Meta: It’s Not Easy To Be Green

There was a lot of great points about this issue made in both the launch and the query posts this week; people seem to have differing yet passionate opinions on the topic of food deserts. One side of the argument agreed with Will Allen. They see government intervention as an effective way of changing how agriculture and food is processed and distributed. Others see, like sproles43 and toastedravioli, see the most effective difference happening on more of a grassroots level. Some other bloggers supported the idea of churches having gardens where people could come and have access to fresh fruit and vegetables. Some went as far as saying that the poor themselves should learn how to grow their own food. However, there were some perhaps more realistic views on the topic such as bellajoelleseiz who wrote that “most people don’t have the time, or don’t want to spend the time on a garden.”
Another major facet of these posts was the focus and importance of education. Hellosunshine and focushoneynut both think that education of what is healthy and what is not. However, as joycemichelle pointed out, eating habits are hard to change. In response to this, daretobepresent suggests conditioning people at an earlier age to enjoy healthier options.
There were some bloggers, f0rnarnia and hasubah, who noted that what it comes down to for many is economics. When one is in a desperate situation with 5 mouths to feed, he is unlikely to buy a fresh box of spinach when he can buy a package of hotdogs (this is just one example that I can up with). People living in poverty have to make hard decisions every single day. What they eat is no exception.