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Making Local Food Accessible

Posted at 3:57 PM on September 11, 2008 by Autumn Long (2 Comments)

I want to thank April for bringing up the issue of food accessibility in her previous post . I've been pondering this issue for a long time now, and rather than posting a very extensive comment on April's entry, I decided to piggyback a second entry onto this topic, in this case with an eye toward my particular geographical region.

Although West Virginia contains great wealth in mineral resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, the state's per capita income is ranked 49th in the nation, second only to that of Mississippi. Statewide levels of employment and education also fall far below the national averages. Serious health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and drug and alcohol abuse have reached nearly epidemic proportions. Many of these health problems can be traced back to poor diets, lack of exercise, and environmental pollution. Earlier this year, a Harvard University study on life expectancies in the United States reported that West Virginians have lower life expectancies than the U.S. average, and that several counties in Southern West Virginia (including McDowell, Logan, and Mingo) were rated among the lowest one percent for life expectancy in the nation. Moreover, several West Virginia counties actually experienced a reduction in life expectancy from the early to late 1990s. You can read more about the results of this study here (Note: It's a PDF).

What does all this have to do with local foods? A lot, I think. Historically, the Appalachians were settled in the 1800s by Scotch-Irish immigrants who established small farms and landholdings amongst the region's steep hills and narrow valleys. These settlers eked meager but self-sustaining livings out of this marginal land, raising crops and livestock for their families. Theirs was largely a subsistence economy; this land is not productive or accessible enough to support large-scale commercial agriculture. But today, this regional history of small-scale subsistence agriculture and rural self-sufficiency has been mostly lost. Examining how we got to this point is a huge issue in and of itself, and there's not space or time enough to attempt a full discussion of it here. So let me skip ahead to the present day, when West Virginians suffer from poor health, inadequate diets, and shortening lifespans, and address how access to and production of local foods might improve the health of individuals and communities in this state.

Access to fresh, healthy food is essential to good health, and it's a sad irony that high-calorie, highly processed foods are often less expensive than fresh, perishable foods such as fruits and vegetables. This goes a long way to explain the link between poverty and obesity. (On a related note, growing your own food offers a much-needed opportunity for physical exercise in an increasingly sedentary culture.) In some states food stamp programs have been expanded to include shares in CSAs and purchases at farmer's markets, which is great ... if there are farmer's markets to frequent and CSAs to join. West Virginia lacks this type of localized agricultural infrastructure, and the development of such, I believe, would go a long way to improve the health of West Virginians' bodies, minds, and communities.

Traditional skills and knowledge systems such as local and regional agricultural methods and gardening techniques can and should play important roles in the development of more sustainable, localized systems of food production. There's a social justice element to this equation, too. By reclaiming our heritage and history, and by embracing the ideals of self-sufficiency and independence that are so closely associated with our cultural identity as Mountaineers, we can improve education and health and promote a sense of pride in ourselves and our communities.

It's obvious that I could go on and on about this topic. But I'll leave it at that for now, and hope that this subject sparks some conversation and debate. Let's open up the avenues of communication, people, and get our brains working on this issue.

Comments (2)

Autumn,

I agree that learning to eat locally, and sustainably is the key to reviving these downtrodden areas in lots of ways. I hope that this comes across both in the locavore project, but also as people rethink their relationship to the economy in the midst of all this economic turmoil. I think it is an uphill battle in some respects because people think it will be difficult- both to grow their own food and to invest time, effort, and money in local food vendors. Not to mention reaching diverse groups of people, as I talked about. I think though, if we start like we all are here, and if we have a dialogue, the idea will spread. I hope this project we're all participating in here helps move the dialogue forward in WV!

Posted by April | September 19, 2008 2:27 PM

Autumn and April,
Thanks for your entries. There's an effort in my impoverished area to start a community garden for town residents. This project addresses both the education and the nutrition aspect of the large issues you mention. New Mexico has poor soil and little water. Yet most rural (poor) residents have their own gardens. I think that may be a correlation with the lack of obesity here.

Posted by Kathleen D | September 26, 2008 10:37 AM