Urban Farming

Previously, we discussed how many people in inner cities do not have access to quality, fresh foods. ​As metropolitan areas continue to sprawl outwards it turns local farmland into subdivisions and asphalt, eliminating the ability for a community to provide its own food. There are several ways communities are trying to combat this problem through farmers’ markets and healthy corner stores. An increasing popular approach is through “urban farming.” Using small vacant lots and rooftops for farming gives easy access to locally grown healthy foods and has environmental benefits.

urban roof top farm
Photo Courtesy of: sustainablesouthsound.org

The benefits of urban farming go beyond creating a healthy, local food source as detailed in this report for Boston. Farming creates dozens of direct, local jobs as well as hundreds of indirect jobs. The increased city greenery reduces greenhouse gas emissions and lowers a city’s heat-island effect. Best of all this is accomplished by utilizing previously unused urban land and rooftops.

Farming in Chicago has had more benefits than expected. Not only has the farming been used to change eating habits it has also impacted people’s lives. Farming has been an educational tool to teach families where their food comes from. Many of those who have worked on the farm have also started their own gardens at home and many have started up at local schools.

In Hawaii 80-90% of the food consumed is not produced on island, meaning it traveled thousands of miles to get to our plate. Food that travels is less fresh and costs more due to shipping and preservation costs (not to mention the impact transit has on our environment).  An upcoming documentary “Ingredients Hawaii” looks at our food system in Hawaii and ways to encourage more local food production for the people who live here.

​If you want learn more about urban farming in your neighborhood and to get involved look up and see if there is a Food Policy Council in your area. ​A Food Policy Council is an organized group of various stakeholders, policy makers, food producers and consumers, who evaluate the needs of their community. The goal of most Food Policy Councils is to create sustainable food systems.

Silent Spring

In light of the recent 50th anniversary of Silent Spring, we decided to share our thoughts about one of the most well-known environmental books which many people believe sparked the environmental movement.

Silent Spring, written by scientist Rachel Carson, it documents the harm caused to birds and other animals by pesticide use. This book had a lot of political impact, leading to the banning of certain pesticides. It showed evidence that what we do to the environment can have much broader and serious consequences. Although environmental public health is not a big interest of ours, we thought it would be worth while to read such an important piece of literature. Maybe it was because we had such high expectations of the book going in, or maybe it was just not our style, whatever the case we found the book disappointing. Each chapter simply described another anecdotal incident, of pesticides harming some animal in some part of the country, it just got really boring. Do not get us wrong, we believe this is an important piece of literature in our history, we just get more out of knowing the story behind the book itself and the impact it has had worldwide. Our official recommendation is LEAVE and instead READ about the impact the book has had since its publication.

Planning for Pollution

 

We talk a lot about pedestrians and cyclists being the victims of motor vehicle accidents but have not yet touched on the effects of car pollution. According to the World Health Organization, in some countries more people are dying as a result of air pollution from vehicles than being killed in accidents. Emissions from motor vehicles have several health effects on the people who breathe it in including, allergies, asthma, and heart failure. This is a serious problem that continues to rise  as people become more dependent on motorized transportation. Fortunately this public health problem can also be solved through policies and planning.

LA Smog caused by heavy pollution
Photo courtesy of: http://oceanworld.tamu.edu

In 2009, 1 in 12 people in the U.S. suffered from asthma up from 1 in 14 just eight years earlier. The group that saw the biggest increases of lung diseases were inner city kids as they are more susceptible to acute and chronic respiratory effects from pollution. Children with higher exposure to pollutants such as tobacco smoke and vehicle emissions have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America asthma is the most common chronic condition among children, and is also very costly with an annual cost of nearly 18 billion dollars in healthcare costs and days lost from work and school.

During the two weeks of the 1996 summer olympic games, Atlanta restricted private vehicles from being used in the downtown area. The CDC took this unique opportunity to measure the impact of motor vehicle use and asthma. Research shows that over this time hospital visit for acute asthma attacks reduces over 40% and the ozone levels reduces 27%. This shows that efforts to cut motor vehicle use has a dramatically positive impact on pollution levels and help keep us all healthy. To learn more about sprawl and its effects on air quality check out Public Health and Urban Sprawl.

 

Public Health and Urban Sprawl

In addition to our weekly posts we will also occasionally submit book reviews that deal with our subject matter. The purpose of these reviews is simply to share with you what we have read and give recommendations to guide your own reading choices. Instead of giving a traditional rating (4 stars out of 5) we’ll give you one of three recommendations: “Buy”, “Read”, or “Leave.” For us book reviews have been helpful for us to decide what books we want to read next and hopefully we can do that for you. Please note that these reviews are only our opinion and we do not benefit in any way from them or any purchase of a book. Our first book review is Urban Sprawl and Public Health, an obvious place for us to start.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl:
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
By: Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Dr. Richard J. Jackson

Public Health and Urban Sprawl: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, the title says it all. This book is a must read for anyone in public health or urban planning and is a good read for everyone else. Public health officials want to create healthy communities and this book shows that collaboration with Urban Planning can do this. The book starts out by explaining what urban sprawl is, how, and why it started. It then goes into the effects that urban sprawl has on our communities and how that in turn has affected our health and well-being. It is relatively easy to read and understand and is full of research and studies on each topic making the authors’ arguments evidence based. The book covers a variety of topics including: air quality, physical activity, water quality and more. The book is a little lengthy but only because it covers so many diverse and important topics. The authors’ conclude the book by suggesting answers to the problem of urban sprawl. This book is full of research and studies and serves as a good reference to have on hand. Our official recommendation is BUY.

Fast Food Kids

Looking for something to eat? Chances are in many communities you will see multiple fast food places before you will find a grocery store. Fast food is everywhere, it is cheap, it is convenient, and it tastes great. Many fast food joints have extended hours so you can stop in and get your “4th meal,” but how late is your local grocery store open? Many fast food places offer drive-thru, increasing convenience for those of us with a busy schedule.

image courtesy of babble.com via strollerderby

Fast food offers many high calorie low nutrient food options, often high in fat, sugar, and sodium and regularly eating these types of food can lead to adverse health consequences such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. To support a healthy diet people need to eat a variety of foods that include fresh fruits and veggies and components of all the food sources; protein, carbohydrates, and fats. A recent study  found that obesity rates were 5% higher for school kids whose schools were within 1/10th of a mile of a fast food joint, suggesting that proximity to fast food does matter. Marketing policies against fast food in schools are a great strategy to reduce the exposure, but community level action will have a broader reach.

To help solve this problem public health officials and planners are teaming up to make a change in their communities. Cities are putting restrictions on drive-thru and chain restaurants to keep their citizens from becoming obese. They are limiting building amount per square mile and in some cases banning them all together. Other cities are taking alternative approaches to make their citizens healthier. In 2008, Los Angles stopped any new fast food restaurants construction within a 32 square mile area for two years. In 2010, Santa Clara County was the first to stop restaurants from giving away toys with their meals and many since then have followed.  New York City’s recent proposal would ban the sale of large sugary drinks.

As the obesity epidemic in America continues to grow we need to start taking action against fast food to protect our public health. We have suggested a few ideas that are working in different communities.  If you think these are drastic steps that are infringing on our rights, just remember this was the same many people felt about smoking just a short time ago. For a detailed essay on fast food and zoning check out this report.

The Choice to be Healthy

The problem is choice. More specifically, a lack of choice. People do not choose unhealthiness, their environment does not offer them a better alternative. Poor transportation and land use practices leads to vehicle dependency, pedestrian unfriendly streets, a lack of public parks, and improper food choices.

Planners and city government must decide the best uses for land. With limited budgets, this often means overlooking nontaxable parks and nature trails for revenue generating chain stores and private transportation. However, their nearsighted, money driven approach fails to account for the health and economic value to providing residents with better options. These poor planning practices generally lead to unhealthy, unsafe, and unsightly places such as the one seen below, a common site all across America.

Typical vehicle-oriented city, USA
Photo curtsey of http://www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

Towns and neighborhoods that do not offer their residents better choices can have implications on public health. Pedestrian friendly streets and safe outdoor public recreation have many benefits for a community including increased social capital and access to free and convenient physical activity. Without the options to safely walk, bike, and use public transit, communities will become vehicle dependent, promoting a lazy lifestyle and dependence on drive-in food options which are rarely healthy.

As with outdoor recreation the same is true for grocery stores, they offer healthy options (preferable local) for the community, but simply having these services is not enough. Grocery stores are only fully beneficially when they accessible which means they are well-connected through all modes of transit. Planners must provide access to parks and services for everyone in the community, no matter their location or age.

The goal is to make the healthy choice the easy choice. To give all citizens access to public services and local businesses regardless of their economic or social background. Urban planners and government officials need to develop for the good of the people, not just to make a quick buck.

