sustaiNYC

Manhattan Borough Prez Scott Stringer and author Joan Gussow lambast our national (and our city’s) food infrastructure, and call for more sustainable systems:

To see the results of this dysfunctional culture around food, we need look no further than our own waistlines. In New York City, for example, rates of obesity and diabetes rates rose by 17 percent between 2002 and 2004, a period during which New Yorkers gained more than 10 million collective pounds. More than half of the city’s adults and 43 percent of its school children are overweight or obese, conditions that the U.S. Surgeon General has designated among the nation’s leading health priorities. …

Of course, we know that that increased fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with better health. But when produce is locally grown, there are other benefits as well. Local produce begins to be sold in local markets, which is good for the local economy and cuts down on distribution costs. Across the country, one third of America’s two million farms are located in metropolitan regions. The country has seen a vast expansion in the number of farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture initiatives during the past 20 years. If farmers had reliable local markets that would allow them to calibrate their production to local needs, they would no longer have to sell at rock bottom prices into markets that may ship their produce around the world. One example of such imbalances: while New York State grows many times more apples than it consumes, the vast majority of the apples New Yorkers consume are grown out of state or overseas.  [Huffington Post]