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In his last State of the City address, Portland Mayor Sam Adams mentioned that about 40 percent of the city's residents live a mile or more from a grocery store. He wants to "make grocery stores financially feasible in underserved areas," and mentioned a city initiative to bring more grocery stores to those areas. Adams said that access to food is part of what makes a neighborhood healthy and connected.
Multnomah County has been working with the city on this issue for years now as part of the Food Policy Council. The Council's first governing principle is:
Every City and County resident has the right to an adequate supply of nutritious, affordable and culturally appropriate food
Of course, access to fresh and nutritous food is not simply an urban concern. Large distances and low population density in rural areas create their own challenges.
Do you live in a so-called "food desert" in Portland or another urban area? Do you live in rural Oregon? How far do you have to go to shop for food? How does this affect your daily life?
What role — if any — should local or county governments take to change or improve our access to food?
GUESTS:
- Alison Hilkiah: Resident of the Lents neighborhood in Portland
- Renee Bogin Curtis: Serves on Montavilla Food Co-op steering committee and outreach committee
- Jeff Cogen: Multnomah County Chair
- Duane Thul: Mayor of Weston, Oregon
- Mary Anne Harmer: Serves on the board of the Coalition for a Liveable Future
Photo credit: greggavedon.com / Creative Commons
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do you support bike routes then?
unfortunately fruit trees on the streets cause more pest problems for several reasons - but it would be nice - except for the pollutants and contamination on/in the fruits - orchards in the parks might be more reasonable, perhaps? More parks perhaps, with big community veggie garden sections? That wouldn't be too communistic would it?
most zoning is /has been done by vested interests - only recently has there been any research about how a viable commercial/residential community mix might function well in this country, and of course there are so many varied regions
- back east, there used to be, until fairly recently, almost no supermarkets as we know them, except in the suburbs, but mom and pop stores all over the place, which charged more for less - and while the cities proper are walkable, unlike here, this is a limited area only - we have few/no european style markets, but even those are not everywhere there, and folks bike and walk some distance to them, but they have a public transit system to die for - and there are those who eschew all things euro - what shall we do for them?
And of course vested interests still have the upper hand and hope to keep the rest of us un-vested - i.e. naked, vulnerable and beholden to them and them alone- what shall we do to them? they're holy after all, according to them
more health inspectors is an answer for a concentrated population, not fewer - you've never heard of epidemics? do you have any idea how easy it is to spread cholera? listeria? e coli (sic)? et c and several other diseases? little kids selling lemonade just isn't something to wish for- chickens eating crud off the street should become fryers?? ugh! you want that yet you'll shoot down other starry-eyed idealism more innocent? Lemonade is a pointless indoctrination in capitalism as a religion- there must be something better to help a child wish for than to be a middle-man, i hope?
you speak of idealistic 'commerce', not what we have, which is ravenous capitalistic exploitative business - how would the innocent fend off those vultures?
i'd like to give you a fair shake - try it out and stop moaning that i question you
to the supposed question at hand-
govt. should twist and break if necessary businesses' arms to get them to serve fairly and not just reach as deep as possible into our pockets and at their convenience alone -
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I always walk to do my shopping. My grocery store is about one mile from my place and I don't consider walking there a hardship at all. I choose to walk.
Most American are fat, and intellectually and physically lazy. There is a public penalty...cost..for all this obesity, over-eating and lack of exercise. Health care and our taxes take the hit. Most obese people are at the lower end of the income ladder and their private choices in this regard become public expenses.
The idea that a grovery store ought to be on every corner would be simply one more stupid notion and ignored if this person didn't have a loud megaphone.
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go to a banquet for those who can afford banquets and notice the size of the fat americans, i mean guests, there - fatness permeates our society - only because there are more poor than rich are you halfway correct (and a miss is still as good as a mile, eh?) - proportionately however, i venture the richer are the fatter- even after their spa treatments
are we not even more penalized by the fatness of the very rich than of the poor? What a bad example!! What excuses do the likes of Roger Ailes have for the penalty imposed by himself on society -after all, the cost of his treatment would take away a space from someone who could not afford it, yet might deserve it more. One more place you choose not to look as it does not support your jaundiced views?
So far, I have seen here no mention of a store on every corner - care to point it out for us?
but you, walking - how fortunate - but, for instance, how about an arthritic widow, perhaps with her walker? Do you deliver groceries for anyone like that? but you seem only to care that you have access and do not consider the contingencies of others-
just curious G, don't get all tied in a knot again
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MAYBE IF THEY WOULD WALK TO THE STORE TO SPEND THEIR FOOD STAMPS THEY WOULDNT BE SO DAMN FAT
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LOL .....lolo
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Bring a small to medium sized supermarket to Kenton in North Portland. We have the empty warehouse space, burgeoning consumer base, and great location (near the Max, neighborhoods, and surrounding businesses).
Pete
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It is hard to give this idea of a ‘food desert’ much credit. As if one (or any) arbitrary mile makes all the difference in the world between being fat and skinny. How can this conclusion ever be supported by objective facts? There are so many possible variables involved in why or why not people may be obese. And, even more specifically why or why not poor people may be obese. Perhaps poor people are not as active. Perhaps poor people don’t put as much emphasis on appearance. Perhaps poor people are not as well educated about health. Perhaps poor people are unhappy and find comfort in food. And, the list goes on and on for both sides.
There is a troubling theme that occurs in discussions such as these, we repeatedly try to find reasons to negate personal responsibility, by finding outside sources, outside circumstance that are to blame for these humans’ present condition. But we only seem willing to apply these ideas to the physical world, which is really to say the easy targets. And, generally we make more exceptions for people in poverty or the underdog. But then the very same people (myself, often included) make few concessions in regards to intelligence, or the ethics of individuals. It surrounds odd ideas like these: There is a choice in being fat, but there is no choice in being poor. Rich people are fat by choice, but poor people don’t have a choice but to be fat. Stupid rich people are bad, but stupid poor people are good. Rich bigots are bad, but poor bigots are understandable. Perhaps, we think rich people should know better, because they might have the luxury of a better education, or they just have ‘luxury’ in general so they should be more generous. Then we also go on to say ‘that rich people aren’t very intelligent, because if they were intelligent they would have better ethics,’ and even more awkwardly, we say, ‘if they were truly intelligent they wouldn’t be that rich in the first place.’
