Understanding the Connections: Food Insecurity and Obesity

This brief (pdf) from FRAC highlights recent research on food insecurity and obesity, and then explores why food insecurity and obesity can co-exist.

While food insecurity and obesity can co-exist in the same individual, family, or community, the research on whether there is a statistically significant relationship provides mixed results. A number of research studies in the U.S. and abroad have found positive associations between food insecurity and overweight or obesity. Other studies have found no relationship, or even a lower risk of overweight or obesity with food insecurity. Associations, or lack thereof, often differ by gender, age, and/or race-ethnicity. Making comparisons across studies is further complicated by differences in study design, measures of weight and food security status, and sample size and characteristics. Overall, based on several reviews of the literature, the strongest and most consistent evidence is for a higher risk of obesity among food insecure women.

That food insecurity and obesity can co-exist and are significantly associated in some studies does not necessarily mean they are causally linked to each other. Both food insecurity and obesity can be independent consequences of low income and the resulting lack of access to enough nutritious food or stresses of poverty. More specifically, obesity among food insecure people – as well as among low-income people – occurs in part because they are subject to the same often challenging cultural changes as other Americans (e.g., more sedentary lifestyles, increased portion sizes), and also because they face unique challenges in adopting and maintaining healthful behaviors, including the following:

• Limited resources
• Lack of access to healthy, affordable foods
• Cycles of food deprivation and overeating
• High levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
• Fewer opportunities for physical activity
• Greater exposure to marketing of obesity-promoting products
• Limited access to health care   

Local food and food prices

A guest blog entry today from Dan Kent, quoted from his Kent Family Growers CSA newsletter:

"I have been getting a steady drip of shocking pricing information from farmers markets around the country this Fall. From the already mentioned $1.50/lb. watermelons at the Santa Monica Farmers Market and $7/lb. tomatoes in Rochester, to $3.50/lb. potatoes at the Saranac Lake Farmers Market and just this weekend, from my mother who is visiting a friend in Seattle, $7 each for Romanesco Cauliflower.  From the vantage point of Lisbon, NY, we hear of these prices and swoon to think of how different things must be in these places for customers to pay such prices. (We also look aghast in the direction of the Amish roadside stands around St. Lawrence County where a quart of strawberries or a dozen ears of sweet corn sells for $2.50.)

"This issue of pricing has a big role to play in the nationwide conversation on the future of the local food movement. A report released recently by Food and Water Watch, a D.C. based non-profit, claims that while local foods of all types appear to be gaining popularity every year, this has not served to reduce demand for industrially produced food one bit. In fact, American industrial Ag has grown tremendously. "The number of dairy cows being raised on factory farms doubled between 1997 and 2012; broiler chickens in CAFOs rose by 80 percent; and industrial hogs swelled by a third.", writes James McWilliams in his article "Our Failed Food Movement" from last week's Pacific Standard. McWilliams observes that the local food folks have been trying to play the game of providing a higher quality version of industrially produced foods at a higher price, but that the number of consumers who decide that the higher price is justified by the higher quality remains a small number. Local food will likely never be able to compete with big ag on price, and maybe remaining niche is a prudent strategy. As I see it, maintaining a (relatively) small number of small scale, quality and service oriented farm businesses (with the help of folks like you) seems like the only possibility until the variables in the global equation of economy and fashion are changed by unforeseen events.  McWilliams however, says that we can change the equation now if we begin to dis-incentivize the production and consumption of meat. We'll have to pick that topic up in another newsletter . . . maybe."

WPBS promotes buying local

The WPBS-TV Explore the Region:  Buy it Local Auction is a good chance to promote locally produced products and the buy local movement.

For more information on donating your items please contact

Peggy A. Brouty at 315-782-3142 ext. 301 or email her at pbrouty@wpbstv.org.

Fund-a-Farmer Grants

Fund-a-Farmer is currently accepting applications for the 2016 round of grant funding. The
grants target working, independent, family farmers who raise pigs, broiler chickens, laying hens,
turkeys, dairy cows and/or beef cattle, and prioritize projects that transition farms to being
pasture-based or that improve existing pasture.. Applications will only be considered from farms
already considered highly welfare-oriented as determined by holding one of the following
certifications for their animals or actively working toward one of these certifications: AGA
certified grassfed, certified humane, USDA certified organic, animal welfare approved, certified
naturally grown, or Global Animal Partnership levels 4-5+.
Deadline: November 3, 2015 (online only)
http://www.fundafarmer.org/

Research re: subsistence agriculture in the Adirondacks

A fourth year student at Paul Smith's College is working on a capstone research project for a sustainability class with a focus on food security in the Adirondacks. The research project involves looking at the impact of subsistence agriculture/home gardening on food security in the Adirondacks. The research is being done via a short survey to gather information about subsistence agriculture/home gardening. A link to the survey is below, if you would like to help this student with his project. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5DXR77F 

ENDING HUNGER IN AMERICA

In its Action Plan to End Hunger in America, the Food Research Action Council looks at the current state of the US economy and the persistence of hunger within it.  It identifies eight essential strategies for decisively attacking hunger in America. They are:

1. Create jobs, raise wages, increase opportunity, and share prosperity;
2. Improve government income-support programs for struggling families;
3. Strengthen SNAP;
4. Strengthen Child Nutrition Programs;
5. Target supports to especially vulnerable populations;
6. Work with states, localities, and nonprofits to expand and improve participation in federal nutrition programs;
7. Make sure all families have convenient access to reasonably priced, healthy food; and
8. Build political will.

Source: Food Research Action Council, 10/7/15,End Hunger

COLLEGE STUDENTS GO HUNGRY, TOO

Food insecurity is an everyday struggle for some California State University students. Lacking the money to feed themselves properly, some students often worry more about eating than their grades. Cal State Long Beach recently received a $100,000 grant to study how each of CSU’S 23 campuses deal with student food insecurity and homelessness. Humboldt State University is helping food insecure students through Oh SNAP!, which has helped eligible students sign up for SNAP benefits since 2013. Last fall Oh SNAP! opened a campus food pantry to create better access to healthy foods for food-insecure students. Since its opening, over 2,000 students have visited the pantry. Starting this fall, about 100 students a week have been getting free fruits and vegetables at Oh SNAP!’s weekly farm stand thanks to a $5,000 donation to purchase produce from a local farm.

Source: The Lumberjack, 10/7/15, Hungry Students

(I recently heard a well respected St. Lawrence County resident say he had been on food stamps when he was a student! - Gloria)