Food Justice And Food Retail

One of the biggest problems facing American families today is the inability to afford fresh, nutrient filled food. In the United States today over 13 million families don’t have the money to buy fresh food and have to live on unhealthy diets. In the essay Prudence or Cruelty, author Nicholas Kristof talks about how much of a danger malnutrition is to poorer American families. Kristof mentions that the sole reason for such a high rate of malnutrition in poor U.S citizens stems from the lack of money to buy fresh goods. The price of fresh goods is too much compared to the amount of money these families are making. With multiple mouths to feed and a limited budget, going to the grocery store for these families is almost unheard of. These families

I think that we do have food justice in Kentucky to some extent. Kentucky is less of a city place and more of a country place, leading to the encouragement of growing both clean foods and processed foods. Most grocery stores have SOME kind of organic foods. Also there are many IGAs around so you can get them there.

Ever since I was born culture has played an important role in just about every aspect of my life. One important aspect of my life which has specifically been influenced by culture is food, especially having grown up in a predominantly Hispanic family where food is at the center of life. Yet, it was not until my English class focused on food injustice that I began to realize the magnitude of culture 's impact on food. Without even meaning to I began to draw comparisons between food access and quality in the United States versus in Mexico due to the discussions in class revolving around that subject. While I could note many key differences between access to quality food in the two countries I was unsure of the importance of these differences to the larger discussion at hand. Eventually, I was able to see by comparing the lifestyles of Mexican towns against U.S. cities one can clearly see that American conversations about food justice and access are missing a key socio-cultural element.

In South Central, Los Angeles, there is a food epidemic taking place among the population. For miles and miles, the only easily attainable food source is fast food; causing the overconsumption of un-nutritious, greasy, and fattening food. This is the problem brought to the public’s attention by speaker Ron Finley in his Ted Talks speech, “A Guerilla Gardener in South Central L.A.” Finley explains how everywhere he looks in his native South Central, all he sees are fast food chains and Dialysis clinics opened due to the lack of nutritious food. Finley views the lack of a healthy food source as a serious problem, and brings up

Introduction Dayton, Ohio has many current food issues. An especially large issue is food access. Low income families cannot provide food for their children on a regular basis. According to the USDA Food Access Atlas, Montgomery County has a large issue regarding food access. Much of the county is considered to have low income, the US Census Bureau states that 13.5% of the county’s population lives in poverty, so people are less able to provide themselves with food. Many people also have low access, so accessing food is difficult because in low income areas grocery stores and markets are scarce. The USDA Food Atlas states that 29.56% of the population in Montgomery county have low access to a store, which is 158,183.23 people (USDA Food

For centuries, the United States has been seen as a food and food-product paradise; with a constant bombardment of daily specials, “two-for-one” deals, and never ending combo options oozing from every corner of the food-scape. For many Americans, over indulgence is a frequent occurrence-studies show more than 50% of adults say they eat out at least once a week (“58% Eat at A Restaurant”, 2013). Even in this scene of gluttony, the poverty stricken and systematically oppressed find themselves in food deserts across The States; that’s more than 45 million Americans without access to healthy, reasonably priced foodstuffs. Of this group of 45 million, the African American community holds the seat for the highest poverty rate among various racial and ethnic groups at an astounding 26.2% in 2014 (DeNavas-Walt, 2015).

Americans today are no strangers to stretching every dollar earned in an attempt to live the American dream. Most people work long hours and eat on the fly with very little thought to what, or where, the food they have purchased came from. The reason food is so inexpensive has not been a concern to the average American, but the article written by Michael Pollan “The Food Movement Rising” attempts to convince the people that it is time to remove the blinders and take an accounting of the situation that America finds itself in. With obesity at epic proportions, and preventable diseases like

Essay Two: “Americans and Food” We all have heard the old English proverb “An apple a day will keep the doctor away”. Applied in a more general or wide perspective it means that eating nutritious foods will make you healthier. This is one reason why it is so sad that “more than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban neighborhoods that are more than a mile away from a supermarket or in urban areas that are more than ten miles in rural” (Croft).