In the end we seem to be more willing to chalk up problems manifest in the physical world, to external causes, and problems of the mental world to internal (personal) causes. But don’t all the problems stem from the same place? And aren’t these alleged two worlds inseparable, if they are separate at all?
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PERHAPS>>. alot of it is genetic, some populations who evolved on meager diets evolved a different metabolism , now when a single individual can be "awarded" over $200 per month in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),no wonder there is obesity. 50,000 years of evolutionary history does have consequences.
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Noticing how services available in suburbs aren't available in inner northeast Portland. A friend has to drive to Vancouver, Gresham or Hillsboro to get his Chyrsler product factory serviced. Whole Foods is a mile away. Safeways are two and three miles away. At least a hospital is close. Gas stations in this area bend customers over and there are few of them. Mostly a residential community with small businesses lining main thoroughfares. Need to bring jobs closer to our homes in order to minimize or eliminate commutes.
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now go back to work, you are paid to be there, not paid to be listening to the radio and spending your employer's time on something which you clearly need to spend even more time on. Are you on break between 9-10 a.m. or what?
p.s., really, if one can't proofread, it indicates one might not be so able to revisit the consequences of their thoughts either. So, do yourself a favor, force yourself to proofread, and learn, not so much the rules of grammar, but the reasoning behind them - and for Santa's sake - spelling is NOT ALL THAT DIFFICULT - you're not even using words that big.
One more thing - gigo - garbage in,garbage out - have some care about what you read - if, for example, Glen Beck is heavy lifting for you and you find yourself agreeing to way too much, or even to way too little, consider, for example, R.L. Stevenson instead - even Winnie the Pooh, for example, might be comforting -and that, in many cases, is all that matters. Others are thinking for you now, and you are doing none of your own heavy lifting. It is doubtful this has a whit to do with a ‘learning disability’.
--Posted by Iolo 3months ago
I can eat up this hippocrasy with a Fork!
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so far, you have not embarrassed me by my words, (and it is not because i am insensitive)- nor will you - I may have strong opinions and strong words - what you don't like about me is that i do not suffer fools lightly - so of course you feel revealed, shown for what you are, called out for untenable conclusions
now that's embarrassing (for you), and if you acted more human, instead of acting out, I would feel bad for you, but as you go on like this, essentially hitting your head against the wall, it does become comical - although i do think that you, the deranged gereng, defund, are dangerous individuals - physically and mentally dangerous and harmful -not just demanding, but destructive -
however, i dare you to put these replies in the context they were taken out of, and we'd see what kind of nonsense i was commenting on
there is a difference between abrasive, which i admit to, and abusive, which is what you indulge in,not just here, but in general, -you are abusive of your own intellect, and you are abusive those who read your drivel - and why would you write it if not to be read?
have a nice time keeping out of trouble while you rummage through the files looking for "evidence"
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"I can eat up this hippocrasy with a Fork!"
those are your words not mine
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One really cannot have an opinion without giving quite a lot of deep thought to quite a bit. That means a lot of re-thinking, and this is essentially the same as re-reading, picking out the mistakes, and so forth ...
do you really think you have SOMETHING to say (worth considering) about FREAKIN' EVERYTHING??
maybe you are in the WRONG LINE OF WORK?
are there no openings for a pseudo-pontificating loud-mouthed ignorant god anywheres?
"NO OFFENSE" ??? what a crock!
sure, you've got a right to whatever ill-formed opinion you can scrape off the street, and you've also got the right to keep it to yourself. why not exercise that right too?
Now, don't go out and mistreat the farm animals 'cuz you' got yourself all steamed up! Do something constructive with all that pent up energy - go out and dig a ditch, in a straight line, then fill it back up. That will be more useful than the distraction you make here, Sideshow Bob.
posted 3 months ago By Iolo
REMEMBER,THE INTERNET NEVER FORGETS -
dear sideshow jacob - likely it will convict you before it even slaps my wrist
don't forget the context it was in - i guess it stung to be called out for acting as if you were an idiot when you were writing as if you were an idiot
like today's jokes about the earthquake and tsunami that you made
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" REMEMBER,THE INTERNET NEVER FORGETS"
your words and not mine-
may you live and die by these words, jaco
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let NO ONE mistake this as any kind of apologist view:
but consider this: there is are some, if not many, women who do much to engage and amplify whatever it is that makes men turn to violence. They whine, they moan, they accuse, they threaten, they call names, they demean, they ask for the impossible, they threaten to leave, they tell lies, they exaggerate, they allow others to jump to conclusions and do nothing to right the misperceptions, and they do seldom take responsibility for their own actions until too late, if ever.
I grew up with a mother like this, and she destroyed my father. For years I blamed my dad, and had really conflictive feelings about him. As an adult, as I got to know my mother, She was manipulative, accusative, demeaning, could discuss nothing intelligently, told stories, not the truth, in public, did never clear up misconceptions of others as long as those benefited her. Basically she was a conniving backstabber.
I have since cut off relations from this woman. I realized her behavior and engagement with me as a child was never as nurturing as what my dad tried to do. It was she who was the acid that ate away at me, not my dad, who tried very hard, and he was the one who suffered in silence and humiliation.
I am tired of hearing women moan about, when i can hear in their voice what it is they do to men.
My opinion is, not that they deserve it, those who are injured, but there’s a good chance they participated in causing the behavior,
posted by Iolo, 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Apple don't fall far from the Tree!
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indeed, my very words, and i will not back away from these, for i made no mistake in making them - and if you choose to hold up examples from a part of life that i had no control over, rather than for my ideas, this again demonstrates the paucity of your own humanity, and your desperation - although you take the words somewhat out of context, and of course that is your style, such as it is - i think i make it clear enough that women in general are not this way- and if there are any actual questions you would like to ask -well from you -it would be like talking to that apple tree, wouldn't? - but i can discuss it, which is more than you've ever done here, isn't it?
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"Apple don't fall far from the Tree!"
your words, not mine
who knows what kind of crow's nest will come falling down from yours, eh?
indeed, and let the apples fall- check out what fell from your cohort's G's tree
for him, it's the "zionist conspiracy" - for you too?
