Experts, Advocates Weigh in on Nutrition Debate in Portland

Are food deserts truly to blame for America’s collective nutrition problem, or is the culprit the overabundance of cheap, unhealthy food options?

In the last couple of weeks, the term ‘food desert’ has received its fair share of negative publicity. The New York Times reported on Michelle Obama’s recent press event with executives from Walmart and other large chains to announce the opening of thousands of stores in food deserts nationwide. The move was met with outcry from those who argue that big box stores are bad fits in small neighborhoods, and that locally owned, independent businesses are more effective when it comes to fighting the myriad public health problems caused by poor diet.

The debate is centered around a key argument: whether food deserts are truly to blame for America’s collective nutrition problem, or whether the culprit is the overabundance of cheap, unhealthy food options that have led to record obesity levels in the last decade.

In Portland, experts are torn over how to properly approach such a complex issue. “I think there are a number of factors at play,” says Steve Cohen, food policy expert for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). “Additional grocery stores can be very positive, but we need to remember that access isn’t in the sole variable for hunger, obesity, and other dietary diseases. Affordability and education are also key to changing behavior.”

"Can individuals afford fresh fruit and vegetables more than the kinds of processed foods and high fat, high sugar, high salt [foods] that are going to lead to the kind of dietary conditions that are costing us a whole lot of money?”
 

To Cohen, grocery stores should be built on a case-by-case basis, and they should be identified as a good fit for a neighborhood if their business model makes sense, and their selection and pricing matches the needs of the area. A key question to ask, he says, is “Can individuals afford fresh fruit and vegetables more than the kinds of processed foods and high fat, high sugar, high salt [foods] that are going to lead to the kind of dietary conditions that are costing us a whole lot of money?”

Tony Fuentes, owner of Milagros Boutique and a vocal advocate of local business, says that his fear is that stores that fit the bill might also happen to be those that are known for sub-par products and minimal local economic impact. “My fear, as a consumer and as a proponent of independent business, is that the food desert argument gets co-opted by an entity like Walmart,” he says. Fuentes says he doesn’t want such stores to “expand into areas that they haven’t been welcomed before, and worse, to be able to do that with the subsidies provided by the public.”

Cohen, who works on the mayor’s grocery store initiative, says that the store’s reputation isn’t reason enough to dismiss it out of hand. “Generally, where this discussion always goes is that calories are cheap, and nutrition is not, and that’s not a problem that’s specific to Walmart.,” he says. “There are stores that are perceived to be more expensive than others… if you shop them correctly… they’re actually cheaper than some of the other stores that people believe are more affordable.”

As the grocery store initiative goes forward, and new stores are picked to open throughout the city, Cohen says it’s important to note that those running the program are not using a “one size fits all” or lottery approach in which a couple of stores will be given free rein to open around the city. “[We are] going to take into consideration the needs of retailers as well as the needs of neighborhoods when the final decision comes,” he says. “We will be working with Walmart, we will be working with New Seasons and Whole Foods, and also the Montavilla food co-op. There is an advisory committee that has been established that includes representatives from the affected communities and health groups.”

From the perspective of Multnomah County, which recently rolled out its Healthy Retail Initiative, the issue cannot be framed as the black and white debate of food desert versus overabundance of unhealthy food. “Our planning has been based on about five years of planning with community stakeholders, where we have been doing assessment work and having community conversations,” says Sonia Manhas, program manager of community wellness and prevention for the Multnomah County Health Department.

Manhas says that the county’s strategies are based on equipping residents with the information they need to eat healthily. “We want to support families and parents to make healthy choices for their children,” she says. “And when you talk to parents, which we’ve done a lot of… you may think people are only driven by cost, but what we’ve found through our conversations is that parents really want to do the right thing, they want to provide healthy food for their families.”

What may set Portland apart when it comes to the food desert debate is its seemingly endless supply of farmers’ markets, produce stands, and other local food outlets that may not show up on the maps that governments use to determine areas that are in need of grocery stores. “What I’ve been reading and what I’ve seen has been that a lot of the criteria seem to be that we have ignored those other access points,” says Fuentes. “It seems like living in a desert is based on whether you have a chain or a large grocery store. In a lot of cases, at least within Portland, that’s kind of misnomer.”

Regardless of the city’s nontraditional food sources, however, at the center of the issue remains the fact that the least expensive food is often the least healthy. There is little that local government can do about the decades-long subsidizing of cheap, unhealthy crops like corn and soybeans, and despite Portland’s sometimes defiant independent streak, much of our food is still at the mercy of national manufacturers and distributors.

Most parties involved with the debate admit that there is no silver bullet when it comes to tackling the growing obesity crisis and the other effects of poor nutrition. The entire issue is so full of socioeconomic implications and entrenched customs that serious measures, like a tax on junk food, as many have suggested, may take years to implement meaningfully.

Nevertheless, experts say, the crisis has become so costly, both economically and socially, that Portland and the entire country must look long and hard at the way we eat.

“We pay with our health, one way or another,” says Cohen. “Not only does this question always go back to calories versus nutrition, but it also goes back to what we as a country are subsidizing and what is the true cost of it. It just strikes to the heart of our global food system when we talk about these kinds of questions.”