Food Deserts and Urban Agriculture

Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI)

- 2010 Federal Program - Loans & competitive grants - Support projects that finance grocery stores, farmers markets, and other sources of fresh nutritious food - Also create jobs and business development opportunities in low-income communities

Food desert landscape

About 10% of the 65,000 census tracts in the US meet the definition of a food desert. 13.5 million people...the majority of this population in urban areas (82%)

Food desert

An area in a developed country where healthy food is difficult to obtain

For urban areas, Low-income food desert

Census tracts where 20% below poverty line or median family income is <80% of the surrounding area's median

For urban areas, Low-access food desert

Tracts where >500 people or >33% of population live >1 mile from a supermarket of large grocery store

Problems an urban vertical farm could reduce?

-less space -food deserts -more wildlife -better air quality -reducing carbon emissions

Could urban vertical farms be sustainable?

-less space -not much profit but environmentally it makes sense

Vertical farm

A crop grown vertically instead of horizontally on the ground. Also known as a farmscraper.

Modern agricultural pressures (there are 4)

- we use over 35% of ice-free land for agriculture - we add the population of Germany every year (75 million) - we lose the size of West Virginia every year to degradation - globally, our diets are changing to include more meat

Urban vertical farm problems?

-altitudes effecting plant growth -thick soil needed for some plants -so much technology.. is this counter productive? -artificial -target and security

How does level of mobility apply to the food desert issue?

No car and no supermarket within a mile.. When we think about access and those with limited means this becomes a much bigger deal

Why are we concerned about food deserts?

Obesity rates in the 1960s US was about 10% for young girls but come 2030 obesity is believed to be up to 50%