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¡¡-the scientologists have mobilized their hit squad minions-!!
I knew this would happen - it always does. You breathe the word scientology with a hint of incredulity, and their "people" come out of the wall with their "ideas" and quotes and propaganda. They are almost as weird about it as the fundies.
- this promises to be exciting!!
since you’re all here now, Louanne, Jeanne, contflas, Jeffrey, and you have all this research you’ve done on the cult, tell us about the bunker in the hills of Humboldt county, would you? -
-how big is it?
-are you invited when the end comes, or is it just for the “stars”?
-do they pay you to add your two cents worth, or is it from the heart?
-do you have a heart, or is it an artificial pump provided by the overseers from another galaxy?
--Posted by Lolo 4 weeks ago
Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.
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Any secrets?.....my search is just beginning. And it's a riot!
I am a database search EXPERT.
Have a nice weekend. ;)
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have fun J - it might be the last thing you do here
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lolo and jacob, This really is not the place for this kind of back-and-forth. Please refrain from it in the future. Thank you.
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This comment has been removed by the TOL staff.
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This comment has been removed by the TOL staff.
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When I was boy living in Long Beach, CA. We lived on 1st street, one block from the ocean and about half a block from Bixby park. Within 2 or 2 1/2 blocks from our house there were two small markets- along with many other small businesses. One a very small corner market on Cherry street and the other, the Independent Market at 2 1/2 blocks on 2nd street. The Independent had a produce section and meat market. The Safeway was located about 4 blocks away. For most food shopping, my mom gave me a list and off I went on my bike. Being an only child, the job was always mine. But I didn't mind it at all.
Saturday mornings, until the war, the Japanese farmers held a farmer's market round the courthouse square, where they sold from stands and the backs of their trucks. When their property was confiscated in early 1942, their filipino employees took over those farms and continued the Saturday morning market.
Returning to my Long Beach neighborhood in 2001, I was shocked and saddened at the state of that once lovely neighborhood. All the small stores were gone, a clinic nearby was shut down, and all the trees, flowers, lawns were all gone. In front of every house there was a sign posted that said 'No Trespassing' There were gates at the end of each block that could be swung shut by the cops to close off the streets giving access to the park. A tunnel leading from the park underneath Ocean Avenue and going to the beach was closed off at both ends with rolls of barbed wire.
The park that was once viberant with activity, kids and older folks, was now empty, all the amenities long since trashed by gangs of Mexicans and blacks and the play ground equipment long since removed and the playground supervisor long ago dismissed.
The once beautiful neighborhood was totally transformed into a Third World ghetto. I saw only two white people that Saturday I spent on the visit. They were sitting above the bluffs sharing something in a bottle in a paper bag, whisky I assumed. Every one else was of a different hue and scowling in my direction.
In that same neighborhood where once all kinds of small businesses flourished there were now none at all. Just those feral looking foreign appearing men, and a lot of ugliness. If this is a politically incorrect comment, then sobeit. I suppose it is, but it is also true. If we all begin to close our eyes and mouths to the changes we see taking place around us, then we assuredly deserve what is coming to us.
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seems some people can rant and rave but I say "the reason that there are no super markets in some neighborhoods is because of the high crime rate" and "if you do gooders want to open a store on Albina street >. go for it >. perhaps Sam Adams could give you a grant to help u buy some cucumbers" but such a comment is too politically incorrect >>. so i get my comment removed >>>can anyone else see this bias??? perhaps the screen name DFUND aggrivates the open minded liberals who control this site
atlest my comment adressed the issue and was not a violation of TOL guidlines
i invite the TOL staff to send a copy of the comment removed and an explaination of why it was removed
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to SJR
i have to say thanks for intervening
i like my words, but did not care to have them so abused as what these others were trying to do to/with my words; and to us others, with some of the ideas they demand everyone accept unquestioningly
that the DFUND comment above was posted at all is a small indication of what i was protesting in many comments -
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ah long beach- a town that smells of natural gas, on a good day
this story- so idyllic, then dark blame is added, and responsibility shifted, as if those discriminated against were supposed to be happy with being offered the dregs -
Long Beach has been long a 'company town', I'm familiar with it too -and those company built houses are small, cramped and the cheapest thing the company could get away with renting out as any in that category - boyhood memories are sweet, but not fully aware-
in the umpteen years someone was away from this place, these small, cheaply built houses rotted on their own, earthquakes shifted the foundations, companies, booms and busts, came and went, and uppity white folks moved to the massively disastrous suburbs and abandoned whole swaths in small towns like LB to poverty -
the attempt to blame people not white is what is so disturbing in this dystopic presentation -
i have to wonder why this author cannot be a little more reflective of his own race's responsibilities for the troubles of our world, and why his too often and too broad assumptions, such as- all pimps are black, all criminals are mestizos, all conspiracies are zionist, and the poor are necessarily feral and scowling, et c, that a reader gets from his writing - there could be generosity for him - yes-for one such story - but every other time he slams some group with an innocent-at-first-glance phrase, and i get the sense of a deeply spiteful personality underlying
maybe it is karma at the end of an apparently very long, and very disenfranchising, life -
but forgive such social depredations as this? NO! he took a piece supposedly on supermarket location and turned it into a slam on the poor, the immigrants, anyone but his special group -
an exercise in patent prevarication and apparently a habit long to develop and hard to break - perhaps in the next life as...
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I heard that the Long Beach area actually dropped a few feet because of all the oil that was pumped out from underneath it.
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I wonder how much of the diabetes epidemic is caused by the engineered GMO foods which have so much more sugars in them for sweetness?
If most of the nation is eating far more sugars in GMO foods and a higher percentage is getting diabetes, well, can the engineers, patent owners, growers, distributors and sellers of GMO foods be sued in class action suits for the diabetes that they caused?
And if not why not?
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A significant portion of the (adult-onset) diabetes epidemic is attributable to the heavy dependence we as a society have on processed foods. Foods that have added sugar and carbohydrates and fats. And other so-called "foods" like soda that have no redeeming nutritional value, but are priced more cheaply than the healthier alternatives, junk foods (like chips) that are cheaper than healthy snacks (like a nice, crisp apple, or a sweet, juicy orange).
