Environmental Injustice

Food deserts have been a huge epidemic in many urban cities including Chicago. A food desert can be defined as a neighborhood or cluster of neighborhoods that do not have access to a major grocery store such as a Jewel, Aldi, or Trader Joes. Three main areas, covering 44 square miles, in Chicago have been labeled as food deserts which include "an elongated ring connecting the Near North Side with Lawndale and Austin; an upside-down Y stretching from the Near South Side to Ashburn and Greater Grand Crossing; and a meandering mass swallowing most of the Far South Side". Additionally, a majority of these residents living in these neighborhoods are African American (478,000) compared to whites (78,000) and Latinos (57,000).

This brings a load of social issues to light: 


A large number of Chicagoans are at a high risk for serious health problems. “Diet has a direct link to obesity, diabetes, and other diseases, and you can’t choose a healthy diet if you don’t have access to it. Many in the food desert who suffer are children who already have diabetes but who have yet to be diagnosed and treated.” Nearly 1/3 of residents living in food deserts are children. 


Food Deserts also equal business deserts. These areas are high in crime so it's harder to attract businesses to open locations. Higher crime neighborhoods also require high tax rates, which also discourages businesses from opening there. Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward), which includes most of the Roseland area, commented saying, "Going on ten years now, I’ve been working aggressively to bring a store—a full-fledged national chain—to my community. I’ve done everything so far as to mark land down to one dollar, and for some reason, the big chains are redlining the African American community."

Education is also a main factor. Even if stores did come into these neighborhoods, people need to learn what is best for their health. People need to change their eating and cooking habits. A lot of people in society today find it easier to pick up a pre-prepared or pre-packaged meal, not just because of access, but time management as well. But, what people don't understand is even if the box is luring you with "Low Fat" or "0 Calorie" content, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily good for you. People need to come back to the basics of whole, natural foods. They need to learn how to cook sometime tasty without loading salt and oil on it. 


On the brighter side, food deserts in Chicago have taken a dramatic 40% decline within the past 5 years. Additionally, Michelle Obama, who has taken the health, diet, and exercise dilemma (Let's Move Campaign) under her wing as the First Lady, also made a recent appearance in Chicago urging other cities to follow Chicago's lead. 

Check out these articles for more information on food deserts in Chicago:
Chicago Magazine
Huffington Post
Bloomberg Businessweek
Chicago Stories

Also check out my post on Rethinking Soup with Fresh Moves

My first EC Ad

Making My Own Environmental Communication

In honor of Earth day coming up this month, I will be creating and posting my own EC each week. I've decided to create several advertisements of my own that will encourage healthy eating. I've posted some that I think are useful and creative

Green Advertising

It's become a stylish trend in America to go green. In order to appeal to the green consumer, many companies have used advertising techniques to persuade people that they've also jumped on the green bandwagon.They use ambiguous words and images in order to uphold a certain image. Mass media scholar, Dennis Hayes identified four techniques that marketers use to appeal to the green consumer:

1. Ecopornography - A big fat lie

2. Narrow truth - Used to mislead

3. Donations to a specific environmental cause for every purchase made

4. Honesty

I've incorporated products that use each technique. If you see these items on shelves at the store, BEWARE!


Ecopornography

F

Fiji water was actually sued for greenwashing their product and claiming it was carbon negative. What's even worse is that most Fiji citizens don't have access to clean drinking water and typhoid outbreaks occur often there.







Narrow Truth

Yoplait Yogurt has a 99% Fat Free Light yogurt, but it also has 26 grams of sugar!! Not to mention it contains aspartame, which is an ARTIFICIAL sugar and it says "other sweetener" on the label, what exactly is the name of this other sweetener and what is it made of? Yoplait tries to market their yogurt as a healthy snack or meal replacement. When choosing yogurts, go for products that are sweetened with just fruit or try greek yogurt.

Donating to a Cause


Although Newman's does use organic ingredients in some of its products, you have to be hesitant before buying into this advertising penumbra. You can never really know exactly how much of what is going to these charities.

Honesty

Because kombucha is natural, organic, and raw, it's easy to see why companies who sell the drink use words like "honest" and "wonder drink" on their labels. Kombucha is an amazing drink that makes you feel revitalized. You can actually make your own! All it's made of is tea that is fermented with a mushroom culture called SCOBY, which stands for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. To learn more on how to make your own Kombucha check out this website: Kombucha

Food Inc.

Now, I've always loved my BLT sandwiches and Al's Italian beef, but after watching the film, Food Inc., I've been seriously thinking about going vegeterian. This film is on a whole other level than Super Size Me and gives an even deeper look into the meat industry as well as the agriculture indsutry in the U.S. Some of the images of the meat packing farms seriously reminded me of scenes I've seen in the t.v. show, Hoarders. Animals are crammed into dark sheds, often left to sit in their own feces!

