Food Desert

Texas College Converts Football Field to Organic Farm. Is Nothing Sacred?

Mark Winne is the author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Backin an Age of Industrial Agriculture.

Highland Hills is one of those down-and-nearly-out communities that’s allowed a glimpse of prosperity but never gets to taste it. The Dallas skyline looms large and shining across the hazy north Texas horizon and is linked to this poverty-plagued neighborhood by a seven-mile ribbon of light-rail steel. Ledbetter Avenue crosses the train line passing by vacant buildings, vast stretches of empty parking lots, and a dizzying array of “For Sale,” “For Lease” and “For Jesus” signs. Named for the renowned guitar picker Lead Belly who did time in these parts – both in and out of prison – the Avenue speaks little in the way of promise, but wails the blues of poverty loud and clear.
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Food Desert

Movin’ On Up … to the lower-risk-of-obesity side?

by heacphotos from flickr.com

Location! Location! Location!

Jens Ludwig,  a professor at the University of Chicago, published a study titled “Neighbordhoods, Obesity, and Diabetes — A Randomized Social Experiment”, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on October 20, 2011.  The study investigated the health affects of Moving to Opportunity, an initiative created to give single women (typically with children) in high-poverty areas access to housing in low-poverty areas.
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Body Mass Index (BMI), Diabetes, Food Desert, Research