I don't honestly believe that it has anything to do with GMOs or 'franken-foods,' and I come by this knowledge and belief as a result of personal experience. My doctor had my blood sugar tested (fasting glucose) last summer, and I was borderline pre-diabetic. I've changed my eating habits, and my blood sugar is down and so is my weight, so I speak from experience.
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Penny
We have long know about the "processed foods" problem. I just wonder how many more problems are added in by GMO sweetened foods. What percentage of increase?
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I Don't know about genetically manipulated food's role in diabetes, but about obesity and diabetes the relationship is clear. There is a swath across the south east running through the poorest states, most southern states are included. It is an area characterized by low income, much obesity and diabetes. The same set of health issues are found on our Indian reservations.
The two groups will be treated by the publicly funded health care programs. Once more, we have to consider the way private decisions affect us all as they usually end up being paid for by taxpayers.
Concerning gentically altered food. This is nothing new. For those who recall the Green Revolution of the early 1970: Dr. Borlaug's work at the Center for Corn and Wheat Imprivement in Mexico was based on new varieties and hybrides of maise and wheat that were the result of genetic alterations. Later a similar program in the Philippines resulted in new hybrides and genetically modified straight varieties of rice. There new strains of maise, rice and wheat have been in general use all over the world now for about 40 yrs. These centers were both financed by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.
But they have never been subjected to the same media exposure and debate as the new Monsanto genetically modified varieties. That is probably because of the way Monsanto has gone about marketing their new varieties.
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a couple points to consider:
hybridization is not nearly the same as what genetically-altered means today, and they should not be considered the same at all; they are significantly different in method and possible end product - that we’ve been hybridizing for millennia is not to say that proves safe what is referred to as genetic alteration and we should therefore rush willy-nilly into genetically altering things so certain companies can claim patent and copyright laws et c , and essentially own the product line- some of them seem to eventually want to own YOU for eating it - clever, eh?
cheap foods are often enough the most calorically rich and least nutritious - calories are NOT the exact equal of nutrition - but go to an exclusive banquet - you’ll see plenty white people of great wealth have also super-sized themselves
indeed, the actions and decisions of privately owned and/or controlled entities do need to be considered, and legislated if the producers do not take significant, timely actions that save the population from the harm their products cause - from buildings built on the cheap which collapse or contain contaminating materials, to chemicals for maladies which do not really exist or which eat your liver before they cure the headache or common cold you’ve taken them for -too bad the sense of public service went out the window and was taken over by the race for profit in order to buy small off-shore islands where the money that used to be yours and mine would be shipped to “for safe keeping”
the Rockerfeller and Ford foundations are philanthropic generally, spin-offs of monopolies which did some very bad things for the little good they did - they were both early p.r. schemes, and a way to assuage the latterly developed consciences of their namesakes - I’m not sure if there is a Monsanto prize for literature or the like - maybe someday, but their lawyers are too busy trying to own the food they produce - from seed to the crops they contaminate - and if anyone grows an extra arm or something from eating their product, if it’s useful, they’ll try to own that too, unless their lawyers ever revolt and serve the ideals of law, rather than those who try to own the law
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One key tool I've found in bringing better nutrition to less affluent areas is gardening, while another is "food buying clubs," both of which are fairly easy to organize at the neighborhood level with a few families, some friends or a small church group. By banding together to explicitly bring better foods into our neighborhoods and home, resources and buying power increase (as well as a sense of community and efficacy). In doing research toward a failed cooperative in Vancouver, I found that many neighborhoods used to have a small grocer who basically operated from their home, and believe that food clubs are a logical analog to that in today's economy.
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As people may or may not appreciate, our present food-distribution system is a fairly odd and recent one. The idea that people should purchase brand-name foods at a supermarket only emerged in the last century with the first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, in the 1920's. Supermarkets emerged after this and were an innovation because they combined several businesses under one roof: the dry grocer, bakery, creamery, butcher, green grocer and pharmacy. In combination with suburbanization and the huge subsidies of the interstate freeway system, traditional supermarkets rose to the dominance in the United States after World War II, and were shortly replaced by the "hypermarket" of which Walmart is the best modern example. Before the first world war, most households purchased their food from a variety of more-or-less local sources. Today, industrial food distribution makes its money through extended shelf life and improved logistics. Global logistics. The more that whole foods can be turned into commodities and resold as value-added "convenience foods," the higher corporate profits.
The problem with an industrial food system, of course, is that it mainly feeds industry. As the emphasis switches from local production of fairly nutritious whole foods to large-scale commodity farming by corporations, shelf-life increases but nutrition goes down. Engineered "frankenfoods" such as high-fructose corn syrup and genetically-modified organisms dominate the industrial food chain with resultant "hyper-palatability," obesity and health concerns. Concentrated economic systems also tend to steal resources from small-scale and local entities, such as young families and small farms. The dollar value menu replaces home cooking and the theory of three square meals and family dinners is replaced by Lean Cuisine and super-sized value meals. None of these things is good for human bodies, or for local economies. -
"Food security" refers to culturally-appropriate access to nutritious food: enough to lead an active and healthy life. At one end of the internationally-recognized "famine scale," food security is right next to "food insecurity," when people may go hungry, not know where their next meals come from or have to engage in socially deprecated activities such as begging, dumpster-diving or stealing to eat. Because modern grocery and food-distribution systems appreciably favor for-profit hypermarkets such as Whole Foods Market, Safeway (Von's), Kroeger (Fred Meyer) or WalMart, there are many areas in the United States that are "food deserts," without affordable access to nutritious foods. These include many low-income areas, which may be served by one marginal grocery store or devoid of wholesome grocery stores entirely: dominated by fast-food restaurants and "convenience stores" which feature higher-margin items such as beer, cigarettes and pornography more than fresh produce. When people do not have physical or economic access to nutritious foods, they cannot be said to be food secure. This is where buying clubs come into the picture.
