No country for poor (wo)men

Higher food prices likely mean more health problems for low-income folks 8

I doubt if many people really believe that the recent spike in food prices will, as a New York Times piece put it, "make organic food more accessible" and force people into healthier eating patterns. (I wrote about this topic in a recent Victual Reality column.)

For those who do, I offer this remark from Adam Drewnowski, an epidemiologist from the University of Washington, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The food crisis will make obesity and attendant diabetes even more rampant. Fruits, vegetables, and fish are becoming luxury goods completely out of reach of many people. Consumption of cheap food will only grow ... Obesity is the toxic consequence of a failing economy.

Food prices are rising, but we haven't managed to revalue food in our culture. Indeed, as Drewnowski suggests, agribusiness giants are consolidating their grip over the food system. Most of the Big Food industry has seen profits surge with the jump in food prices (save for the industrial-meat giants, who are struggling with high corn prices).

The infamous "externalities" that prop up these companies' profits -- rampant abuse of the environment and labor -- rage on, off of corporate balance sheets.

Meanwhile, as of 2006, 11 percent of U.S. households lack food security, which the USDA defines like this:

[T]he food intake of one or more adults was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.

As wages decline and food and energy prices ramp up, surely that number has grown since 2006. The Inquirer article ably gathers up the implications of higher food prices on the food-insecure:

A recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found that women in poverty were roughly 50 percent more likely to be obese than those with higher socioeconomic status.

In U.S. households making less than $15,000 a year, 31 percent of the women are obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In households with more than $50,000 annually, 17 percent are obese.

University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist Shiriki Kumanyika and other investigators found that poor 15-to-17-year-olds -- black or white, male or female -- were 50 percent more likely to carry excessive poundage than nonpoor teens.

And a study by Drewnowski last year showed that obesity rates in poor Seattle neighborhoods were 600 percent greater than in rich areas.

"Cheap food," in and of itself, is not the problem. We need to figure out ways to make healthy food truly accessible to everyone. The concern isn't merely altruistic. Obviously, a sustainable-food movement that remains cosseted within a broad and disastrous industrial food system can never deliver on its considerable environmental promises.

Proven grassroots projects like Brooklyn's Added Value, Oakland's People's Grocery, Milwaukee's Growing Power, Arizona's Tohono O'odham Community Action -- along with dozens of others -- point a way forward. All they need to reproduce and reach the next level is more resources.

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. javaearth Posted 1:41 pm
    13 May 2008

    - I do not agree with your articleIt is not the food prices, but rather the food lack of education and lack of healthy practices that many lower soc - economic class people lack. Hence making them fat.
    Its about priority. If a persons' own health is not important to them, - price of food will have no bearing what so ever!
    I buy raw beans and grains. I soak them and pressure-cook them at home. I only buy seasonal veggies and fruits on sale. I do not eat junk food. I do not drink soda. I do not eat meat nor deathly dairy products. Hence, I spend very little on food. The rising food cost has had no effect on my food budget.
    If I ate junk food, fatty foods, and packaged foods like most Americans  - and other wealthy nations - do, I too would be fat and poor!
    I see everyday people driving cars with flashy rims, using new cell phones, and going through drive through - as their main source of food. Well lets be honest, its not really food.  
    People that are fat, chose to be fat!

    People that educate themselves about food and practice healthy eating habits are not fat. - Its that simple.
    The happy, healthy and spending less on food -  vegan!

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  2. Nucbuddy Posted 6:24 pm
    13 May 2008

    Gottfredson on IQ mediation of healthTom Philpott wrote in the OP: "Cheap food," in and of itself, is not the problem.
    Indeed. Linda Gottfredson's research indicates that IQ is the largest mediating factor in human health.
    udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/pubtopics.htm#health

    udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/
    Deary, I. J., Batty, D., & Gottfredson, L. S. (2005, July 29). Human hierarchies, health, and IQ (letter). Science, 309, 703-703.

    Gottfredson, L. S. (2005, October 31). Thinking more deeply about health disparities. A rapid response comment on D. Adkins & E. M. Moy, Left behind: the legacy of hurricane Katrina (editorial), British Medical Journal, 2005, 331: 916-918.

    Batty, G. D., Deary, I. J., & Gottfredson, L. S. (2007). Pre-morbid (early life) IQ and later mortality risk: Systematic review. Annals of Epidemiology.

    2007 Power Points presentation:

    udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/#submitted
    Gottfredson, L. S. (2007). Psychometric properties of health and health self-care. Presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Intelligence Research, Amsterdam, December 13.

