Why children are getting and what UB is - University at Buffalo

finalword
Food for Thought
By Samina Raja, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Douglas Levere, BA ’89
Samina Raja is principal
or co-investigator
on several studies that
test the effects of the
built and food environments
on health. She
has written extensively
on food security and
health, and community
food systems and
urban planning.
Food sustains our bodies and accompanies
our celebrations. Eating and sharing food adds flavor
to life’s ordinary and extraordinary occasions.
Yet despite its central role in individual and community
life, the food system in the United States—
or the intricate web of actors, institutions and
resources that facilitate the production, manufacture,
distribution, consumption and disposal of
food—has been neglected by policymakers for far
too long. The consequences are serious, especially
for people with limited means.
An important factor is that consumers of food
are literally and metaphorically removed from
their sources of food. On average, food travels
about 1,500 miles from farm to fork, resulting in
greater transportation costs and energy usage.
Agribusinesses, which rely on hyper-industrial
models of food production, have replaced family
farmers as the dominant player in the American
food system.
Meanwhile, higher-calorie, processed and
low-nutrition foods are cheaper and more readily
available compared to higher-nutrition, low-calorie
alternatives. All this has grave consequences
for public health. Research shows that to derive
1 unit of energy (measured in megajoules) from
cookies we would have to pay about 20 cents on
average, whereas to obtain that same amount of
energy from carrots we would have to pay more
than four times this price.
Also troubling is the spatial dimension that
has emerged in U.S. food retail. In some neighborhoods,
the number of supermarkets and grocery
stores has declined precipitously. Those food
stores that do remain offer few healthful, affordable
foods, contrasted with the often more plentiful
snacks and cigarettes. Living in such neighborhoods—or
food deserts, as they are sometimes
called—impedes individuals’ ability to purchase
healthful foods, especially for those who lack access
to personal automobiles.
One way to improve the food system is through
a more thoughtful practice of urban planning,
given the profession’s role: Farmland preservation
impacts where and how much land for food
production is protected from development, zoning
codes regulate the location of food retail venues,
design of mass transit routes impacts whether
neighborhoods with low auto-ownerships rates are
able to access grocery stores, and so forth.
Yet urban planners in recent history have overlooked
this connection, as our profession has
focused on other issues. Fortunately, though, a
growing movement of community residents, urbanplanning
practitioners, policymakers and researchers
is beginning to recognize the urgent need to
repair and strengthen a community’s food system.
Documenting spatial disparities in the food
environment, its consequences on health and
how urban planners can facilitate the creation of
an improved community food system are a primary
focus of my research. For example, our
research team at UB mapped the spatial disparities
in the food environment in Erie County using
geographic information systems (GIS). We found
that predominantly African American neighborhoods
have about half the number of supermarkets
within walking distance as do predominantly white
neighborhoods.
On the other hand, we found an extensive network
of small independent food stores in these
neighborhoods that currently carry few healthy
options. We see these stores as an opportunity,
however. If networked with local farms, they could
be a venue for healthful produce in underserved
neighborhoods. They also can serve as a market for
struggling family farmers, who face considerable
challenges in keeping their businesses viable.
Rather than chasing after large supermarkets
for underserved neighborhoods, it is time to reinvest
in the existing food retail infrastructure there,
while recognizing the global implications of our
present-day food system, a fact that was recently
brought home by the rise in worldwide food prices.
48 UBTODAY Winter 2009 www.alumni.buffalo.edu