Deserts are the driest landscapes on Earth. These vast lands with little vegetation or rainfall are usually avoided by the average person. Being stranded in a desert could be fatal if one is not properly prepared. In Columbus, Ohio, many residents don’t wake up with the worry of surviving the Sahara; however, a different desert might have locals concerned.
Food deserts are areas with limited access to healthy food. Typically, households in food deserts are low income, have inadequate transportation access and are limited in the number of food retailers that provide affordable fresh produce and healthy groceries. Nationally, healthy food access for food insecure communities has become a public health concern as levels of obesity, diabetes and other weight-related health issues rise.
“Food insecurity has been an ever-present problem in Columbus,” Dr. Jill Clark, professor and director of undergraduate studies at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University, said.
Dr. Clark is familiar with the state of food insecurity in Columbus, as she is a member of the Franklin County Local Food Council and the City of Columbus and Franklin County Local Food Board (LFB). She is a part of the team that put together the Local Food Action Plan (LFAP), Columbus' guiding star for tackling food deserts and food insecurity.
Mike Hogan, an Ohio State University Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources and an associate professor, said that a major part of food insecurity in food deserts is the inability of households to access the resources to have enough nutritious food to get through each month.
“A lot of times there’s neighborhoods where the only source of food are these fast food restaurants and corner stores,” Hogan said. “You can see how that's a recipe for disaster.”
Experts like Dr. Clark and Hogan are working to find solutions to the food desert issue in Columbus. One catalyst for improvement that both mentioned is urban agriculture.
“I like to think of [urban agriculture] as kind of an umbrella term for several things, but it's basically producing food in an urban environment,” Hogan said. “Places where people come together to produce food, maybe because they do not have space to grow food, or because they want to.”
Urban agriculture can be anything from farmers markets to community gardens. Hogan said he has seen firsthand how urban agriculture can impact communities through the Master Gardener volunteer program, a training program that teaches community members different horticultural topics.
“Urban agriculture helps people grow more food in an urban environment closer to where people are,” Hogan said. “A lot of times they're in food deserts where people don't have access to high quality, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, foods and grains. It's just making more of that available in a specific neighborhood.”
According to researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center, analysis suggests that areas with urban agriculture are less likely to see the effects of food deserts. In the case of Columbus, urban agriculture initiatives have been underway for several years and the impacts are noticeable.
Since its implementation in 2017, the Franklin County LFAP, of which Dr. Clark is a part of developing, has established urban agriculture programs across Columbus. The LFAP has expanded the Ohio Farmers Market Network and was a key player in allowing farmers markets to accept SNAP/EBT. To track its work, the LFAP uses an impact evaluation scorecard to measure the impact, investments and ecosystem change.
The LFAP has accomplished growing capacity and enhancing the viability of urban agriculture to allow more residents to grow food for themselves and their neighbors. Additionally, the program has expanded consumer access to local healthy food purchasing incentives.
Aside from expanding direct access to fresh and healthy foods in neighborhoods, a primary action area for the LFAP has been education, which includes Extension.
“The educational piece goes throughout our lifetime,” Julie Fox, a specialist in Extension’s strategic initiatives and urban engagement, said.
Fox said that urban agriculture allows individuals to begin learning about where their food comes from at a young age and impacts how they make good decisions about their food throughout their lifetime. This education begins with programs like Extension’s Farm to Table and Urban ROOTS.
Dr. Clark said it’s important to consider that food insecurity is not felt equally across communities, some are hit harder than others, specifically single mothers and communities of color. One consideration is the location of the urban agriculture programs.
“You have to figure out what the needs are in a specific neighborhood. Especially some of the most high-need neighborhoods have a high percentage of new Americans or immigrants living there,” Hogan said.
To meet these needs, Columbus’ largest community garden is exclusively for new Americans to cultivate foods significant to their cultures. As Columbus continues to grow at an exponential rate, Fox said there is an ever-present need for diverse perspectives in urban agriculture.
“Urban [agriculture] is very diverse in the sense that some people focus on one piece of it,” Fox said. “I look at it pretty broadly from whether it's related to, you know, food, forestry, environmental horticulture, all the things that go along with our environment.”
Luckily, Hogan said that urban agriculture has begun to be top of mind for Columbus city officials and leadership. Hogan said that more than ever, urban agriculture is being considered in terms of climate, infrastructure and transportation.
On the other side, large Ohio agriculture organizations like the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and the Ohio Department of Agriculture are considering and supporting urban agriculture, Fox said.
As much as urban agriculture in Columbus has grown over the years, according to the LFAP's current impact evaluation there is still more work to do. The LFAP will continue to work toward developing infrastructure to support the urban agriculture system in Columbus. One major factor in keeping food deserts from entirely drying up is community awareness.
“Is there anything more than food that binds every human on the planet together?” Hogan said. “If you eat three meals a day, you're part of agriculture. So, the whole world is really part of agriculture and dependent on an agriculture and food system.”