Buying clubs are groups of people who pool their resources to purchase foods that might otherwise be unavailable, whether those are basic staples or "specialty foods" within the distribution system such as organic foods, raw milk or grass-fed meat. Usually such clubs include a large number of young families because (A) they tend to have an adult interested in such things and (B) strong incentives to pursue them. Buying clubs of the early 1970's largely created the current "natural foods" niche market, through the creation of retail cooperative grocery stores. As or more importantly, though, buying clubs and food cooperatives provide access to wholesome foods in areas that have been abandoned or written off by the for-profit grocery industry. Not all buying clubs will become retail food cooperatives, though, nor should they.
Buying clubs occupy a special place in the development of alternative food infrastructure, by creating awareness of more wholesome food choice and supporting small-scale producers who might otherwise be shut out by the dominant system. Not every family needs to select from 100,000 or more grocery items, and not every farmer or producer wants to provide cases or pallets of product to some corporate distribution center. By encouraging and supporting local economies with shorter supply lines, buying clubs help build more diverse, resilient food systems. -
One aspect of the modern logistics and supply-chain hypermarkets such as WalMart is that each household and store operates with fairly lean inventory. Many households do not have more than a week or two of groceries, if that, and I am told that conventional grocery stores may have even leaner reserves for key items such as dairy, meats, milk and bread. Weather events such as a snowstorm, hurricane or natural disaster may prevent resupply and easily lead to local food shortages. Shorter distances between producers and suppliers help with this, as do the development of stronger and deeper home pantries which food-buying clubs encourage.
Some buying clubs aim to replace conventional grocery stores, while others are more specific and may focus on occasional or seasonal purchases such as produce for home canning or annual, whole-animal meat purchases. My own buying club has been around since approximately 2004 and focuses on bulk staples such as dried fruits, cereal grains and other things that the ten or so member households do not produce easily in their home gardens. Almost all of us have chickens and do a bit of gardening, so get by with a few orders each month from five or fewer suppliers each year. This may or may not be the right size for you.
My own experience with buying clubs has led me to value the model established by the Seikatsu buying clubs of Japan. The Seikatsu Consumer's Cooperative is a national company that serves approximately 300,000 households of the 22 million consumer cooperative members in Japan. The Seikatsu group focuses on a couple thousand of key staple products where their efforts provide the greatest health gains. Each "drop point" consists of approximately ten families and each "route" has approximately ten drop points. Each distribution center serves approximately ten routes or 100 drop points. Distribution centers are coordinated at a national level, and I believe that this method of grouping households together is a solid one. A group of ten or so households is large enough to have significant buying power, but small enough to be cohesive and accountable. Such a group is large enough to share the work equitably, but small enough to be accountable. It is hard to shirk and easy to step up, thus avoiding freeloaders and "founder syndrome" burnout. The Roman Legions were organized into ten-man groups, for example, into mess-group "contubernia" which shared a single mule, mill, cook and cooking pot. -
Smaller groups can work for a time, but have difficulty sustaining over several years. Larger groups can gain access to more vendors and better prices, but tend to have participation and accountability issues. Commercial operations which try mimic the structure of buying clubs will find that the resultant loss of goodwill and need for profit margin will poison the concept, as commerce so often corrupts things. Although all Portland-area food cooperatives still standing emerged from buying clubs, not every buying club should aim to go retail. Any cooperation which helps you to get better food for yourself, your neighbors and your family is a good thing, but no buying club is utopia. Buying clubs are not the best way to get food, just sometimes better than the alternatives.
Below are a few links on buying clubs or related matters that might be of interest.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/food_clubs_put_power_in_custom.htmlhttp://www.seikatsuclub.coop/english/
http://www.westonaprice.org/news/1415.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermarket
http://www.theendofovereatingbook.com/
http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/
http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/SallyFallon/
http://www.wildfermentation.com/books_notmicrowaved.php
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Buying clubs are also good for local producers, who value the higher profit margins inherent in more direct distribution models. Even a modest buying club can readily distribute a single "whole animal" purchase, or several such purchases over a period of years: half a cow, a flock of chickens, a pig or lamb or goat. Cultivating a relationship with a small, local meatcutter is often the simplest way to do this, since they will know who the small-scale farmers are, and those farmers will know other farmers.
The fewer hands a whole food passes through, the less expensive and more nutritious it tends to be.
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I live in rural Cowlitz County, Washingon. I'm half a mile from a gas station with a small selection of junk food, beer, and fishing bait. seven miles from a Safeway and a monthly drop point for Azure Standard. eight miles from a Walmart. twenty miles from a Whole Foods. more than thirty miles from several lovely food co-ops in Portland. I can and do get to all of these places on bicycle and bus (except Walmart and Whole Foods), though it takes a considerable amount of time and effort. a large garden this year should make such trips less frequent in the future.
for rural areas as well as urban areas, small-scale food enterprises make an awful lot of sense. back yard (and front yard) market gardens, home bakeries, home breweries, home restaurants, &c could all be economically viable while knitting neighborhoods and small communities together and keeping resources circulating locally. with the exception of the gardens, though, they're all illegal without expensive inspected commercial kitchens that must be kept separate from personal uses. regulations like that make sense for larger producers who might be tempted by geographic insulation from consumers to conduct business less than scrupulously. they don't make sense for folks who could otherwise produce for their immediate neighborhood. I wouldn't suggest a complete lack of regulations, though, just extensive revision to fit this different scale.
to me, promoting small local production for local consumption would make a lot more sense than trying to promote building more capital- and transport-intensive groceries and farmers markets in areas where they don't already exist for one reason or another. it would be a better use of limited resources and have a larger positive impact on quality of life.
it may be going on other places as well, but the small town of Sedgwick, Maine recently adopted an ordinance to exempt such small enterprises from onerous regulations and inspections. similar local political action concerning food could spread, and I hope it does.
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A key point that Sandor Katz makes in "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved" is how underground a lot of changes within the broader food system are. Regulations were ostensibly put in place to protect consumers against big producers, but are more and more used by big producers to protect market share, "pulling the ladder up to the treehouse" with government brought in as a business partner to help stifle competition. One of the advantages of the buying-club model is that as a private group or friendly association, a lot of these issues are avoided.
Some regulations will need changing to allow new and more equitable food systems to go forward, but that is happening. Witness the popularity of urban chickens over the past ten years and more humane policies on "urban livestock" in cities such as Vancouver WA. To a certain extent the emergence of "food cart culture" in Portland is because of such regulation, which inarguably hurts many smaller and fixed restaurants while providing more opportunities and access at the lower end of the market.