Food Inc. gives an in depth look into the food industry and attempts to show the public what we are really putting into our bodies. Today, people are fighting a slew of serious health problems, which are in part due to the food industry and the food they are selling to consumers. Is it even really food when it's being genetically modified and patented? These are elusive hazards that rarely make the news, unless there is a sudden salmonella outbreak. Otherwise, the fabricated Kraft fat-free cheese and Diet Pepsi are constantly being restocked in our local grocery markets.....and we are consuming these products on a daily basis, with no real idea of what they are really made of.

Food Inc. also uses a selective set of sources in the film. There is an array of villans, heroes, and victims. Although they do not do any real interviews with the huge corporations that they spotlight in the film it is clear that Purdue, Tyson, and Mansanto are the villans. We, as consumers are the victims and food experts and social entrepreneurs such as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Gary Hirschberg (Stonyfield), and Joel Salatin (Polyface Farms) are our hereos, leading the way to a more pure and wholesome way of producing food.

To really understand what you put in your body, watch this movie! This is an eye opening, MUST SEE film!

Watch the trailer to Food Inc. here: http://youtu.be/6bz3GBC8NQo

Just Eat Organic

Gary Hirshberg, founder and CE -Yo of Stonyfield Farms, has become a well known spokesperson for organic foods. He has made numerous efforts in informing the public about what goes on in the food market and how consumers can rise above the industry. It's important to know how powerful we are as consumers! We have the power to readjust the genetically enhanced, fabricated food that we consume every day!!! All other food brands are racing to the organic foods industry because it's what the consumers want!

He also started a year long organic education campaign with YouTube, which involves a video contest open to the public where people can share their stories about organic food.

Check out the funny rap video Hirshberg made himself!!! Just Eat Organic

The #1 thing you can do as a consumer is EDUCATE yourself!

Here are some more tips to eating your way to a new and better you!

-Read your food labels

-Buy organic products (most chain supermarkets have organic food sections)

-Buy locally from farmer's markets

-Check out Dill Pickle, a local food co-op located in Logan Square

-Buy foods that are in season

-Plant your own garden or grow your own herbs

-Bring your lunch to school/work, rather than eating out

-Look up restaurants that are sustainable, all organic or carry organic items

Bleeding Heart Bakery & Cafe is a deliscious restaurant that I frequently visit serving two locations on the north side of Chicago
Check out their menu: The Bleeding Heart Cafe

Here is a list of organic restaurants in the Chicagoland area that I found on Yelp: Organic Restaurants

Re-Thinking Soup

Re-Thinking Soup with Fresh Moves

Re-Thinking Soup takes place every Tuesday at the UIC Hull House and is a modern day soup kitchen where people can come share some deliciously, healthy soup and discuss current cultural, economic, social, and environmental food issues in our society today. Recently, I was able to check out a discussion  on Fresh Moves, a mobile produce market, and enjoy a great organic lunch.

Walking into the Hull House dining hall, I was among a crowd just arriving, as others were already waiting in line for their soup. I claimed a spot at one of the front dining tables as everyone else settled into their seats and relished in their warm soup. On today's menu was a mixture of collard greens, black eyed peas, and mushrooms with a solid hint of something spicy that really hit the spot for me. They also gave out mini corn bread rolls that perfectly complimented the soup. The topic of the day was on a grass roots effort called, Fresh Moves. Activist, Dara Cooper, informed us about the Fresh Moves mission. Fresh Moves is a grass roots effort to get fresh food to dozens of Chicago neighborhoods lacking healthy sources of food.

Fresh moves uses both technical and cultural rationality to help their cause. They started out by pleading their case to the CTA and managed to get them to sell an old CTA bus for $1! They constructed a risk assessment on nutrition and health of people living in poor areas where they lack basic grocery stores and sources to a variety of foods, not just processed junk! This causes a serious risk for these people such as obesity, diabetes, stress and heart disease, to just name a few. Additionally, they used cultural rationality to really get their message out to people and spread social justice to the low income neighborhoods of Chicago. Fresh Moves is aware that these health problems arent just due to poor geographical mapping of grocery stores. Chicago is notorious for being a racially divided city and although red lining has become illegal, businesses still don't want to be in bad neighborhoods. Fresh Moves is taking an initiative to not only bring resources to these areas, but also really educate their consumers. It's not about the money to them. "I'll trade a kid a bag of grapes for a bag of hot cheetos, if it means he's making an independent choice to eat healthy.", Cooper explained in her discussion. "It's not that these kids don't want fruit, it's that they don't have access to buy it".

To find out more about Fresh Moves visit their website: Fresh Moves

To find out more about ReThinking Soup visit the Hull House website: ReThinking Soup