Like many people working in the trenches to combat the scourge of “food deserts” in America, I was excited to hear the USDA was releasing a new study about the problem. With the overwhelming scientific evidence showing a lack of access to healthy food is a detriment to our health, the spotlight from the USDA was quite welcome.

While the USDA should be commended for looking at the food desert issue, it seemed to miss the boat on the depth, breadth, and consequences of the problem.

By the report’s own admission, 23.5 million Americans live in low-income communities without a grocery store within walking distance. That’s about one in every 13 people. That doesn’t seem to jibe with the study’s first finding that “access to a supermarket or large grocery store is a problem for a small percentage of households.”

But more odd is the study’s relative dismissal of the benefits of healthy eating and the real fallout from living in a community with little or no access to fresh food. There has been significant scientific research showing the vital role fresh food consumption and access play in our health:

• A 2002 study in the American Journal of Public Health found fruit and vegetable consumption among African Americans rose 32 percent with each additional local food store.
• A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found lowest rates of obesity (21 percent) among people living in neighborhoods with supermarkets or grocery stores and the highest rates of obesity (32-40 percent) among people living in places with no supermarkets and access to only smaller grocery stores and convenience stores.
• A 2007 national study of more than 70,000 teens found that increased availability of chain supermarkets was associated with lower rates of being overweight
• A March 2009 study in Indianapolis showed adding a new grocery store to a neighborhood translated into a 3 pound weight decrease for residents.

This a public health issue, plain and simple. As we demonstrated in the 2008 report, Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes, people living in neighborhoods crowded with fast-food and convenience stores but relatively few grocery or produce outlets have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes.

In Ezra Klein’s blog post for the Washington Post today, he says that food deserts aren’t the problem. “The problem, it seems, is the opposite: food swamps. Areas dense with fast food and convenience stores,” he writes.

But this is not an either-or proposition. Designed for Disease showed clearly that a dramatically unbalanced food environment is a direct health risk. Having no food choices at all is just as problematic as having a glut of bad food choices.

Photo used under a Creative Common License from Flickr user Spine (aka Rick)

The economic crisis has brought hunger and food access back into the national conversation. Food pantry shelves are picked bare. Milk and bread prices keep climbing. And millions of families across America are resorting to low-cost, low-nutrition food to make ends meet.

Thankfully, though, this renewed attention has also brought smart, pragmatic, and compassionate food policies and programs:

• • PolicyLink President Judith Bell presented ideas to increase healthy food access at a recent Center for American Progress policy panel. Click here for the full video and here to view Judith’s PowerPoint.
  • The federal stimulus package looks set to include a significant 13 percent boost in food stamps and more than $350 million for local shelters and food banks, emergency food assistance, and Meals on Wheels.
  • New York Governor David Paterson proposed a new supermarket development fund, modeled after a highly successful program in Pennsylvania.
  • The federal food desert study that PolicyLink and other advocates helped to get in last year’s Farm Bill is well underway. The study will look at the “challenges many Americans face in accessing healthy and affordably priced foods needed for a healthy diet.”
  • New Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gave a promising interview to the Washington Post talking about the importance of healthy food in schools.

The health of millions of Americans will be tested throughout this economic crisis. It is all the more reason to fight for fair, just, and equitable food access for everyone.

Additional resources, conference info and news after the jump…

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PolicyLink President Judith Bell addresses the importance of access to healthy food during a panel discussion focused on hunger at the Center for American Progress. ” Judith focused on many innovative and urgent policies for spreading healthy food access to all communities — especially low-income communities and communities of color.

You can watch the entire video (courtesy of CAP) below:

The uncomfortable truth is that even before the housing bubble burst, even before the financial markets plummeted and employers began shedding jobs, and economists announced that our economy had indeed gone off the rails, far too many Americans were–as Franklin Roosevelt famously pointed out 65 years ago–”ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed and insecure.”And so the recovery package proposed by President-elect Obama represents not just an opportunity to get America back on track, but to move towards a brighter, more prosperous future for all Americans, particularly for those in low-income communities or communities of color who have too often been left behind.This is not based on pie-in-the-sky dreaminess, but rather a few, specific strategies that PolicyLink believes will produce sustainable growth, healthier communities, and greater opportunity for people to join the mainstream of our nation’s economic life.

