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AGRICULTURE
Let’s begin with food insecurity. It is about the availability of safe, sufficient, diverse and nutritious food and the ability to access it regardless of race and class. The U.S. produces more food than it needs. Yet, there is hunger in the US. Hunger is defined as "an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity."
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It existed before Covid-19 and is worse now. Why? Lack of a living wage resulting in working two or three jobs to barely make it to no job after Covid-19 related to businesses bellying up or barely making it. For those with no job and depending on public and private service from food banks and rescue organizations, they are having a rough time because of the huge amount of hunger and lost wages after Covid-19. Food sources are
becoming scarcer and evictions loom. It is a crisis for individuals regardless of age, families and children but impacts people of color more than any other population.
With what’s above as a backdrop, is the limited number of grocery stores in the city and no health food store such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or Sprouts. This phenomenon is not unique to the City of South Fulton. It exists in too many cities in people of color neighborhoods.
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The uniqueness of District 4 is that farming still exists, i.e., livestock, produce and timber. There is variety in terms of large to medium and small. There are citizens with small backyard gardens. There is also an initiative in District 4 to create additional community gardens. It follows the urban agriculture program ordinance designed to provide broader food systems, green space and economic development potential.
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In 2020 District 4 received approval from the Atlanta Regional commission to partner with Georgia State. Students in their Master in Public Policy program designed a research project to preserve agriculture land use, to develop a farmers market and to enhance an agricultural curriculum that current exists.
Click below to access the report:
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