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  3. hoppekat Posted 1:09 am
    20 May 2008

    it's not just food educationI think the first comment is a bit overly simplistic.  Nutrition and food preparation education is sorely lacking across the country (not just in low income communities) but the lack of access to better food choices along with the lack of time in which to  prepare whole foods is also a factor.
    Many urban communities lack community gardens, access to farmer's markets and have limited access to grocery stores with a wide variety of fresh produce.  I have lived in some cities where the only place to purchase food that was accessible by public transportation was a small bodega with not a lot of selection and probably ingredients unfamiliar to some people in my community.  The large grocery stores has moved to the suburbs.  In another community I've lived in the only local grocery store was an expensive whole foods store.
    Time and convenience are also a factor.  When many are working two or more jobs to make ends meet, people often do not or cannot spend the time to prepare foods.  I understand that not all healthy food takes a long time to prepare, but I'm saying the temptation of convenience food when you're at the store after working two jobs and needing to go home and take care of your domestic responsibilities is often irresistible.  
    Food prep equipment costs money (may not seem like a lot to everyone, but when you're on the edge of poverty and homelessness it's a different thing) and if you only have a couple of hours of time off from work to prepare food, take care of children, clean, do laundry, etc. with no partner to help or possibility of paying for someone to help with these things then it's a big problem.
    Our choices and actions are very important, don't get me wrong, but it's also important to note that choices are often limited by income.  Some communities have great programs that have community gardens, free nutrition instruction and the like but it's the exception and not the rule.
    This article is focused on those with low-incomes  and I think is well done.  We need to volunteer and educate where we can and break down the stereotypes and stigmas of what it means to be low-income and what it means to be vegan and vegetarian and healthy.

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  4. MAD MAC Posted 4:36 am
    05 Jun 2008

    Only a moron would say this"The food crisis will make obesity and attendant diabetes even more rampant. Fruits, vegetables, and fish are becoming luxury goods completely out of reach of many people. Consumption of cheap food will only grow ... Obesity is the toxic consequence of a failing economy."
    I just walked down to my local market. Fresh fruit, vegetables and fish were rampant.
    Meat is an expensive food source. Grains are a cheap food source. Even as grain prices rise, so will the cost of meat - fed as it is by grain - rise.
    Obesity, as study after study has shown, is the consequence of affluence.
    Was this moron on crack when he wrote this?

    Victory in Pattani

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  5. MAD MAC Posted 4:40 am
    05 Jun 2008

    Fat women......."A recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found that women in poverty were roughly 50 percent more likely to be obese than those with higher socioeconomic status."
    Then maybe they should skip the next trip to the McDonalds, stop supersizing their meals, and get their fat asses out for a morning or evening run! Now fat women aren't fat anymore because they're lazy and spending too much time in front of Oprah........ oh no, it's because they're poor and it's the fault of George Bush and evil corporations!!!
    I am tapped out on sympathy by people who do stupid crap, lead pathetic lifestyles and then want to blame it on the government. When are we going to take responsibility for ourselves?

    Victory in Pattani

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  6. amazingdrx Posted 4:46 am
    05 Jun 2008

    Tapped outAs are the rest of us.  On sympathy for dimbulb limboob bush loving numbskullery.  
    The mess you all have put the world in needs to be fixed before you get to spout off anymore.  STFU.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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  7. MAD MAC Posted 5:23 am
    05 Jun 2008

    The Mess I have put us in???"The mess you all have put the world in needs to be fixed before you get to spout off anymore.  STFU."
    Hmmm, I sold my car. I walk to work - minimal commute. Installed solar panels to power my home and business. Mess I have put us in?
    And you have heard of freedom of expression have you not? Or do you wish to abridge that in the name of the environment?
    I just don't pander to B.S. and blame the government for everything under the sun. Nor do I blame George Bush. I didn't vote for him, but he didn't create the situation we are in, and he's being used by moronic environmentalists who fail to offer practical solutions as if he invented the combustion engine.

    Victory in Pattani

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  8. LynneL Posted 5:36 am
    04 Aug 2008

    these are not the only factorsI lived and taught in the S. Bronx for three years.  There, like many places, there is both a high level of poverty and a high level of obesity.  Quality food WAS difficult to obtain; the produce aisles of the local Pathmark contained nothing I wanted to eat - spotty veggies, withered carrots, white tomatoes. But I think it's more than that.  But,like someone before me pointed out, if you care and take the time, you can eat right.  However, poor people spend a HUGE amount of time working (often two jobs) and they are under tremendous stress from many things: financials, child-rearing, violence, etc.  Sometimes an exhausted person turns to comfort foods too frequently.  I know I gained 25 pounds when I lived there, anyway.  I left for my health.  What if I didn't feel that I had the option/resources to leave?  

    "Those who do nothing make no mistakes." - Peter Kropotkin

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