You can grow your own food. We can help.

The Weight of the Nation

May 14, 2012

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HBO's 4-part Weight of the Nation documentary begins airing tonight on TV and online (see link below). The trailer below gives you a taste of what's on America's menu if we don't act in an urgent and strategic way. If the situation sounds dramatic, it's because it is: if we stay on the current pace, 42 percent of Americans will be obese by the year 2030 (right now the obesity rate is about 33% with another 33% weighing in as overweight). There's no silver bullet solution, but gardening (the healthy food and healthy recreation it offers) will be a part of the solution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Roger Doiron

Father, husband, son, brother and uncle. Garden activist, advocate, writer, speaker and photographer. Founder of KGI and certified garden geek. Growing lots of good stuff on the coast of Maine.

Author's link

Twitter @rogerdoiron

Comments

Jessica Still

Mon, 05/14/2012 - 17:19

There's also a lot of global statistics about the export of the American diet model for obesity & diet-related chronic illness. Here's one editorial ... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2018192155_sirota13.html ... The second bit of news came from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, whose new study shows that America is exporting our obesity crisis to Mexico. Coupling health statistics with U.S. export data since the North American Free Trade Agreement tore down Mexico's agriculture trade barriers, researchers found that the Mexican market was flooded by American agribusinesses' taxpayer subsidized commodities (corn, soybeans) and their processed derivatives. According to the report, that quickly wiped out Mexico's local food economy, leaving its food system exactly "like the industrialized food system of the United States — characterized by the overabundance of obesogenic foods." Not surprisingly, Mexican obesity rates have consequently skyrocketed ..."