Posted on 02/11/2014 6:49:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It turns out that you can bring produce sections to poor neighborhoods, but you can't get poor people to eat healthier food. This comes as a shock to liberals who believe in the comprehensive theory of victimology -- that all problems afflicting people who fall into ethnic, sexual, or other identities regarded as victims are due to external factors, not to their own choices.
Patti Neighmond writes for NPR:
In inner cities and poor rural areas across the country, public health advocates have been working hard to turn around food deserts - neighborhoods where fresh produce is scarce, and greasy fast food abounds. In many cases, they're converting dingy, cramped corner markets into lighter, brighter venues that offer fresh fruits and vegetables. In some cases, they're building brand new stores.
"The presumption is, if you build a store, people are going to come," says Stephen Matthews, professor in the departments of sociology, anthropology and demography at Penn State University. To check that notion, he and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently surveyed residents of one low-income community in Philadelphia before and after the opening of a glistening new supermarket brimming with fresh produce.
What they're finding, Matthews says, is a bit surprising: "We don't find any difference at all. ... We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption."
The deranged premise behind the entire "food desert" theory was that crass corporations were bypassing the opportunity to sell healthy foods to poor people out of malice, or at best ignorance. The idea that local people weren't interested in buying healthy food, and that led to low demand, and hence low supply, was unworthy of consideration. These people did not understand that demand creates supply in a free economy
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink...
You can lead a liberal to knowledge but you can’t make them think...
Reminds me of my friend who went to the Bolivian Andes with the Peace Corps many years ago - to teach the people how to grow soy beans. They didn’t buy it, needless to say - and they were disgusted with her besides. “Didn’t your mother (in Los Angeles, mind you) teach you how to wash sheets in the river the correct way? We will wash your sheets from now on - you are a disgrace to our village.” hahah.
I suppose if they add Marijuana as a vegie, they will come.
You can’t fix stupid either.
But it could result in their angry constituents voting only once come election day.
Article posted yesterday discussed Trader Joe’s attempt to move into a ghetto. The ghetto residents kicked Trader Joe’s out because they didn’t want white folks coming into their neighborhood.
They don’t cook. They can’t take home a head of cabbage, shred it up, put in some seasoning and sauté it up. They want Obama-food, where somebody cooks it for them.
Racists!
You can lead a poor person to arugula, but you can’t pull them away from the french fries.
Liberals have no standing to complain about food deserts after shutting down super Walmarts in Chicago and Mass, and a Trader Joe’s in Oregon.
They don’t want to be caught “acting white” or “eating white.”
Couldn't the recipients sell them to people who like veggies and then go out and buy fast food? Or do EBT cards require (eek!) identification?
We should require all welfare receivers to attend LOA sessions with Abraham hicks.
You are correct. This is not however limited to those living in poverty, many middle class families don’t have an adult at home that can do more than boil water, hence America’s obesity epidemic.
...and they want someone else to pay for it.
This needs to be tattooed on every leftist's forehead.
I thought the reason that big supermarkets didn’t locate in the ‘hood was because of crime, robbery and shoplifting.
I have said this before... once you take ‘home ec’ or whatever you want to call it OUT of the HS curriculum.... what do you expect?
People (young women) drop out of school or even if they graduate... begin bearing children VERY early. This they do with next to NO comprehension of how to care for them or even HOW to care for their OWN health and well-being.
It's obvious their own mothers cared or knew very little about proper nutrition (or parenting AT ALL) so how can sociologists be surprised that poor health and bad health choices are part and parcel of the entire ‘poverty’ equation?
Poor health in this case is THE most critical component of the vicious cycle of poverty and dependence on government.
These people will NEVER be anything but a boat anchor around the neck of taxpayers. They can't/won't work or properly care for themselves or their progeny-yet persist in growing families they cannot support... while taxpayers have to increasingly subsudize their 'hand-to-mouth' life style AND their unavoidable, premature and perpetual need for medical attention!
Sure they could . . . and they probably would. I’m sure some WIC people sell baby formula to buy drugs. But it is troublesome to many of them. So troublesome that many of them might actually try using the products.
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