"food deserts" news and stories

Cleveland is planting seeds to counter the serious problems of obesity, food deserts and urban blight, thanks in part to a $1.1 million pilot program to fund the Cleveland Urban Agriculture Incubator Project, which was announced Wednesday.

According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the pilot program will start with six acres of inner-city lots, grown by 20 residents from the Kinsman neighborhood. The urban farming project is being supported by the USDA, the City of Cleveland, the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio State University Extension Service. With approximately 3,300 acres of vacant land in the city, the Cleveland Leader says the project will be the largest urban agriculture district in the country.

Deputy U.S. Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan was on hand for the announcement, and said the administration is also working to address the problem of urban food deserts by testing mobile groceries and food carts, and by working with more grocery stores.

The fledgling urban farmers will receive training and a quarter acre of land. They're expected to begin planting in April. Produce will then be sold to local schools and restaurants, and at area farmers markets. Officials say the soil will be tested both for safety and to determine what crops will grow best. The program is expected to expand to an additional 20 acres in the future.

The farmers' market is the new pharmacy. This is the philosophy of Fruit and Veggie Rx, a new pilot program that recommends weekly trips to the farmers market for prescriptions of good old-fashioned produce.

Juliette Taylor DeVries, Chief Operating Officer of Wholesome Wave, the nonprofit group who created the program, says, "We're hoping to change the food future." Wholesome Wave partners with over 30 other organizations to provide access and affordability to the 32 million Americans living in food deserts, or those places without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

DeVries says, "This is the first ever health initiative that can track the well being of patients after being prescribed a diet of fruits and vegetables." Partnering healthcare clinics will "prescribe" Fruit and Veggie Rx vouchers to 100 at-risk families throughout Maine and Boston during the 2010 farmers market season. These vouchers are redeemable at local farmers markets, each within walking distance of the individual families who are targeted by economic and accessibility factors. Transportation or market boxes will be provided to those out of proximity. Additionally, monthly lifestyle planning and education will maximize the effect of a new shopping routine, and ideally, create a conversation directly between customers and their farmers.

Despite living on some of the most fertile soil in the country, some residents of the Mississippi Delta have trouble finding fresh produce.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture study on "food deserts" -- where fast food, convenience stores and liquor stores dominate the landscape and fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find -- found that in Leflore County, Ms., nearly 12,000 low-income households are more than a mile from a grocery store, the Associated Press reported.

The county's adult obesity rate, at 38.6 percent, mirrors its poverty rate at 38.8 percent, the AP article also reported.

"The biggest concern I'm hearing is that our citizens tremendously need a grocery store," Wayne Self, president of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors, told the AP. "If that's what the citizens want, then that's what I am going to fight for."