movements. The American inner city is seen as a crucial battle zone for the wider neoliberal transition primarily because it embodies neoliberalism's antithesis, Keynesian egalitarian liberalism. Focusing on issues such as gentrification in New York City; public-housing policy in New York, Chicago, and Seattle; downtown redevelopment in Phoenix; and urban-landscape change in New Brunswick, N.J., Hackworth shows us how material and symbolic changes to institutions, neighborhoods, and entire urban regions can be traced in part to the rise of neoliberalism.

Download or read book Retail Inequality written by Kenneth H. Kolb and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retail Inequality examines the failure of recent efforts to improve Americans' diets by increasing access to healthy food. Based on exhaustive research, this book by Kenneth H. Kolb documents the struggles of two Black neighborhoods in Greenville, South Carolina. For decades, outsiders ignored residents' complaints about the unsavory retail options on their side of town—until the well-intentioned but flawed "food desert" concept took hold in popular discourse. Soon after, new allies arrived to help, believing that grocery stores and healthier options were the key to better health. These efforts, however, did not change neighborhood residents' food consumption practices. Retail Inequality explains why and also outlines the history of deindustrialization, urban public policy, and racism that are the cause of unequal access to food today. Kolb identifies retail inequality as the crucial concept to understanding today’s debates over gentrification and community development. As this book makes clear, the battle over food deserts was never about food—it was about equality.

Download or read book Costs of Sprawl written by Reid Ewing and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the nation, the debate over metropolitan sprawl and its impact has become pivotal to urban planning. A decade and a half ago, Smart Growth America and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sought to raise the level of the debate by sponsoring groundbreaking research to quantitatively measure sprawl and its quality-of-life impacts. The resulting measures are widely used in urban research and public health. Costs of Sprawl provides a panoramic guide to urban form in America, measures sprawl for metropolitan areas, urbanized areas, and counties, and studies the relationship between sprawl and quality-of-life outcomes. From this preliminary investigation, it looks like the costs of sprawl are varied and substantial, and the alternative of compact development is far superior. An essential read for researchers, planners, urban designers, policy makers, and smart growth advocates in the U.S. and abroad, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of one of the most critical issues in planning today.

Download or read book Food and the City written by Jennifer Cockrall-King and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A global movement to take back our food is growing. The future of farming is in our hands—and in our cities. This book examines alternative food systems in cities around the globe that are shortening their food chains, growing food within their city limits, and taking their "food security" into their own hands. The author, an award-winning food journalist, sought out leaders in the urban-agriculture movement and visited cities successfully dealing with "food deserts." What she found was not just a niche concern of activists but a global movement that cuts across the private and public spheres, economic classes, and cultures. She describes a global movement happening from London and Paris to Vancouver and New York to establish alternatives to the monolithic globally integrated supermarket model. A cadre of forward-looking, innovative people has created growing spaces in cities: on rooftops, backyards, vacant lots, along roadways, and even in "vertical farms." Whether it’s a community public orchard supplying the needs of local residents or an urban farm that has reclaimed a derelict inner city lot to grow and sell premium market veggies to restaurant chefs, the urban food revolution is clearly underway and working. This book is an exciting, fascinating chronicle of a game-changing movement, a rebellion against the industrial food behemoth, and a reclaiming of communities to grow, distribute, and eat locally.

Download or read book Urban Food Deserts Perspectives from the Global South written by Jonathan Crush and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The industrialization of the urban food system, alongside the proliferation of supermarkets, has dramatically transformed the landscape of food accessibility in cities. In many countries, the spatial consolidation of food provisioning has deprived many urban neighbourhoods of easy access to food, particularly foodstuffs integral to a healthy diet. These often socioeconomically disadvantaged urban areas are referred to as “food deserts”. However, studies of urban food deserts in cities of the Global South are sparse, given their complicated urban food systems with the strong presence of informal food economies and diverse food sources. This book draws on empirical studies from South African, Brazilian and Chinese cities to investigate the food desert narrative, the characteristics of urban food environment and the various socioeconomic factors shaping it, as well as the food security and health consequences of urban food deserts. These studies reveal the limitations of applying the food desert concept to cities in the Global South and call for more holistic measurements of urban food insecurity.

Download or read book How the Other Half Eats written by Priya Fielding-Singh and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "deeply empathetic" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) "must-read" (Marion Nestle) that "weaves lyrical storytelling and fascinating research into a compelling narrative" (San Francisco Chronicle) to look at dietary differences along class lines and nutritional disparities in America, illuminating exactly how inequality starts on the dinner plate. Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families from varied educational, economic, and ethnoracial backgrounds to explore how--and why--we eat the way we do. We get to know four families intimately: the Bakers, a Black family living below the federal poverty line; the Williamses, a working-class white family just above it; the Ortegas, a middle-class Latinx family; and the Cains, an affluent white family. Whether it's worrying about how far pantry provisions can stretch or whether there's enough time to get dinner on the table before soccer practice, all families have unique experiences that reveal their particular dietary constraints and challenges. By diving into the nuances of these families' lives, Fielding-Singh lays bare the limits of efforts narrowly focused on improving families' food access. Instead, she reveals how being rich or poor in America impacts something even more fundamental than the food families can afford: these experiences impact the very meaning of food itself. Packed with lyrical storytelling and groundbreaking research, as well as Fielding-Singh's personal experiences with food as a biracial, South Asian American woman, How the Other Half Eats illuminates exactly how inequality starts on the dinner plate. Once you've taken a seat at tables across America, you'll never think about class, food, and public health the same way again.

Download or read book Supersizing Urban America written by Chin Jou and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-03-15 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Supersizing Urban America reveals how the US government has been, and remains, a major contributor to America s obesity epidemic. Government policies, targeted food industry advertising, and other factors helped create and reinforce fast food consumption in America s urban communities. Historian Chin Jou uncovers how predominantly African-American neighborhoods went from having no fast food chains to being deluged. She lays bare the federal policies that helped to subsidize the expansion of the fast food industry in America s cities and explains how fast food companies have deliberately and relentlessly marketed to urban, African-American consumers. These developments are a significant factor in why Americans, especially those in urban, low-income, minority communities, have become disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic."

Download or read book Food Deserts in Chicago written by United State Commission on Civil Rights and published by . This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights submits this report, "Food Deserts in Chicago," as part of its responsibility to examine and report on civil rights issues in Illinois under the jurisdiction of the Commission. The Committee has been monitoring the issue of health disparities in Chicago for several years and this report is the culmination of research, a briefing, numerous working group sessions, and, finally, a fact finding meeting on the issue in August 2010. The report was approved by a vote of 18 to 1. At the start of this project, it did not take long to realize that many Chicago neighborhoods are considered food deserts because of the difficulty residents of these areas have in accessing fresh, nutritious foods, in particular fruits and vegetables. Of note to this Committee is the fact that these food desert neighborhoods are almost exclusively in African American neighborhoods.

Download or read book Cultivating Food Justice written by Alison Hope Alkon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, and how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives.