[SustainableTompkins] Food justice article & question

[Margaret McCasland]

I was glad to see the last paragraph.  While I'm 
not sure what the authors mean by "education," a 
lot of traditional knowledge resulted in a much 
healthier diet than today.

>So, how can low- and middle-income families
>achieve a healthful diet?  “It takes three
>things, explained Drewnowsky.  “Education, money,
>and time.  If you have all three, you’re home
>free.  If you have two out of three, you can
>manage.  But if you only have one out of the
>three, or zero out of the three, you are pretty
>much screwed.  And a lot of low-income people
have zero out of three

Simply cooking from scratch saves money, improves 
nutrition, and cuts down on packaging and 
transport.  But there are generations of people 
who no longer know how to cook, and it does take 
time.

Growing up in a rural area without much money, we 
ate fruits and veggies year round.  But we ate 
fresh only "in season."  And it took a lot of 
time on the part of women who worked at home, 
"putting food by."

A lot of it comes back to an economy where 
schools can no longer afford to teach basic life 
skills to middle schoolers (No Child left Behind 
didn't help either), and where parents need to 
work such long hours no one has much time for 
cooking from scratch, even if they do know how.

Now I have to go cook some local turnips . . .



>Here's a  sobering article about how we  sustain
>or don't sustain all members of our communities.
>Question: How can we ensure that
>relocalization/sustainability strategies
>(policies, economics practices,  agriculture,
>lifestyle, etc.) address this issue?
>
>Healthy Diets Out of Reach for Many
>
>Eating a healthy diet is getting so expensive
>that many American families cannot afford it.
>Not only are fruits and vegetables costly, but
>food price inflation is reducing the ability of
>low- and middle-income households to get the
>nutrients they need.  Recent research confirms
>these findings.
>
>A University of Washington study, conducted over
>a two-year period in the Seattle area, found that
>good, healthy foods increased in price by almost
>20 percent, four times the rate of overall food
>inflation.  Meanwhile, less healthy, high calorie
>foods held steady in price or actually dropped.
>
>“We were shocked, said Adam Drewnowsky, director
>of the University’s Center for Public Health
>Nutrition and co-author of the study, The Rising
>Cost of Low-Energy-Density Foods, published in
>the December 2007 issue of the Journal of the
>American Dietetic Association.  “The
>nutrient-rich calories, the food we should be
>eating are zooming out of sight, he stated.  “So
>eating well is becoming unaffordable for many,
>even in the middle class.
>
>As healthy foods get more expansive, unhealthy
>foods stay cheap.  “When it comes to empty
>calories, it’s very difficult to compete with
>sugar, noted Drewnowsky.  In Brazil, for example,
>sugar made locally from sugar cane “is produced
>at the cost of 30,000 calories for one dollar.
>Nothing else comes close.
>
>The academic findings were recently confirmed by
>a federal study.  Are Lower Income Households
>Willing and Able to Budget for Fruits and
>Vegetables? is the title of a January 2008 report
>issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
>(USDA).  It is not surprising that households
>with income near or under the poverty line spend
>less money on food than higher income households.
>But even when they experience a small increase in
>income, such households will allocate more money
>to only two of seven product categories – beef
>and frozen prepared foods.  For low-income
>households to prioritize fruits and vegetables, a
>household’s income must increase more
>substantially.
>
>So, how can low- and middle-income families
>achieve a healthful diet?  “It takes three
>things, explained Drewnowsky.  “Education, money,
>and time.  If you have all three, you’re home
>free.  If you have two out of three, you can
>manage.  But if you only have one out of the
>three, or zero out of the three, you are pretty
>much screwed.  And a lot of low-income people
>have zero out of three
>
>For additional information, see the USDA report
>at: 
><http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR54/>
>http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR54/.  The
>University of Washington study is on the web at: 
><http://www.mdconsult.com/das/article/body/86804079-2/jorg=journal&source=&sp=20186529&sid=0/N/619891/If07018007003.fig>http://www.mdconsult.com/das/article/body/86804079-2/jorg=journal&source=&sp=20186529&sid=0/N/619891/If07018007003.fig
>
>--
>Elan Shapiro
>Sustainable Tompkins Community Partnership Coordinator
>Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
>Frog's Way B&B
>211 Rachel Carson Way
>Ithaca, NY 14850
>607-275-0249    607-592-8402 Cell
>
>"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
>	          Mohandas Gandhi
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