Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Can Cities Feed Themselves?

We ate these tomatoes, growing in a 5-gallon bucket, with a large green salad tonight.

Fresh healthy food for all city residents is a realistic goal.

This is a recap of a guest post answering the question “Can cities feed themselves?” Michael Dahl of DissidentPotato.com put this question out on his blog and on social media, asking for answers in the form of blog posts. Michael’s question was closely related to the problems I try to address here, so I decided to take a stab at it.

Here at ThinkEatBeHealthy I am more used to trying to convince people to eat better and live a healthier lifestyle one person at a time. How cities could do a better job of feeding their residents a healthy diet of real food required me to think about these issues on a much larger scale. It was a very interesting thought exercise for me and made apparent several possibilities for doing more on this blog.

As I began to think about how to answer, my intention was one post for Michael to put up on his blog. It seemed important to me to provide some background, some of the “why” that would motivate cities to want to ensure better food for people living there. A look at why and how the average diet today was not good, and how we had gotten to this point, seemed necessary. And it was obvious there would be many obstacles to overcome(dealing with government and all that).

When I was done, I had several thousand words. I submitted to Michael. We talked about it. We both came to the conclusion that it would be best to split my answer into four guest posts: what a healthy diet is, what the current standard diet is and why, what actions cities could take to improve residents’ diet and what the obstacles would be and how to surmount them. We also decided that Michael would publish my piece “as-is” without editing and add a commentary/rebuttal of his own at the end of each post.

I am very pleased with the way this collaboration worked out. So is Michael. We both enjoyed the opportunity to think about new and bigger problems. We found it enlightening to see close up how a different perspective can bring insights to old problems. It was a refreshing way to step outside my comfort zone and grow a little more. I hope Michael feels the same way.

Please continue to follow DissidentPotato.com for more guest posts from other bloggers responding to the same question. I am looking forward to seeing more different points of view and innovative solutions to a huge problem that extends well outside the boundaries of health.

Click on the following links to read my entire series of guest posts on this topic:

1.) What is a healthy diet?

2.) Why we eat junk food

3.) What can cities do to ensure a better diet?

4.) Overcoming the hurdles

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One thought on “Can Cities Feed Themselves?

  1. Michael Dahl

    Richard:

    I was very pleased with this collaboration. You got me to think more critically about both micro and macro level problems and solutions to people eating well. As my passion is fighting poverty, I also considered all your points from a place of, how can real food be possible for poor folks who don’t currently have access to land.

    Thanks for your posts. I’m excited to see where this leads.

    Michael