One of the things I've noticed about garden groups, buying clubs and other neighborhood-level food activity is that it becomes about more than just nutrition. I suspect we shall a return of "community kitchens" or rentable commercial facilities to encourage more local production of food for local consumption. Since many churches, lodges and grange halls already have licensed kitchens, those seem like a logical place for such production and distribution systems to emerge.
Given that a lot of health regulation is done at the county level (and often only comes into play when one is selling to "the public"), I am hopeful that good grass-roots changes can take place. Community kitchens are a logical model (http://www.cias.wisc.edu/economics/community-kitchens-key-elements-of-success/) and there are strong incentives for these to develop at the county or neighborhood level.
Elimination of imports IS economic development, and making food closer to where it is eaten (especially value-added foods such as preserves or "grab-and-go" items like soups, large entrees and bean salads) makes sense. The "dream dinner" prepare-meals-ahead business model that hit the suburbs a few years ago can easily be adapted for local, sustenance use.
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I can certainly get behind clandestine local food trade as described by Katz. but if getting involved means a real or perceived risk of legal troubles, such activity will be rather more limited than if regulations explicitly allow and encourage it.
it's a lot to ask of an inherently conservative (small 'c') institution like government, but well within the realm of possibility.
the recent urban livestock phenomenon is encouraging, though there are plenty of ways to do that wrong. but suppose those back yard chicken eggs or quail could be legally sold as prepared meals to neighbors, or maybe sold to the restaurant next door or down the street. I believe the positive impact would be much greater. such activity does go on currently, but on a very limited scale and in a secretive manner that limits its significance to the vast majority of folks who might otherwise benefit.
and many "food deserts" are well-populated by folks with plenty of knowledge about food production and preparation. given access to dirt and regulations that encourage them, these folks could easily solve many of the problems created by grocery stores and the lack thereof.
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Why are we so obsessed, or interested, with people being overweight, or even unhealthy for that matter? What difference does it make to most of our lives, well, with the exception of it potentially costing us more money? Is it not believable that the majority of us are motivated to stop obesity for altruistic reasons, that we are centrally concerned with the well-being of our fellow humans and want to prolong lives. At the gut level it is more likely about controlling behaviour or dictating what people ought to do, because we view their actions as morally irresponsible, and we don’t like people living that way. We view their physically unhealthy habits as a reflection of who they are as people, we view it is a lack of self-control and greediness, so we want to stop their behaviour, and not for their personal health, but because we want to change the way they live, or even who they are.
On a personal level, when I have took notice of someone who is obese, I don’t recall ever thinking something like ‘oh the poor thing, they are so unhealthy, I hope this excess weight is not going to shorten their life or cause weight related health complications.’ What might motivate feelings toward them is something like: this person is self-destructive, and not that I am sorry they may destruct, but rather that their behaviour is, well, rather pathetic to me, it seems desperate and I don’t like that desperation in another person. And, rather then feeling sympathetic or concerned, generally the feelings are more likely that of annoyance. From reading comments on this page, on previous topics about weight, and the general tone in public discussions it is clear that the majority of us are not primarily interested in the health of overweight people because we talk as if they are disgustingly repulsive. And, they might also see this weight issue as a physical reflection of what they already imagine is going on in the minds of a good portion of Americans, that they are greedy pigs who only care about themselves. This is really an ideological issue that has so little to do with health.
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It is like drinking or drugging oneself and driving. The consequences are public. Becoming fat to the point where it affects all other bodily functions may be a private decision that one may decide any way they wish just as long as the related medical bills are paid by the indivdual and not thrown onto the general public to pay. This is similar to unwed women on welfare continuing to have children and maintain these on welfare. As long as there is system of welfare that allows these irresponsible woman to produce babies she can not feed or house, they will continue to do so.
If those choosing to be obese were told up front, there wasn't going to be anyone, but themselves to pay for all the medical and special care costs required by their condition, I am sure the numbers of people becoming fat to the point of illness would drop by half or more.
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i am not sure it is a "decision" to become fat that is made by anyone, rather it is a hole one falls into, rather like thinking that dark people are more criminally inclined than light-skinned ones are, as you, Gearing, seem to strongly intimate in many of your writings -i am reasonably sure you did not make a conscious choice to seem a racist, but rather it was a slow decline, and an unwillingness to face a certain reality as it began to manifest itself -
scientifically, there are many more reasons why folks become obese, rather than the simple "choice" of over-eating- mentally, it is more difficult to pin-point what makes people intolerant because of skin color rather than judging according to content and capacity of mind
yes, when one sees some people sitting in IHOP asking for third portions and they are already the size of a double-door refrigerator, that it is their choice is the easy conclusion to fall into - but it is wrong - and of course it is barely remotely tangentially related to the topic of the day- but hey! it's your right, huh? it's ok because it's you
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I live just about a mile from downtown Eugene. As such, there is a Safeway within 1.5 miles from me and an Albertson's the same distance away in the other direction. Just under a mile away is a small natural foods grocery store (The Kiva).
I think having a grocery store around a mile away is better than having one right next door. All three of these stores are within easy walking distance and so you DO walk. Yes, i have a car, but walking to the store for small amounts is good exercise. And that is also part of a healthy diet.
My wife's grandmother confientially told me at one point that "It's all downhill after 102" and that was the year she stopped being able to walk to the small market that was six blocks away from her with her little wire basket with the wheels. She died at 104.
She never learned to drive a car. A team of horses, yes, but cars, no. So, she walked almost every place. And I think that's why she lived to 104 (dying of pneumonia). Of course, the fact that she lived all her life in Red Bluff, California, where the temperature is in the 100s for weeks on end, could be a sign of dementia, to my northwesterner mind, but she liked it.
Stores within walking distance but not too close would be ideal, since they would be close enough to walk to but far enough away to get some light exercise on a regular basis. I usually walk 2-4 miles EVERY day after work, no matter what the weather. I hate it when I go out in the cold or rain, but soon after I start walking, my spirits pick up and then it's no bother. Goretex is the uniform of the Northwest.