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The presidential candidates will meet tonight for their third and final debate in the midst of an increasingly grim economic crisis. As we watch the daily news of economic twists and dramatic policy announcements, we must keep our eyes on the bigger picture - how we could emerge from these tough economic times in a more equitable and opportunity-rich America.

No doubt much of the discussion tonight at Hofstra University will focus on the myriad bailout proposals floating around DC these days. While this crisis escalated dramatically on Wall Street, the long-term solutions must extend to every neighborhood — so every child can attend a high-performing school, every small-business owner can get 21^st-century broadband access, and every American can find an affordable home, earn a decent wage and live in a healthy community.

To truly renew America’s promise, we must have an administration committed to economic policies that lift up all people. So, as you watch the debate tonight, listen to how the candidates answer questions like these:

1. What are the candidates’ plans for investing in our core infrastructure - our bridges, our transit, our schools, our broadband, even our water and sewer systems? These investments will lay the groundwork for our nation’s future global economic competitiveness.  In the shorter-term, they hold the promise of bringing new good-paying jobs, expanding economic opportunity, and injecting much-needed stimulus into communities choked by unemployment.  This could be the cornerstone for a broader longer-term national jobs strategy.
2. How does each candidate plan to make sure all families have access to safe, decent and affordable housing? The “housing crisis” in America is not just rooted in bad mortgages that have left families with more debt than their homes are worth.  It’s also about the long-term viability of neighborhoods. How will the candidates facilitate the purchase of foreclosed properties by states and localities to invigorate growth and preserve affordable housing options?  Fixing the underlying problems is key to stopping this crisis and revitalizing neighborhoods in cities, suburbs and rural communities.
3. How will each candidate make sure all Americans live in healthy communities? Neighborhoods with parks, open space and easy access to healthy food - and free from violence and environmental hazards - are a crucial building block for health and economic and social equity.
4. Once elected, how does each candidate plan to make sure that Americans are invested and engaged in the democratic process? How will they ensure all Americans’ voices- regardless of race or economic status - are heard?

These issues -infrastructure and economic competitiveness; jobs, housing, health and democracy - should be at the heart of any serious discussion on the future of this nation. I’ll be tuning in tonight to find out.

(Note: This post was authored in part to coincide with Blog Action Day Oct. 15, when “almost 10,000 blogs, vlogs and podcasts with millions of readers will post on the topic of poverty.” Check it out.)

The passage of the $307 billion federal Farm Bill drew hoots of derision from nearly all shades on the political spectrum. Deficit hawks said it was laden with pork. President Bush said it was a boon to rich farmers. International poverty leaders said it would exacerbate the world food shortage.

Finding fault with this farm bill isn’t hard; efforts to push for a major overhaul definitely came up short. But in addition to significant increases in funds for food stamps, particularly important in a time of escalating food prices and higher unemployment, embedded in the huge bill are some provisions that could be the building blocks for much bigger changes in the future and could strengthen equity efforts already underway in states and cities to increase access to healthy foods.

As part of the powerful reframing of the farm bill as the “food bill“-a very important success in and of itself-the bill recognizes the problem of lack of access to healthy foods in communities across the country suffering, in some cases for decades, without access to a grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables. In between patching together trips to a supermarket-by car, bus, carpool or taxi-residents typically rely on corner stores or convenience stores stocked with high-fat junk food. These high-in-calories, low-in-nutrition foods are a major driver of the nation’s obesity and diabetes epidemics.

The bill establishes a Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center to increase access to healthy, affordable food-including locally produced agricultural products-to underserved communities. Grants and technical assistance are to be provided for feasibility studies to support the processing, distribution, and marketing of healthy foods. The overall focus is on meeting the needs of historically underserved communities.

In addition, the bill calls for a one-year USDA-led study (with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Small Business Administration, the Institute of Medicine, and others) to look at the incidence of “food deserts” -areas without access to healthy and fresh food retail outlets-while identifying strategies to reduce their incidence. Backed by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), this provision could lead to better and wider understanding of the problem and support for innovative change efforts.

