In the United States, people living in low-income neighborhoods frequently do not have access to affordable healthy food venues, such as supermarkets. Instead, those living in "food deserts" must rely on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy food choices, such as fruits and vegetables. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened a two-day workshop on January 26-27, 2009, to provide input into a Congressionally-mandated food deserts study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. The workshop, summarized in this volume, provided a forum in which to discuss the public health effects of food deserts.
The tenth anniversary edition of an essential text on food politics: “Well researched and lucidly written . . . This book is sure to spark discussion” (Publishers Weekly). When John Robbins first released The Food Revolution in 1987, his insights into America’s harmful eating habits gave us a powerful wake-up call. Since then, Robbins has continued to shine a spotlight on the most important issues in food politics, such as our dependence on animal products, provoking awareness and promoting change. Robbins’s arguments for a plant-based diet are compelling and backed by over twenty years of work in the field of sustainable agriculture and conscious eating. This timely new edition will enlighten those curious about plant-based diets and fortify the mindsets of the already converted.
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
With U.S. health care costs projected to grow at an average rate of 5.5 percent per year from 2018 to 2027, or 0.8 percentage points faster than the gross domestic product, and reach nearly $6.0 trillion per year by 2027, policy makers and a wide range of stakeholders are searching for plausible actions the nation can take to slow this rise and keep health expenditures from consuming an ever greater portion of U.S. economic output. While health care services are essential to heath, there is growing recognition that social determinants of health are important influences on population health. Supporting this idea are estimates that while health care accounts for some 10 to 20 percent of the determinants of health, socioeconomic factors and factors related to the physical environment are estimated to account for up to 50 percent of the determinants of health. Challenges related to the social determinants of health at the individual level include housing insecurity and poor housing quality, food insecurity, limitations in access to transportation, and lack of social support. These social needs affect access to care and health care utilization as well as health outcomes. Health care systems have begun exploring ways to address non-medical, health-related social needs as a way to reduce health care costs. To explore the potential effect of addressing non-medical health-related social needs on improving population health and reducing health care spending in a value-driven health care delivery system, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine held a full-day public workshop titled Investing in Interventions that Address Non-Medical, Health-Related Social Needs on April 26, 2019, in Washington, DC. The objectives of the workshop were to explore effective practices and the supporting evidence base for addressing the non-medical health-related social needs of individuals, such as housing and food insecurities; review assessments of return on investment (ROI) for payers, healthy systems, and communities; and identify gaps and opportunities for research and steps that could help to further the understanding of the ROI on addressing non-medical health-related social needs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
In the United States, people living in low-income neighborhoods frequently do not have access to affordable healthy food venues, such as supermarkets. Instead, those living in "food deserts" must rely on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy food choices, such as fruits and vegetables. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) convened a two-day workshop on January 26-27, 2009, to provide input into a Congressionally-mandated food deserts study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. The workshop, summarized in this volume, provided a forum in which to discuss the public health effects of food deserts.
Considering the detrimental environmental impact of current food systems, and the concerns raised about their sustainability, there is an urgent need to promote diets that are healthy and have low environmental impacts. These diets also need to be socio-culturally acceptable and economically accessible for all. Acknowledging the existence of diverging views on the concepts of sustainable diets and healthy diets, countries have requested guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on what constitutes sustainable healthy diets. These guiding principles take a holistic approach to diets; they consider international nutrition recommendations; the environmental cost of food production and consumption; and the adaptability to local social, cultural and economic contexts. This publication aims to support the efforts of countries as they work to transform food systems to deliver on sustainable healthy diets, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs at country level, especially Goals 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action).
The Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights submits this report, "Food Deserts in Chicago," as part of its responsibility to examine and report on civil rights issues in Illinois under the jurisdiction of the Commission. The Committee has been monitoring the issue of health disparities in Chicago for several years and this report is the culmination of research, a briefing, numerous working group sessions, and, finally, a fact finding meeting on the issue in August 2010. The report was approved by a vote of 18 to 1. At the start of this project, it did not take long to realize that many Chicago neighborhoods are considered food deserts because of the difficulty residents of these areas have in accessing fresh, nutritious foods, in particular fruits and vegetables. Of note to this Committee is the fact that these food desert neighborhoods are almost exclusively in African American neighborhoods.
The consumption and distribution of food, as well as its production, has become a major public policy issue over the past few decades; what we eat is no longer merely a private matter but carries significant externalities for wider society. Its increasing significance within the public arena implies a dissonance regarding the boundaries of food; where do we draw the line between food as private and food as public? What are the rights of society to impinge upon individual food consumption, and what conflicts will ensue when this boundary is disputed? The Consuming Geographies of Food explores these multiple issues of food across different regions of the world from the consumer's perspective. It uniquely explicates the factors that lead customers towards certain typologies of consumption and towards certain types of retailing, offering a comprehensive review of the obesity problem, the phenomenon of food deserts and the issue of exclusion from a healthy diet. It then considers the effects of food on the consumer, the dynamic relationship between food and people, and the issue of food exclusion before concluding with possible futures for food consumption, from low-technology projects to high-technology scenarios. Based on original research into food access, ethics and consumption in both developed and less-developed countries this book will be of interest to students, researchers and academics in the fields of geography, economics, hospitality health, marketing, nutrition and sociology.
"In this book, Morland, Lehmann, and Karpyn discuss the critical need for healthy food financing programs as a vehicle to improve food access for all Americans. In my career as a public servant, there are very few legislative achievements that I’m prouder of than the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which started in my home state of Pennsylvania. The program gained status as a proven and economically sustainable federal program that is helping to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods: by allowing millions access to healthy, affordable food." – Congressman Dwight Evans United States House of Representatives, Pennsylvania, District 3 "If we work together, we can create a healthy food system that is equitable and accessible to all. This book highlights the importance of healthy food projects like grocery stores, farmers markets, co-ops, and other healthy food retail in revitalizing local communities across the country. Without basic nourishment, kids and families simply won’t be successful – which is why this book is a must read." – Sam Kass President Obama’s Senior Nutrition Policy Advisor and Executive Director of Let’s Move! "Morland and colleagues’ new second edition provides an excellent foundation for courses in food policy and community nutrition. Their detailed review of the economics of local and national food financing will open students’ minds to the complexity inherent in measuring and interpreting outcomes." – Robert S. Lawrence, MD, MACP Founder and Former Director of the Center for a Livable Future Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health Features ● Describes how disparities in food access formed in the United States ● Includes federal policies and programs aimed at addressing food access in underserved areas, including the Healthy Food Financing Initiative ● Features examples of state initiatives that address poor access to food retailers ● Provides methods for program evaluation utilizing principals of implementation and dissemination science ● Includes critical thinking questions and embedded videos aimed to generate discussions on how restricted local food environments in the United States are rooted in economic disparities that impact food access as well as housing, education, and job opportunities
In a world where obesity has now reached epidemic proportions, a thorough understanding of the underlying causes of the problem is essential if society, public health initiatives and government policies are to successfully address the issue. The obesogenic environment describes all the possible influences that our environment presents which encourage overweight and obesity in individuals and populations. Beginning with an overarching introduction to obesity and its implications for health and wellbeing, the book will move on to consider such crucial areas as eating behaviours and food environments, physical activity and the environment, the urban environment, methods, policy and future research directions. Brings together expertise from across a range of disciplines Written by a truly multidisciplinary team of international authors Presents some of the most innovative thinking in the battle against obesity This groundbreaking book brings together for the first time the knowledge of experts with backgrounds in nutrition and dietetics, policy, epidemiology, environmental sciences, medical sciences, town planning and urban design, transport, geography and physical activity in order to offer a multidisciplinary approach to public health, suggesting new and exciting ways to shape our environment to better support healthful decisions.
