New Growers Alliance Is Another Link in the Local Food Chain

Abstract

“Food desert” is no longer a jargon term for nutrition experts or urban planners. The general population is becoming more aware of the issues around access to healthy foods, particularly in the low-income communities. Leaders in Philadelphia are seeing how this issue affects the city’s poorest neighborhoods, where people suffer from a lack of access to fruits and vegetables and, subsequently, a number of health issues including hunger, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

In ongoing discussions about the problem, responses embracing local food production and the “local food economy” (another term quickly catching on) are bubbling to the top. At the city level, the administration of Mayor Nutter has responded with announcements of official plans to combat the food access problem. Objectives include furthering the growth of a “regional sustainable food and urban agriculture system,” as described by the Philadelphia Food Charter, and a push “to help bring local food within a ten-minute walk of 75 percent of residents,” which is stipulated in Greenworks Philadelphia, the city’s official sustainability plan.

The problem here is not one of vision. The city’s blueprint for greater local food production levels was developed through the input and feedback of civic leadership, nonprofit organizations and business leaders. However, implementation requires much greater resources, infrastructure and innovation. The competitor, after all, is one of the world’s most subsidized industrial food systems.