Health nuts are curious creatures. Just go to your local natural food store or co-op. You will see them peruse the place, dressed in khakis and Birkenstocks, with a cloth grocery bag in tow. I think every body should have the natural food store experience at least once.

I admit it. I tend to be one of these people.

Whether it’s organic, free-range, non-GMO, chemical-free, hormone-free, fair-trade, soy, a legume, local, sustainable, baked or low-sodium, I’m in.

Oddly enough, the benefits of these environmentally and nutritionally sound food consumption habits are not the topic at hand.

No, it’s because we have other serious concerns with the current food system.

This one’s for the health food progressives in the house.

Where are the natural/health food stores located in the United States? They thrive in college towns, in the suburbs of large cities, and sprinkled in a few other places.

In other words, where a middle-class, largely white and often well-educated few can get the food Mother Nature actually intended for us.

Where is the mass-produced, canned, high-sodium, high-fat, processed junk going?

Right where Kraft (owned of course by tobacco Goliath Phillip Morris), Pepsi and Frito-Lay want it: everywhere.

I am as guilty as anyone. I claim to be doing my part by taking my money elsewhere. That’s what we think, right?

That our responsibility ends with our own consumption of local, healthier food.

We shop local, organic and safe. We make an impact those gargantuan crap-peddling companies by refusing to buy their products. That’s all we can do, right?

Wrong. People from low-income areas are not afforded the same luxury. No longer may we sit atop the great tofu tower without sliding down to see what we can do for others.

The epidemic of obesity in this country has been caused in part by our move from natural, locally grown, balanced diets to artificially colored/flavored, high-fat, high-sodium prepared and processed foods.

In no place is this problem more evident than in the lives of children of low-income communities.

They are the ones more likely to grow up eating unbalanced diets at home. Without proper diets, a host of other issues emerge: the ability to concentrate, overall health and school performance.

The children are not able to make those dietary choices for their parents and their parents are often not able to make that choice either.

Healthier foods often cost more, but they don’t necessarily have to. For so-called progressives, it is time we do our part. There is no one answer, but a few ideas.

Form community produce cooperatives with local grants, volunteer expert knowledge and neighborhood labor. We have some of the world’s best minds in soil science, agronomy and sustainable agriculture at this university, and they are an invaluable resource in beginning some of these initiatives.

Use community gardens in inner city neighborhoods to both clean up areas and provide the area with fresh produce. Efforts would be neighborhood-wide and become entirely locally run.

Set up organizations between low-income community groups and local farmers and put the kids to work on the nearby farm and bring back high-quality meats, eggs and fresh vegetables.

These organizations should be started with the idea of making them entirely independent and self-sufficient cooperatives.

With more effort we could empower communities to provide good food for themselves.

Community Supported Agriculture is a fast-growing trend in the U.S., and low-income communities should be a top priority in the movement; certainly a chief priority at an institution, like ours, world-renowned for its programs in agriculture.

We health food consumers are as guilty as anyone.

If we are to call ourselves true progressives, we are indebted to help make locally grown, wholesome food affordable and available to low-income communities.

We bear this burden and we must start now.

Omar

Tesdell

is a junior in journalism

and mass communication and technical

communication from Slater. He is the online editor of

the Daily.