Junk Food County

folks in the north have a 3 month growing season. we can can and freeze, but then the fresh food is dead food. there is plenty of everything, but a lack of distribution and desire. don't get me going on how the oil prices have increased our food prices. here in maine, food pantries pay .16 per lb. for food from a centralized warehouse. produce, because it spoils, is free. it isn't unusual to watch people choose canned items and white bread while leaving the veggies and whole grain items. is it time to send packages home with school children?

andrea06debs says: "I have never seen anyone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to buy groceries for their family." Well, I have, and I've lived in rural Nebraska for the last fifteen years. All our national resources and attention, including secure remunerative jobs, have become concentrated in our urban centers. Eleven of the twenty poorest counties in America are rural counties in Nebraska and South Dakota, and as the mechanization of agriculture has pushed families off the land into towns where there is no work waiting, I have seen adults well into their fifties and later, pulling sixty-hour work weeks in demeaning entry level jobs, to provide their kids with subsistence lifestyles. Frankly, nothing in this article is unexpected to me; the only surprise was that a research institution spend money on something I could have told them for free.

As an individual that lives in the "country" I have never seen anyone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to buy groceries for their family, however, I have seen that in the inner city! Nevertheless, I think this article is extremely slanted and only aids in the misinterpretation of country living.

As an individual that lives in the "country," I have never seen someone that did not have transportation to get to the store or the means to do it; however, I have seen that in the inner cities! I think this article is extremely slanted and only aids in the misinterpretation of rural country living.

The claims of this article regarding the availability of nutritious food is pure exaggeration for the sake of sensationalism. I grew up Sumter, South Carolina, which neighbors Orangeburg county, and I always saw big grocery stores in even the smallest of towns. I lived in what was considered an undeveloped area outside of the city, and for me, it was only a five minute drive to a very large, newly built, grocery store that was full of every kind of healthy food imaginable. The only halfway valid point this author made was that not having a car is problematic. It is true that SC has extremely limited public transportation in its capital city, and none everywhere else, but owning a car is very cheap. I have seen old beater cars for sale starting at $500, and we did away with inspections, so basically anything is allowed on the road. Also, gasoline is much cheaper than in other places in the country. I just don't see the problems this article stated, and for that reason, I consider it completely bunk.

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It's important to note that many people in rural areas may not have cars or access to a vehicle, so they cannot drive 2 hours to the nearest large grocery store to stock up on healthier foods. What can they do? Well, walk to the nearest convenience store, where yes, they should make healthier choices than a snickers bar, but still, canned beans and white bread are not going to satisfy a person's nutritional needs. This article is important in exposing the common misconception that convenience store food is the plight of the urban dweller. Having just spent the summer traveling through some of poorest rural areas in the United States, I learned a lot about the way people live, and so much of it has to do with what's available to them, both in terms of actual food resources and education. One of the saddest things that is happening in this country is that so much of the land is being used for cash crops, so of course, there's no plucking the apple from the tree, or getting the eggs from the hens. Instead, it's harvest the wheat, corn, tobacco, cotton, soy, etc., ship it off, and go get processed, preserved food at the nearest convenience store. The system needs to be reexamined before people get blamed for their own food choices causing their obesity. Obese people in these situations are starving...they are starving for nutrients, to which they are not given access.

I live in a very rural area. The nearest store is 15 minutes away, and everything there is so expensive (junkfood and healthy food) that I rarely shop there. Instead, I drive the two hours to a much cheaper and larger store to shop once or twice a month. It is soo much more expensive to buy chips and soda and pre-made food than fruits and veggies and a bag of flour. Stock up, buy things on sale, and just used to the fact that although an apple does not taste like a candy bar, it is much healthier and cheaper. Being obese has to do with each persons food choices, not with where they live. There are very few obese people here in my rural ranching low-income area. Maybe this "study" should broaden it's horizons and stop trying to find the why and how unhealthy people are that way. They choose not to be.

I used to live in a rural town when I was a child, and yes we did have a small convenience store that had just about everything that's junkie. Lucky for me, I didn't end up obese because of it, but there was definitely a possibility. If you live in a rural town without grocery stores nearby, it's a shame, and it's in these areas that people need to wake up and do something healthy for themselves. Whether it be planting a garden, or eating legumes. You can do it!

Yes, although there are many rural areas in the same situation, people need to wake up and do something about it! People are making the conscious choice to choose the high fat, unhealthy foods. People who allow themselves to become obese obivously don't care for their bodies enough to exercise and plant a vegetable garden. Snap out of the twinkie phase and start eating dried legumes!

I am building in a rural town out West and the situation there is exactly as depicted in the article. The convenience store is the only place to buy food for 50 miles. They only stock processed foods and high fat everything. I can't go in there and come out with ANYTHING that I would normally eat as "healthy". Just about everyone is poor, obese and uneducated about healthy food.

Let's start to teach America how to eat well cheaply. Rice bought by the pound goes a long way and,if it's brown rice ,has the added fiber kick. Dried legumes are cheap and nutricious. Powdered milk in the USA is almost always low or no fat and cheaper then fresh. She could post a note in the local fast food place and try to connect with someone going her way for a ride to either store. She could have a windowsill garden for sprouts and lettuces. She could make her own yogurt. In season local produce is usually not expensive. Eggs on sale can be frozen (out of the shell) But, there must be some programs to get info like this low income citizens.

I cannot help but sense that this is fast food propaganda. First (decades ago), the processed food manufacturers convinced consumers that they were too busy to cook (even though statistics show that most people watch more TV now than ever, confirming that their days may not always be packed with mandatory obligations). Now, consumers are hearing that diet-related diseases are due to lack of availability and high costs of fresh produce (or ANY REAL food). While lack of access to real food is a reality in many urban and rural areas, what we have yet to see is real proof that real food costs more than a full day's worth of fast food -- processed sweets for breakfast, a burger, fries and soda for lunch, and a pizza and soda for dinner, for instance. And with a real dinner (a roast chicken, potatoes, carrots and head of broccoli, for instance), there may be leftovers for days to come, if cooks planned ahead. A pound of pasta with fresh tomatoes and other vegetables (and that leftover chicken and broccoli) is likely cheaper than a single serving of a burger or instant noodles every day. What we are not seeing is such reports is the high costs of treatment due to diet-related diseases. How do poverty-stricken citizens afford health care and medicine to treat these diet-related diseases? What we have yet to see is solutions, like local authorities pushing to open grocery stores. Or citizens creating demand -- pushing markets to sell more fresh produce. Or Community Supported Agriculture, where many people in the neighborhood can pitch in to get some fresh produce at a decent price. If diet-related diseases are truly and solely based on lack of access to real food, then consumers need to work on their own solutions and push local authorities and businesses to provide affordable access to the foods they desire.