With food prices climbing and the economy on shaky legs, more and more Americans are taking the food security of their families and their communities into their own hands.

An insightful piece in today’s NY Times (”Urban Farmers’ Crops Go from Vacant Lot to Market“) shows how innovative residents of low-income communities are using training from local nonprofits and even some funding from city coffers to help kick-start urban farms.

I know that these urban farms have really helped invigorate my neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. In fact, a 60-person delegation from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development is coming this weekend to Bed-Stuy to visit a couple community gardens, like the Bed-Stuy Farm (photo from their site).

Also, it’s worth pointing out that the Times’ story was written by Tracie McMillan, one of the best and most tenacious reporters when it comes to issues of food access and low-income communities. Visit her site to check out some of her recent work.

The Kern County, California, NBC station has a great piece on the report PolicyLink released yesterday about the connection between your food environment and your risk for diabetes and obesity. The report, Designed for Disease (pdf), was a joint project from PolicyLink, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.

To see how other media outlets like the LA Times, PRI’s Marketplace and the Sacramento Bee covered the study, click here.

This AP Investigative story is simply stunning:

Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any harmful ingredients.

Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department. (emphasis mine)

A similar study was also conducted in East St. Louis, Illinois.

The health dangers of living in low-income communities aren’t always so blatant or intentionally inflicted, though. The PolicyLink Center for Health and Place is a great source of information and strategies on how to build and lift up healthier communities.

Justin, from the new Chicago start-up nonprofit MoveSmart.org, noted in the comments of an earlier post on the new Tesco Fresh and Easy small supermarkets moving into low-income neighborhoods that there are some other chains trying to bring low-cost food to these neighborhoods. He writes:

In Chicago there’s a network of Aldi stores. They are a German chain that offers very cheap groceries (sometimes 50% of what you find in the major chain stores) and have locations in many impacted neighborhoods. Aldi stores, however, have a large footprint and can’t be easily inserted into existing retail space. I hope that Tesco plans to come to Chicago and try some infill - there’s a number of food deserts around the city that could use it!

In the meantime, there are some folks here working to get fresh fruits and veggies into ‘corner stores’ - http://gapersblock.com/drivethru/2008/04/11/big_bodega_love/

As a former Chicagoan myself (and sometime-Aldi shopper) I concur with Justin’s critique that the Aldi’s footprint is too big to work in some of these communities. The prices are pretty incredible, though.

Also, take the time to check out the fledgling MoveSmart.org site. They’re trying something pretty cool. Here’s part of their mission statement:

Until now, information on neighborhoods has been buried in the back of academic reports, pinned to community center bulletin boards, and locked in data sets only available to planners, inaccessible to those who would benefit from it the most: housing seekers looking for a better neighborhood. MoveSmart.org will leverage the power of this information by combining these and other data sources into a single mapping engine built into a full-featured site that includes guides, tools, calculators, forums, and social networks, all designed to foster racial and economic integration.

And here’s a video explaining why they’re doing what they do (set to one of the best horn samples around, “Make the Road by Walking” by Menahan Street Band)

The timing could not be better for the launch of the landmark PBS documentary
Unnatural Causes – Is Inequality Making us Sick?, a four-part series that sheds light on the critical importance of economics, race and class on health outcomes.

The documentary (which I helped advise) skillfully portrays the vast disparities in health and overall quality of life between families with wealth and those clinging to the middle and lower rungs of the economic ladder.

The more money you have, the better your health. This powerful and vital message is at the heart of the series and helped spur the creation of the PolicyLink Center for Health and Place, which I direct.

More resources and insights below the fold….

(more…)

Tune in TONIGHT to PBS for the premiere of a seven-part series, “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?”

1. The first part of the series, “In Sickness and In Wealth,” which airs tonight at 10 pm EST, travels to Louisville, Kentucky to explore how social class shapes opportunities for good health. According to the installment “the U.S. has the greatest income inequality – and the worst health.” The episode also takes a look at Louisville’s innovative Center for Health Equity, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between members of the community, government, private business, and health-care organizations—all focused on the social conditions that underlie opportunities for health and wellbeing.

Watch a preview clip here:

You can check your local listings for showtimes.

Where you live determines how you live.

“Health Care State Rankings 2008,” by independent publisher CQ Press, has named Mississippi the most unhealthy state in America, followed by last year’s dubious winner, Louisiana.

According to the report on AOL.com, “Mississippi has the highest rate of teenage births in the nation, the highest infant mortality rate and the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases. It also has the largest percentage of obese adults and adults who do not exercise.” Interestingly, the country seems divided by regions; the top unhealthiest cities are mostly in the South or West while the healthiest cities tend to be in the Northeast or Midwest.

Unhealthiest States

1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
3. New Mexico
4. Nevada
5. Florida

Healthiest States

1. Minnesota
2. New Hampshire
3. Vermont
4. Maine
5. Massachusetts

PolicyLink believes that where you live determines how well you live; and available resources are not always equally distributed. Furthermore, communities of color and low-income communities often deal with issues of poverty and economic disinvestment, that compromise individual and community health. For more information on these issues, check out: “Why Place Matters: Building a Movement for Healthy Communities,” (pdf) a report by PolicyLink and The California Endowment, which provides an interesting framework that further explains the relationship between community conditions and health.