Grocery shopping (with poll!)

Two articles on food supply in urban areas highlight some issues of interest to me.  

The first appears in the Houston Chronicle, "Grocery Options Tied to Obesity, Tuesday December 7, 2004, Page B2.  The second from the Boston Globe, appears in a Marin County paper "Why the Poor Can't Afford to Eat Better"

(more below the fold)

The Chronicle's article discusses research performed by a local researcher, Rebecca Lee.  The research tests whether or not the CW among health researchers - that the urban poor do not have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables - has empirical support.

Lee and some colleagues examined 13 urban housing developments ("UN's") and four suburban areas ("SN's") in Kansas City, KS.  Here are some of their results:

• All 13 UN's had at least one store where food could be bought within 1/2 mile.

• In three of the UN's the food stores were supermarkets; in most of the UN's the food was available at liquor stores, convenience stores, or pharmacies.  All four SN's in comparison had well-stocked supermarkets.

• You could buy green beans in only one of the UN's.  You could buy apples and oranges in eight of the UN's.  In comparison, the SN stores had more and better quality produce.

Lee concludes, with reference to the typical doctor's advice to eat a healthy diet (the quote is a bit munged, so I have in brackets what I think, from context, she meant to say):

"From a public health standpoint, it is simply unrealistic to put the burden on [of] responsiblity [on them] when there are no health choices for them in their neighborhoods."

She is continuing this line of research in Houston, where I expect she will find similar results.

From Boston,  

Dr. Paula A. Johnson and her colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital decided to examine what a dozen Roxbury women were eating and analyze how much it would cost them to stick to a diet designed to provide maximum protection for their hearts.

They found, for instance, that a family of four would need nearly $700 a month, while a senior would require upward of $250. For that amount, they could afford lunches that might include 3 ounces of white tuna and whole wheat bread and dinners consisting of a baked pork chop, sweet potato, and mixed greens with a tomato.

$700 per month is, based on a 40 hour week, about $4 per hour.  While not exactly apples to oranges because food in Houston is likely cheaper, housing in a 'b-minus' or 'c' area of town may be around $350 per month, or $2 per hour.  This is before utilities, transportation, etc.  If you start adding things up, it's easy to see how quickly a $8 - $10 per hour worker - and that's well above minimum wage - can struggle to make ends meet, and yet fail to provide adequate nutrition for his or her children.

The Brigham researchers, like Lee, found a paucity of stores in the urban poor neighborhoods.  They also noted that in the winter the poor experience a "heat or eat" dilemma.  They do note that cultural factors can play a role, and in Boston they are performing some educational outreach on making better food choices.  While that outreach is good and may help to stimulate additional demand for healthful food choices, I have to wonder what practical effect it would have.  In some sense, due to difficulties with transportation, many of the residents of these areas are captive customers.  I have a car and if I am not satisfied with the produce at my local store I have the means to purchase my food elsewhere.  In fact in my weekly shopping I typically drive to three separate stores, all of which are fairly close to me - probably within a 1/2 mile radius.  It's a real luxury and one that many folks do not share.  

I also wonder about the rural poor.  They were not the focus of these studies - I suspect their grocery choices are even more limited than those of the urban poor.  

I think the problem of access to affordable and adequate food will get worse because modern food production requires the input of a huge amount of petroleum products.

As liberals or democrats or progressives or whatever we want to call ourselves I think it behooves us to consider access to adequate and affordable food, and to consider how to expand that access.