Richard Adams, age 65
Eugene, Oregon
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Slogging back and forth to the store(s), no matter how often or infrequently one has to do it, is a chore on its own, let alone the time one spends wandering the aisles, looking for what’s on sale, looking at ingredients - and fresh food doesn’t last for weeks as fresh, so it’s at least a once/twice weekly expedition
WALKING home with enough groceries to make it worth the effort is an exercise of carrying multiples of 10 pounds in too flimsy bags - even tho’ now folks are going back to light-weight woven bags, rather than the paper or plastic choice of the american century - kind of like re-placing the streetcar tracks, as we are now doing, that used to kris-kros our cities- we are not exactly going forward where no man has gone before, boldly or not -
but i digress and editorialize...
The exercise isn’t going to do much for anyone, except induce a heart-attack or stroke in those grossly out of shape, and it will keep no one in shape on its own, so mentioning that is a bit of a forlorn hope- and you are just as likely to put your back out of whack- enough groceries to make a difference just isn't a compact and well balanced load -try it before you advise it
Planning commissions must plan with the people to be served in mind, rather than planning for the convenience of those who would take our money and run -sure, they deserve some consideration, but without us, they would be nowhere, whereas, without them, we are simply where we are right now - up a creek without a grocery bag, without a store in sight- unless you count the mini-marts and you cook with twinkies and coke- yummy, huh? and if you do that, you can’t get out the door anyway, so...
The rural situation is something more difficult to address - it is telling that so many live out there and do not even make an effort to grow there own food - certainly there are some, but since it is an issue that there are not enough stores available to them, this says something quite different than the ‘food deserts’ in the cities -
if we weren’t so euro-phobic about the wrong things, for one thing, we would seriously consider communal gardens in empty lots, and we would put coke, twinkies et al OOB- out of business - they are of the order of the cigarette hawkers, this is not a service they offer, rather it is a de-facto collusion with the ‘health industry’
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I have kind of the opposite problem. Within 3 miles of my house are 2 Safeways, 2 Fred Meyeres, 1 winco, 1 albertsons, all sorts of convenience stores, and when the warm weather comes, 2 farmers markets. I am always baffled by the conundrum of how major supermarkets can afford to build so many duplicate markets all over. ALso, there is a food coop or two available if we want to go that direction.
As to the transportation angle, we can walk, bike (use a trailer) or drive to stores.
It seems that eating is important enough that a person choosing a place to live should figure that out before you rent or buy. You have to eat, so pay attention. If you have to drive to the store, make sure you have a car. If you can walk, get a big-ass backpack.
Access to healthy food is an individual responsibility, not the responsibility of a community government. THis is a pure market-driven function.
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I visited NYC back in the 1970s and learned that people there can be born, grow up, work, and retire and all within a very few blocks. Everything they need is close by, groceries, clothes, workplace, entertainment, healthcare, etc.
It seems that NYC is a city that really knows how to be a city.
I prefer a small town and being close to forests, deserts, and other fairly natural wild areas and I'm willing to sacrifice some of the positives of the big city to live here. Seeing the stars at night is a great reminder of things greater than myself.
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The market refuses to take risks in neighborhoods like Lents. Even the Foster-Powell Fred Meyer is bare bones and lacks many quality food products. Meanwhile, food consumers buy unhealthy, overpriced food at convenience stores or spend time and money driving to Happy Valley or Sellwood to buy their groceries.
Some think consumers in Lents can't afford to shop at New Seasons. You should see how much they pay for milk at 7-Eleven. I burn a gallon of gas to get to New Seasons to shop.
Don't believe me? Check this story from the Washington Post.
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The weight problem in America has little to do (if anything) with high fructose corn syrup, non-organic foods, non-whole grains, chemicals or any other substance. The weight problem is primarily caused by eating too much. People got fat in America because they could, because they could afford to, and because we mistakenly applied principles of economic efficiency to the human appetite. We used the sales tactic of ‘buy one, get one free,’ in order to incentivize and keep consumers satisfied that they were receiving an ever-increasing value. The quality of food did not improve much, but a perceived better value was achieved through bigger portions.
Gradually, during my rather short lifetime, I have noticed as the years have gone by, you can get bigger and bigger meals and beverages for the same price.This same thing happened with most products sold in America---socks, cars, televisions, refrigerators, toilet paper, and on and on. And the same kind of marketing through an increase in volume or quantity, was also applied to food. How do we get the customers to keep coming in? We give them added value by increasing the quantities, by giving them a larger quantity of the same item for the same price. And that value for money equated to more food and larger meals. This weight problem has so little to do with the ingredients or the way things are grown and prepared, and it is troubling to hear people endlessly, and unproductively, toiling over all these ancillary ideas that have nothing to do with the problem.
Americans didn’t exactly get greedier, or at least not arbitrarily, they are in a way products of their own circumstances, good fortune and economic successes, they merely kept receiving an ever increasing value through more-and-more in almost all aspects of life. Manufacturing processes became more efficient, agricultural practices became more efficient, so the average person was able to get more for less. No one stopped to think, and we rather innocently, never made the distinction that food was something we did not need an ever increasing amount of, because the human appetite for food is based on a finite physical capacity and should not be turned into something elastic.
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an obvious angle to this conversation is the whole auto-centric design of our cities and towns.
As fuel price climbs, farmers markets, coops, and neighborhood food sources like coop gardens will become more visible and easier to start. At $6/gallon gas, imagine how we will begin to focus on bringing basic services like grocery stors within a radius of 1 mile around our homes, probably working way out ahead of any government planning initiative.
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Folks - I live east of I-205. The FoPo Fred Meyer is relatively inaccessible except by car, and does not have many of the products I want.
"There's a Fred Meyer on 82nd" is not the answer. There is no grocery store between the 82nd Fred Meyer and the 122nd Safeway. Imagine a swath of Portland from Seven Corners to Mount Tabor, without one grocery store. That's what we have out here.
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Jeff Cogan needs to take some classes in market economics. The desire for a business to succeed does not equal success. Property taxes are probably the smallest operating cost for a business.
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True -- labour is often one of the biggest operating expenses that a business can have.
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Labor costs are about 21-23% of budget for a modest, 6000-square-foot grocery, with property taxes less than 1%.