Beyond just studying the need for access to healthy food options, though, the farm bill also provides support for real steps that are underway to address the problem.

After a lot of effort, advocates were able to capture support for farmers’ markets-a great way to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities and sustain small farmers within the region. To reach residents who need these markets the most, the bill helps with market start-up fees and ensures that those with food stamps can make purchases. The bill’s provisions will provide grants to promote farmers’ markets and help secure the technology to take Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) payments.

Advocates also earned several hard-fought victories for farmers of color. Backed by leading groups like the Rural Coalition and the Land Loss Prevention Project, advocates were able to get the bill to include more than 30 provisions from the “Diversity Initiative” - substantially increasing access to credit, grants, services and education for socially disadvantaged farmers and farm-workers.

One of the greatest advances may actually lie in the area where many advocates were the most disappointed - specialty crops. These crops-known as fruits and vegetables to you and me-will get nearly $3 billion in grants and subsidies from the bill, the first time the bill set aside a significant sum for these crops. More than $1 billion will go directly to farmers of healthy crops like grapes, pears, and avocados. Another $1 billion will expand a pilot fruit-and-vegetable snacks-in-school program to all 50 states.

Though subsidies for corn (and the resulting cheap, unhealthy, sugar substitute corn-syrup) still significantly dwarf those for specialty crops, this is a major shift in policy that hopefully can be expanded in the future. A new alliance between advocates and growers of specialty crops was an important element in these provisions successfully making it through the arduous legislative process.

Each of these changes required a champion, from Reps. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) to Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and the agreement of leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-ND), and his Senate counterpart Tom Harkin (D-IA). While the overall bill only offers a glimpse of what a true equity-driven farm bill might look like, we must not lose sight of that vision and of what it could bring us in the next food bill debate.

Market Photo by Flickr user Wiedmaier, used under a Creative Commons license. Please visit Wiedmaier’s photostream for many more beautiful photos.

Britain’s mega-supermarket chain Tesco has begun trying to ingratiate itself into the US with a dramatically different marketing scheme. Rather than focus on the massive, 50,000-square-foot supermarket strategy of traditional American chains, Tesco has started building about 60 smaller “Fresh and Easy” stores in LA, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The idea is to put these smaller stores — roughly 10,000 square feet — directly into low- and moderate-income communities, to give residents a place nearby to buy fresh, organic food often for a fraction of the cost. So far, the response has been mixed from customers, who are unfamiliar with the tiny stores and their relatively bland interiors.

But as PolicyLink president Judith Bell writes in a letter in today’s edition of USA Today, equity advocates should applaud any private sector effort to bring fresh and healthy foods into underserved neighborhoods:

The arrival of the United Kingdom grocery chain Tesco in the USA is a welcome sign that the private sector is waking up to the harmful void of fresh foods in our low-income communities (”British Invasion hits grocery stores,” Cover story, Money, Monday).

Too many poor communities lack a supermarket or any other place to buy fresh food. Residents are forced to make do with the preservative-laden and sugar-heavy foods at their local convenience stores or fast food outlets. Is it a surprise that low-income communities are hardest hit with the nation’s obesity and diabetes crises? Tesco’s plan for small stores in low-income communities won’t solve America’s health woes on its own. But getting fresh foods into the hands of all people is a great step in that direction.

For more information on how to encourage healthy food choices in your community, check out the PolicyLink report “Healthy Food, Healthy Communities”

(Photo by Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Angela Glover Blackwell and Judith Bell recently thanked summit attendees in a letter.

“We have already heard from many of you that the summit was a singular experience—a truly special moment that helped put in perspective the breadth of all our work. In the past, many of us have been hesitant to describe the work we all do as an “equity movement.” But after seeing the impressive and powerful cross-section of advocates, researchers, and policymakers at the summit, there can be no doubt a movement is building—and gaining strength every day.”

Click here to read the whole letter.

Click below to view the attached slideshow:

This slideshow does require the Flash player, which is standard in most browsers. If you prefer photos only, visit http://flickr.regionalequity08.org.