Walkable neighborhood in Portland, Oregon
Photo curtsey of http://www.pedbikeimages.org / Andy Hamilton

Public Health + Urban Planning

The main focus of this blog is to explore the connection between public health and urban planning. These two diverse fields have a direct relationship with one another, which is often overlooked. Historically these two disciplines have operated independently, without collaboration. We believe that we can form healthier, more fulfilling future for our communities through the integration and application of these two fields. The following chart shows the relationship between public health and urban planning and how they have a continual direct effect on one another.

Urban planning is the process that regulates development in neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Planners deal with all the components that make up a metro region; transportation systems, the economy, natural resources, urban design, and physical facilities. These all come together to define our cities.

Our built environment influences behavior and choices of people based on what is available and convenient. In turn this can shape our lifestyles and health outcomes.

Public health is the well-being of society. It creates community-based strategies to prevent disease and promote health. It studies how the environment and our behavior impacts our livelihood and health. Our behaviors are also influenced by our environment.

Studying the trends of public health in cities helps find the causes of disease. Applying this knowledge helps create new community policies, building codes, and changes the practice of urban planning.

This connection is gaining traction and now many universities are beginning see the value of offering dual degrees in Public Health and Urban Planning. According to this report from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) on Urban Planning and Public Heath “Urban planning and public health share common missions and perspectives. Both aim to improve human well-being, emphasize needs assessment and service delivery, manage complex social systems, focus at the population level, and rely on community-based participatory methods.”

What is Public Health?

Public health is a broad field that aims to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent disease. Its focus can be a small group or work site or a large population such as schools, communities or countries. Public health differs from the traditional medical model because it aims to prevent disease than offer treatment. Public health has the broad spectrum of working with entire populations and not treating each patient. Different topics include, but are not limited to; epidemiology, quality improvement, health education, environmental health, maternal and infant health, and nutrition. Public health operates under the assumption that health is not only related to an person’s biochemistry but there are many influencing factors, many outside of the control of the person (See Image for the Social Determinants of Health Model). The environment where one lives and social factors influence a person’s health. For example living in an unsafe environment without access to nutritious foods can have impact on your health outcome.

HISTORY

Public health practices originated when the understanding of the causes of disease became more clear. During the times of historic epidemics like the black plague, researchers discovered ways to prevent the spread of disease through sanitation practices. John Snow started epidemiology (the study of disease) after studying the cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and linking it to polluted city water. Another notable discovery in public health is the discovery of vaccinations, which has completely eradicated smallpox and has controlled many diseases such as measles.

CURRENT NEEDS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Now that there we understand the cause of many diseases and in much of the developed world there is proper sanitation and access to clean water, there has been a shift in public health trends. People are dying less often from contagious diseases but are now suffering more from chronic disease. Chronic diseases such as obesity, cancer and heart disease are taking a huge toll on the livelihood of millions on our healthcare system. Although such chronic disease are not contagious, they are often preventable. Public health measures are a cost-effective way to decrease the burden of these chronic diseases. Through changing the environment where people live and the policies that affect us all we can help create a healthier environment. This quick video gives an overview of what public health covers and the impact it has.

Mission Statement, Part 2

As a followup to our first post, Part 2 is the second half of our mission statement and can always be viewed on our Mission Page. Our purpose with issuing a mission statement is to be upfront and honest with our readers about our goals and objectives.

WHAT WE WILL DO

1. PROMOTE public health and urban planning
2. TEACH communities how they are affected
3. GIVE perspective on current events and projects
4. LEARN through discussions with our readers
5. INFORM about our growing careers

WHAT WE WILL NOT DO

1. Have a political AGENDA
2. Ask for MONEY
3. Support ADVERTISEMENTS
4. Encourage UNHEALTHY lifestyles

Mission Statement, Part 1

Aloha everyone,

We are Michelle Conway and Brent Wozniak, welcome to our blog. We are two young professionals that work for the State of Hawaii and we are very passionate about what we do. You can learn more about us on The Authors page. Our first two posts make up our mission statement which you can view on our Mission page.

The Vision

Planforthepublic.com is intended to create and lead a discussion on the link between public health and urban planning. Throughout our education and careers we have continued to notice the ever-growing relationship between these two fields and how it is often overlooked by the public and policy makers. Our intent is to raise public awareness about how these fields are important and how they impact everyday life and shape the world around us.