Week 6: Readings

It was very enlightening to learn of the methods and concepts to keep in mind when performing a community food assessment. I found it particularly interesting that Pothukuchi emphasized the impact the field of planning had on health and how it was different from the medical field. 

“This emphasis on the connections between land-use and neighborhood planning on one hand and health issues related to food access and physical activity on the other needs greater and more systematic attention from planners. Planners have special contributions to make in this regard; the medical field has traditionally concentrated on individuals and families as units of analysis and only recently started paying attention to community factors such as access, proximity, food availability, and the quality of community infrastructure.” (Pothukuchi, 2004)

As someone that was previously interested in pursuing a career in medicine, her justifications for the need of planners to contribute to health issues, resonated with me. I previously thought becoming a primary care physician would provide me the platform I needed to curtail the growing chronic disease epidemic. Soon after working in the medical field, I observed two major pitfalls: there was not enough time to truly educate patients on healthier lifestyle practices and as a physician I would not able to address the community issues –the geographical, social and economic limitations that assisted in the development of the conditions observed. Consequently, I pursued a master’s in public health and now hope to gain acceptance into the doctoral planning program at FSU. 

As a result of this course and others, I’m slowing learning how the interactions between social constructs, spatial distribution and economic opportunity have an impact on health. This week’s readings demonstrated that performing a community food assessment can promote a more comprehensive approach to community food security concerns that could assist in the development of policies and programs on various scales. Now, seeing where I can play a role on a local level as a link between health and planning, I am still left with the question as to who determines the priority of food security issues. Whether I work for an academic institution, governmental agency or non-profit that advocates the development of policies that will address food security issues on a state or federal level, I feel I am still limited as a professional planner, to an extent, as to what is my role in addressing this issue other than to collect data.