Poverty is an issue that can be discussed at great lengths, but the real challenge is finding effective ways to reduce or eradicate poverty. It is important to spend quality time developing approaches to the issue of poverty and how to alleviate it. Individuals living in poverty lead a life of limited opportunities and one of these limited opportunities is access to good quality healthy food. The American Nutrition Association considers this lack of access as a Food Desert defined as, “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas” ("USDA Defines Food Deserts | American Nutrition Association," n.d.). One way in which American’s can work towards a future with less poverty and eventually one with little to no poverty would be to eliminate the existence of Food Deserts.

Americas feel all superior to other countries because we have freedom, civil disobedience, and are given all the necessities to prosper. If so, why are American who live in the lower income areas has a shortage of healthy foods at their disposal? Kristy Blackwood and Iris Mansour acknowledge the clear fact to why a called a first-world country has millions of people struggle with not having the access to the suitable food to help combat the issue of obesity in the nation. In “Transforming Food Deserts and Swamps to Fight Obesity” an article that appeared in The Huffington Post, by journalist Kristy Blackwood argue how access to healthy produces in not prevalent in low-income neighborhoods, which are highly dominated by Blacks and

The seventh week of classes dove into the issue of exploitation and inhumanity within the U.S. food system. This system relies heavily upon the underpaid workers that make up a significant proportion of the United State’s labor force. Joann Lo provides an in depth view into the treatment of U.S. food chain workers, showing clear signs of discrimination through financial and racial inequalities. Nelson Carrasquillo describes the historical events and past actions that have allowed the flawed U.S. food system to operate in the racist manner it does today. Both Lo and Carrasquillo provide insight on this systemic issue that has taken root in the nation’s food systems.

“Food Desert” refers to an area in a rural or even urban region with little or no access to big grocery stores that provides affordable and fresh food for people to have a healthy diet. These areas are mostly composed of low-income households who are often Hispanics and African-Americans (Ploeg and Breneman et al). They are often “trapped” in a geographical location where only small convenient stores, which do not have sufficient supply of all common, fresh and healthy food, are available. Currently, there are 13.6 Million Americans who have difficulties in accessing to super markets and large grocery stores. People living in such areas with limited access to grocery stores spend 19.5 minutes more to travel, comparing to the people living in non-food-desert areas (Ploeg and Breneman et al).

Government and organizations must change the social and economic situation of the poor so that health and prosperity reaches all peoples and not just a few. Market condition should not just favor the rich but training, employment, education and health access should be widened to benefit the low income people. Personal choice and responsibility play a key role in attaining and maintaining health. However, the choices people make depend on the choices they have. There is a growing body of research showing that when fresh produce markets and farmers markets with affordable food products, introduces nutritious foods and change consumption of fruits and vegetables in poor neighborhoods that have low SES (Morgan-Smith, 2007). This shows that we must think of policies and collaborative methods to create equitable systems. Community organizations, local health organizations and local government must collaborate on the issue.

These high sugar, high fat goods having little nutritional value, leading to increased risk of things such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity (McGraw Hill Education, 2017). These cheap goods are sold for large profits that line the pockets of the owners, who are unlikely consumers of this produce due to it’s poor quality. Higher class families and individuals have more choice, able to afford the more expensive, healthier foods. Able to opt for the organic and fresh produce that is out of reach of the working class budget. Health food supplements, superfoods and vitamins all available to improve health, but only for those lucky enough to have the choice  (McGraw Hill Education,

In Venezuela, many people can’t buy food because the food prices are too high and there is no food. As a result, the city got serious about farming because it is their only way to provide food. In the text, it states,” ...the administration has said metropolitan areas should grow at least 20 percent of their own food.”this shows that even metropolitan areas need need to grow their own food to feed themselves. Some stores may be stocked but the prices are to high. This affected the citizens of Venezuela to grown their own food.