sustainability

VISION

It’s 2040 and the small town center in Iowa is bustling with movement and filled with the colors of the produce rainbow. For the town it’s like any other Saturday mid-morning at the farmers market filled with activity, education, and fresh, locally sourced produce. Families walk through the isles of stands grabbing up red ripe apples, juicy grapes and pears, and heaps of vitamin enriched veggies that will enhance their meals all week long. At a nearby booth young kids are playing a game where they learn to pick healthy alternatives for snacks and treats while adults are grabbing up cards loaded with quick, healthy recipes for the family table. Later that evening families are gathered in their homes preparing meals together and enjoying the dinner time chat that is a normal part of life here. Healthy eating is a big deal in this town although this wasn’t always the case. The availability of these nutritious foods wasn’t always so easy to come by and most residents relied on nearby fast foods chains to fill their bellies on an all too often basis. Twenty years ago many of the residents were plagued with health problems like obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol among many others. Back then if you wanted healthier options for food you either had several miles of travel to the nearest grocery store or you might get lucky and find a piece of high priced fruit at the local convenience store. There were not many options and even if there were most residents couldn’t afford the extra cost of these types of food. Luckily things have changed quite a bit since back then and the town is healthier and happier because of it.

COHERENT

Instead of depending on the large industry for their foods this community has learned they can be reliant on themselves. By producing some of their own foods and uniting with other local farms they no longer have a reliance on the wasteful large suppliers. The less being consumed of those products from wasteful companies the less they ultimately will produce, simple supply and demand. The smaller farms don’t have the large negative impact on the environment like the large producers. They can easily use more sustainable means of producing foods with less chemicals and lands. Community solutions are a better option because they circumnavigate a lot of the red tape and paperwork involved with the large federal programs.

TANGIBLE & PLAUSIBLE

This vision is tangible and plausible because there are several other small rural and urban communities that have succeeded in their ability to transform a one time food desert into a thriving more livable community.

After several large chain grocery stores left urban and poorer communities within New York city due to decreasing revenue the city started their “green carts” program that not only provided fresh fruit and vegetables to the underserved areas but also gave jobs to vendors within the city. While the program has yet to reach all of the estimated 750,000 of those who live in the New York food deserts it continues to be successful and expand into more and more areas (“Food Deserts”, n.d.)

Several rural areas have successfully formed community gardens to serve fresh, nutritious produce. Others have been helped through community programs which help convenience stores to stock more fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables for their local community (Loots, 2013)

MOTIVATIONAL

It is highly motivational and inspirational to see a small town in America that was once in poor health turn their lives around using their own empowerment. Enabling people with knowledge and allowing them to be a major player in their own rebirth. These small changes allow all of us to imagine larger scale changes especially in the area of more healthy and sustainable food production.

 

COMPLEXITY & CAPACITY

Our current food system is fed by a handful of large companies who mass-produce in highly unsustainable processes all of the foods we find in the grocery stores. There are several huge problems this type of industry has created 1) massive production of animals for consumption is unhealthy, unnatural, and inhumane 2) Industry backed by big business and politics who only care about revenue and not the farmers 3) Mixture of big business and politics has spread a wealth of corruption within the regulation of the industry which has become careless (Kenner, 2008). The problem becomes the bottom line for the industries involved like the producers and the large chain stores selling the products. In order to maintain the large stores they require revenue which is why you seldom find a large chain grocer in areas with high rates of poverty and unemployment. This creates areas around the United States (and many other countries) where grocers are in very limited supply if they are there at all (Gimenez,2010).

REFERENCES

Food Deserts. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.foodispower.org/food-°©‐deserts/

Gimenez, E. H. (2010, July 14). The Fight Over Food Deserts — Corporate America Smacks Its Way Down [Web log post]. Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/the-fight-over-food-deser_b_646849.html

Karpyn, A., Young, C., & Weiss, S. (2012, February). Reestablishing Healthy Food Retail: Changing the Landscape of Food Deserts. Childhood Obesity, 8(1), 28-30. doi:10.1089/chi.2011.0113

Kenner, R. (Director). (2008). Food, Inc [Motion picture on Netflix]. Movie One.

Loots, N. (2013, May 03). Five Innovative Solutions From “Food Desert” Activists. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://foodtank.com / news/2013/05/five-innovative-solutions-from-food-desert-activists

SUSTAINABILITY

Viability and Integrity of Ecosystems: Mass producers of plant and animal products decimate the environment. Anything we can do to move away from these products is a positive for the environment including small scale farming and eating less meat (Kenner, 2008). This community has managed both of these which has made a beneficial impact on their health and ultimately their lives.

Human and Social Wellbeing: The impact on human and social wellbeing is tremendous as the rates of obesity and chronic diseases are reduced drastically by healthy eating (Karpyn, Young & Weiss, 2012). Society as a whole is better off because as taxpayers we spend less to battle health problems created by unhealthy eating habits.

Equitable Opportunity for Livelihood and Economic Activities: The community as a whole prospers because with good health comes better prospects in many other aspects of life (Karpyn, Young & Weiss, 2012). Producing food as a community brings people together in many ways and even the smallest of gardens yields much more than just produce. Some in the community even manage to make some extra money selling home made products at the farmers markets (Loots, 2013). Gives residents more money that is being spent with the little community which is a boost to their own small businesses.

Justice across Societies (Inter-regional Justice): A single community can act as an example to others suffering their same problems. Communities can then work together to help lift up other communities.

Justice from one Generation to the Next (Inter-generational Justice) Unhealthy eating impacts children just as much if not more than adults. It especially has impacts on their ability to do well and focus during school (Karpyn, Young & Weiss, 2012). Healthy eating increases the changes of children to do better at school and in turn better in life. When one generation is able to lift themselves out of poverty it helps bring the future generations up too.

Food Deserts in the United States

Karen Stahl

Arizona State University