Food for Thought
Did you know?
The corporate-driven commercial food system in the United States causes many serious societal and personal health problems including heart disease, obesity, cancer, and diabetes which are largely preventable and/or can be reversed by a change in diet (see resources below):
Areas for Reflection, Advocacy, and Improvement
Access
Food insecurity affects many Bronxites, with nearly 31% of Bronx residents experiencing food insecurity, including 37% of children. Covid has worsened this reality.
Hunger and lack of access to healthy food negatively impact academic retention, performance, and graduation rates of students as well as the physical and mental health of Bronx residents.
At Lehman College (CUNY), 55% of students are reported to be food insecure at some point each month.
High-need neighborhoods have far greater concentrations of fast-food restaurants and far fewer supermarkets than wealthier neighborhoods. This encourages unhealthy eating and makes residents more likely to suffer from diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
Reforms to the food system are needed to increase access to and affordability of healthy fresh food in high-need neighborhoods.
Hunger, Poverty, and a Living Wage
Blueprint to End Hunger (2018) states: “The root cause of hunger is a lack of adequate purchasing power in millions of households.”
Low wages and high unemployment are key drivers behind hunger and poverty. A rise in the minimum wage correlates to reduced food insecurity.
National Commission on Hunger (2015) states: “Having sufficient earnings is the best defense against hunger and reduces the need for nutrition assistance.”
Advocacy
JoAnn Lo of the Food Chain Workers Alliance (2014) writes: “Anti-hunger groups could play a major role in supporting workers’ struggles and economic justice issues. They have direct contact and relationships with millions of poor people in this country. If they not only provided services to these people, but also organized them in alliance with unions and workers centers, the potential collective power to win social change would be incredible.”
Anti-hunger groups must support raising the minimum wage instead of remaining politically neutral or actively opposed so as not to alienate their donors or board members who often prefer food-programming work to advocating for economic justice, which is at the core of food insecurity.
Health
The Bronx has been ranked the most unhealthy county in NY state for the last twelve years: (#Not62 Rally OPEN).
A diet based on cheap foods of low nutritional value often leads to disease.
Four of the top ten causes of death in the United States are chronic diseases with well-established links to diet: coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.
“The human animal is adapted to a great many different diets. The Western diet, however, is not one of them.” -- Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food
People of color in high-need neighborhoods have fewer opportunities to obtain healthy foods and to make healthy dietary choices.
According to a 2012 report by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, the food and beverage industry spent $4.6 billion to advertise mostly unhealthy products to POC, especially children and teens. Let’s regulate this kind of predatory marketing!
A research brief by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation found that nearly all (98%) of food advertisements viewed by children are for products that are high in fat, sugar, or sodium which are very unhealthy over time and reduce life expectancy.
Americans consume the highest degree of ultra-processed foods of any country, deriving 60% of daily calories from them.
While genetics do play a role in health outcomes, diet plays an even greater role. We all need to eat a more plant-based diet, rich in fruits and vegetables.
Our healthcare system prefers to rely on pharmaceuticals rather than address the root cause of poor health, namely poor diets.
“It’s time to admit that low-grade industrial food, air pollution, environmental and occupational hazards, and lack of access to healthy food and medical care give rise to the 'pre-existing medical conditions' that enable COVID-19 and other chronic diseases to kill people before their time.” —Ronnie Cummins
Inefficiency
40% of food grown in the United States is wasted.
Animal products and their production have an enormous negative environmental impact, contaminating our soil, water, and air.
Chicken
Chris Leonard writes about Tyson and the chicken industry:
“American consumers are using their money to support a system that keeps farmers in a state of indebted servitude, living like modern-day sharecroppers on the ragged edge of bankruptcy.”
According to Oxfam America’s President, Ray Offenheiser, “Poultry workers are among the most vulnerable and exploited workers in the United States.” (2015 report)
Meat
Chronic health problems have resulted from the animal-based Standard American Diet (known as ‘SAD’). We eat too much meat!
“Consumption of animal-based foods contributes to soil loss, groundwater contamination, deforestation, fossil fuel use, and depletion of deep aquifers. Our system of livestock production wastes precious resources and destroys the environment. It is estimated that animal-based food requires about fifty times more land and water resources than the same number of calories of plant-based food. There is also a growing concern about deforestation in the tropics — as much as 80% of which is attributable to new farmland production used for livestock grazing and feed.” (https://plantpurecommunities.org/about-plantpure-communities/)