USDA Efforts to Meet the Need for Healthy Food with Domestic Production

USDA has initiated several programs within that Venn diagram. First are Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) programs at farmers' markets; many farmers want EBT availability so that they can accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and senior market coupon benefits. A number of foundations have been advocating for EBT at farmers' markets as a way to simultaneously address food access issues and farmer economic viability issues. Merrigan described the efforts as “successful,” with both farmers' markets and nutrition benefit redemptions skyrocketing. “And I think we've only scratched the surface,” she said.

Second are USDA-invested mobile markets. There has been a lot of recent discussion about food deserts, that is, areas of low access to food. In many rural parts of the country, there are not enough people to sustain a grocery store that is open 24 hours per day or 7 days per week, or even one that is open 5 days per week. Food deserts exist in both rural and urban areas. In many inner cities, people are buying food at corner stores and sometimes liquor stores, paying more money for less healthful foods. USDA has been investing in mobile markets to make sure that people are getting access to the food they need. Merrigan mentioned a mobile market in Chicago³: an old bus that was retrofitted to provide food, especially fresh produce, to inner-city communities. The question is, how can the concept be expanded out to make sure that everyone is getting access to the food they need?

Commercial kitchens are a third USDA-funded effort aimed at using domestic production to meet healthy eating needs. Farmers are using commercial kitchens for value-added food production, while communities are using them for cooking classes and demonstrations, canning, and other activities. USDA commercial kitchens are bringing people into the kitchen in exciting ways, in Merrigan's opinion. She mentioned Michael Pollan's compelling argument for families cooking together and gathering around the dinner table and observed that commercial kitchens could play a role (Pollan, 2012).

A fourth USDA effort of relevance is the Farm to School program. Children who are engaged in garden-based learning are more science literate and more environmentally aware, according to Merrigan. More importantly, they are willing to try and consume different types of fruits and vegetables. Much of the USDA's focus has been on elementary school, while some has been on high school. Now, efforts need to be directed at the preschool level, where eating habits initially form. In Merrigan's opinion, there are many opportunities at that level for small and midsize regional farmers who are seeking institutional outlets.

A fifth opportunity, still largely on the drawing board, would be to combine USDA's food bank and food hub investments. USDA funds both food banks, including food bank delivery trucks, and food hubs. A food hub is a central place where small farmers bring their products to be aggregated or lightly processed for further distribution to institutional buyers. Merrigan suggested that the food bank delivery trucks could also be used to pick up food from the food hub farmers, en route, and deliver that food to a food hub. This would allow transportation to be shared, as well as cold storage and other services. Merrigan suspects that strengthening the links between food banks and food hubs would result in a sizeable increase in farm donations to food banks. She said, “That's the kind of innovation I think we need when we're talking about the Venn diagram and bringing these communities together.”

Finally, Merrigan observed plentiful opportunity in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed). She acknowledged that some policy makers are advocating for the elimination or reformation of SNAP-Ed. However, she views the program as an opportunity to “work harder and better in that Venn diagram.”

Affordable, Accessible Healthy Eating

When asked by a member of the audience what specifically could or should be done with SNAP-Ed, Merrigan replied that figuring out how to get SNAP-Ed dollars to work harder is the task of the workshop participants. She cautioned that the “elephant in the room” is the notion that sustainable agriculture equals more expensive food, and she recalled hearing many federal government leaders saying that if people were to eat more healthfully by eating more fruits and vegetables, for example—it would be a “budget buster” for the federal government. However, studies from the USDA Economic Research Service and elsewhere have demonstrated that many fruits and vegetables, especially seasonal fruits and vegetables, are in fact quite inexpensive (Bishop and Wootan, 2013; Stewart et al., 2011). In Merrigan's opinion, that kind of thinking—that a more sustainable food system would price poor people out of the food they need—has hurt reform efforts for decades.

Another member of the audience commented on a recent study in South Africa, where a 25 percent discount on healthy foods led to a fairly large shift in diet over the course of 2 years (An et al., 2013). The study involved approximately 350,000 individuals. Although the price change led to increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and a decline in meat and fried food consumption, it did not have much impact on obesity. According to the audience member, one reason for the lack of impact on obesity was that portion size issues were not included in the messaging. The results of the study raise questions about how food quality and quantity can both be improved simultaneously.

Merrigan responded that empowering women should be part of the agenda, given that in many countries women are the ones who guide their families' eating choices. She emphasized early education, noting that dietary patterns are set early, and mentioned FoodCorps,⁴ an offshoot of AmeriCorps. FoodCorps service members encourage school children to make healthful eating choices through efforts such as cheering kids on at the lunch line. Although Merrigan was unsure how such a program would be scaled up at either the domestic or global level, she said, “against all the onslaught of convenience and processed food, healthy food—good eating—needs a cheerleader.”

Box

Keynote speaker Kathleen Merrigan identified local and regional agriculture as a place where the siloed nutrition and sustainable agriculture communities could come together to build a powerful coalition for change. U.S. farmers would fare better, and (more...)