This week’s readings further demonstrated how multi-faceted
the food system is with other areas of planning. In previous classes we
discussed how tightly connected food and the environment were; in this week’s
readings, Raja’s and Clifton’s articles discuss the interconnection of
transportation and food, specifically in relation to food deserts. Each article
discussed how cars aid in diversifying the resident’s options in terms of
price, health, and cultural appropriateness. My preferred mode of
transportation is a bicycle: for cost-related, environmental, health, and convenience
reasons, yet even when I grocery shop I drive. This allows me to go shopping
only once a week as well as go to whichever store I would like to buy my food
at. Additionally, when I’ve grocery shopped in the past with a bicycle, it was
more time consuming and I was limited to how much food could fit in my
backpack. I felt that I understood what they meant in the articles when they
discussed how convenient having a car is. Have you ever have to ask for rides from a friend, take
the bus, or walk/bike to go grocery shopping? What was that experience like?
I felt that one other element they should have mentioned/
studied would have been handicap accessibility. No only do the store need to be
handicap accessible, getting to these stores also requires it, and within a
food desert I can only imagine how difficult this would be. Again, this now
connects food, transportation (and within transportation, environment), and
human rights (access to adequate, healthy, and culturally appropriate food
regardless of race, class, handicap, etc.).
Another concept explored by this week’s readings was how the
availability of restaurants in certain areas with minority populations is
affecting the health of those areas. What do you think about the availability
of healthy restaurant options within the Tallahassee community, and how do you
think these restaurants affect the health of our population?
When talking about healthy options, I look at FSU campus.
Sure, maybe I can get a Kale salad from Chik’ fil a now, but this isn’t
healthy, and as a vegan, my options are even more limited—not to mention how local
food isn’t even an option on campus. I find it frustrating…
I have never HAD to walk to the grocery store, but I used to live three blocks from Publix, and I CHOSE to walk there...ONE time. I thought it would be a great idea, until I was struggling walking home with bags hanging on my arms cutting off circulation to my hands. It was a very uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. I would not want to have to do that every time I went to a store. Especially if I were trying to feed a family , not just myself. That would just mean even more bags to carry.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t have a car during my first three years of undergrad and I had to ask my roommates and/or friends for rides to the closest supermarket. It created a hardship financially because I had to shop in bulk and trying to sync schedules with friends and my roommates was next to impossible. At the time I was a music major, which meant we had classes at minimum 5 days a week. We usually arrived on campus between 8 and 9 am and didn’t leave until upwards of 2 am because of rehearsals, course work and the expectation of practicing at minimum 8 hours a day. It was really hard trying to find time to schedule visits to the grocery store with non-music major friends. At times I would walk to the closest CVS to get a few basics to hold me over until the next time I was able to shop, which was expensive. I finally gained independence when I bought a car during my junior year.
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