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Interesting discussion today. But, I must take issue with the shortsighted thinking in the past decade of the city of Portland in relation to landowners and high density housing.
In the older neighborhoods of this fine city many lots are larger and very suitable to huge gardens however in the recent past developers were allowed to come in and push for high density dwellings and bingo there goes the land. Yes I know people need to live somewhere and we're trying to limit sprawl but think for god sake you build a mcmansion and you have occupied good growing culture.
On the point of taxation and expanding high density housing many of the family farms still in existence I.E Rossi , cereghino and guisto have been squeezed by the county to take their land out of production and sell for high density housing. taxes on these large plots which do indeed feed hundreds if not thousands of people have gone up and these families are finding it more and more difficult to even keep their way of life going. OK lets say these families sell out and in comes the apartments and high density dwellings ok where will your food come from now?
On Sam adams point regarding the lents and Parkrose neighborhoods not having access to grocery stores within a mile. Well I can't speak for lents but as for Parkrose Mayor Sam has once again shown how incredibly disconnected he is. We have 2 count them 2 WINCO stores one on 102nd and one on 122nd a fred meyer just across from the winco on 102nd I realize these are in the gateway district but they are in fact less than a mile from the maywood park/ parkrose area. To add insult to his statement theres a beuatiful pan asian market on Prescott and 97th in a former sentry market. The staff are wonderful and the produce is relatively low priced and fresh fresh fresh local mostly.
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Neither of those stores are in Parkrose. I don't think anyone north of I-84 is walking to Halsey to buy groceries.
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I suggest educating the children about what good quality foods are so that they constantly demand them and grow up to always demand them.
The giant processed foods industries have huge "mis-education" (advertising) budgets that ought to be countered in the public schools.
Sort of like with disease vaccines, the kids ought to be innoculated against the processed "foods" industries.
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That sounds just like the primary thrust of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative. Getting local school children involved with planting, harvesting and enjoying the White House Kitchen Garden (and gardens like it at their schools), and encouraging kids to ask mom and/or dad for good food, rather than cheap, mediocre quality foods (yes, I'm talking about you McD's, BK, KFC, etc.).
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Penny
I didn't know that but I sure support her and the kids in their efforts.
I'd like to see home economics brought back in a big way. Families eating healthy home cooked meals together used to be a good thing and I'd like to see that idea brought back.
Fast and processed foods ought to be a "sometimes food".
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I believe that grocery stores long ago had everything behind the counter and the customer had to ask a clerk for everything he wanted to buy. The clerk would take everything to the register and after getting paid would then give the stuff to the customer.
So if shoplifting is a problem in some areas maybe a newer form of that old practice could be brought into use. And the added benefit is that more clerks would be hired, adding jobs to the community.
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You're right, Tom, that was the model until pioneering men like Fred Meyer (he wasn't the only one, though) got into the grocery business, and created a need for things like shopping baskets and grocery carts.
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Penny
I wonder what changed the trust factor for the grocery guys, what made them trust that they would not be shoplifted out of business.
And idea of that history?
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I believe that the first Piggly Wiggly had a unicursal "track" that shoppers pushed their carts through, so that they literally had to pass each and every item. A picture of the original Piggly Wiggly at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggly_Wiggly shows what appears to be chain-link "cyclone" fencing at the end of each aisle to direct traffic and this concept was patented by the founder. It is interesting to track the evolution of food distribution systems in the 20th century, particularly around issues such as the influence of advertising, standardization and suburbanization that came with cheap,post-war oil.
Hypermarkets such as WalMart and Fred Meyer are the logical end point for this model, and if they could afford to do so they would build a half-dozen major stores at freeway interchanges and sign contracts to restrict competitors from opening at competing locations. This sort of tactic is why many commercial leases have explicit requirements for stores to open, lest major companies lease space and keep it "dark" to shut out competition within a market area.
The more one knows, the dirtier it gets.
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rorybowman —
That was a very informative series of posts.
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Thank you. I'm glad it was of service.
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You're welcome but it's me who is grateful to you for relieving me of some of my ignorance about this subject.
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I live in the Eliot neighborhood in North Portland, and the closest market to me is a Whole Foods just under a mile away. I bike or walk there a couple of times per week, but I also travel well out of my way to shop at Trader Joe's and Fred Meyer's because I can't find everything I need/want at Whole Foods (nor is that an economically viable option for me). While all this running around can be inconvenient without a car, I recognize that it is a luxury problem and feel lucky to have so many options, even if they aren't a stone's throw away. That being said, I would love to see a year-round produce market nearby and think that would be a tremendous asset to the Eliot community. This a mostly residential neighborhood with half a dozen cafes but not a single food market (not counting the corner stores filled with junk food). To that end, I'm not sure what the deal is with some of the empty lots around here (SW corner of Fremont and N. Williams being one example), but they seem like prime locations for a grocery co-op, produce market or even something bigger like New Seasons.
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I would love to see more healthier food choices at restaurants and grocery stores.
Jean |
orlando restaurants -
Comments are now closed.
American city planning is based on zoning. Houses are here-- businesses there--groceries stores can only be located on certain high volume routes and need 5 acres of parking.
So most suburban Americans live in neat, tract developments with lawns, driveways, and garages--no convenience stores, produce stores or supermarkets. And most apartment and condo dwellers live in drive-in complexes, far from stores. Cars are needed to get EVERYWHERE.
In some neighborhoods fewer people walk the sidewalk than ride around in motorized wheelchairs. Everyone is inside being a couch potato sunning themselves by the Plasma screen. And many are puzzled by the Epidemic Obesity.
Except for a few mixed Commercial-Residential Buildings and those living in a dive above a resturant, we all live in food deserts.
Maybe we need less Zoning, and more haphazard, naturally-sprouting business locations. Why can't we have more Lemonade stands and Backyard Produce Stands without being harrassed by City health Inspectors?
We all need to walk and bike more, talk with our neighbors, and feel the weather and get wet. And get errands done, and pick fruit from neighborhood trees, and buy zucchini and tomatos from a young neighbor.
It is illegal to plant a fruiting apple tree in PDX. People and Gardens cannot co-exist by municipal law. Welcome to Arizona.