A nourishing environment

Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for the global marketing agency JWT, predicts 2012 will be the year food emerges as the prominent environmental issue of our time.

In other words, concern about the quality of our air, water, and earth is coalescing under an overall food banner as folks become increasingly aware of how and by whom food is grown, harvested, transported, sold, cooked, and consumed - and the implications of those acts.

Mack says companies that want to be perceived as being on the side of food justice should take note.

Like many so-called trends, this one has been building for years. People in and out of government have focused on making chemical-free, locally grown fruits and vegetables more affordable and available, supporting the small farmers who are struggling to survive in a system stacked in favor of big agribusiness, and reclaiming inner-city land for urban farming.

In the process, they have been connecting the dots not only between food and environment, but between healthy eating and disease prevention.

"People are recognizing the need to go beyond treating obesity as a purely medical problem, for example," says Giridhar Mallya, director of policy and planning at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

"Now, we see obesity from a prevention perspective and focus more on ways to encourage adults and children to make healthier food choices."

That thinking - and $25 million in federal stimulus dollars over three years - gave rise to the health department's Get Healthy Philly project, which in turn led to Philadelphia having the largest Healthy Corner Store Initiative in the nation.

The project, part of a nationwide network, works by targeting both the stores and the school students who stop in once or twice a day, racking up an estimated 360 (empty) calories per visit on fatty, salty snacks and sugary drinks.

The Initiative got store owners in high-poverty areas to stock fresh produce, greens, low-fat dairy products, lean protein, and bottled water by offering incentives (refrigeration units) and disincentives (the possibility of being dropped from the program if caught selling tobacco to minors).

Launched here by the Food Trust in 2004, Philadelphia's Healthy Corner Store Initiative had 600 stores by 2011 and will grow to 1,000 by 2013, says Brianna Sondoval-Almaguer of the Food Trust.