Jason Flack | Eng 219 |

Healthy Food All

ANALYTICAL REPORT

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Contents
Introduction....................................................2
Methodology..................................................3
Research........................................................3
The Problem.................................................4
Discussion......................................................6
Suggestions...................................................6
Steps for increasing helthy produce.............6
Steps to increase availability of healthy
produce........................................................7
Final recommendations..................................7
Citations.........................................................9

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Introduction
New Mexico families struggle every day to ensure their families have the
food they need to survive. In New Mexico 30% of children live in poverty. This
issue affects both adults and children and is a serious issue that New Mexico
needs to work more efficiently toward resolving. Families that are able to
feed their children often have to buy cheap and un-healthy food options for
their families. Although some New Mexico residence are able to purchase
healthy foods this is not the case for the majority of New Mexico families.
Lack of healthy nutrition also costs our state a great deal of money because
of nutrition related conditions. It is often cheaper to by junk food and snack
foods than it is to purchase healthy food. This is a problem that affects all
residence of New Mexico however, the people that are suffering the most are
low income families.
Although there are many programs that assist in making healthy food
options more available there are still many that go unfed or that rely on junk
food as main sources of nutrition. Healthy food options are not equally
accessible to all families of New Mexico and it is time that we resolve this as
a community and make healthy foods cheaper and more accessible to all
families. This report will investigate the obstacles facing how healthy food
options can be more universally available to New Mexico citizens. Using the
information gathered from the resulting research will be used to provide
suggestions on how to make healthy food more universal for New Mexico
families.

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Methodology
1. Examine the current issue and information on the current obstacles
facing more universally accessible health foods.
2. Clearly outline the problem, causes, and resulting data.
3. Investigate current programs are currently in place.
4. Gather information on the economics behind subsidies and agricultural
policy.
5. Present the information gathered from this research.
6. Report potential solutions based on research results.

Research
The purpose of this section is to consolidate and present research
information regarding making healthy foods more universally available. The
first goal is to examine and layout the issues regarding healthy food
unavailability.

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THE PROBLEM

According to Leslie Linthicum with Albuquerque Journal; New Mexicos

average hunger rate is

20.1%

compared to the
national average of 16.4.
additionally, Leslie also
reported that 30.6 percent

of

kids in New Mexico have

inadequate or uncertain access to food. According to Roadrunner Food Bank
of New Mexico 63 million meals are missed in New Mexico every year here in
New Mexico. This large gap in meals proves that healthy food options need
to be made more widely available to all New Mexico residence. New Mexico
is ranked 49th in childrens food insecurities according to Dreaming New
Mexico. Additionally, twenty-four percent all children in New Mexico do not
have secure meals.
There are multiple programs that help distribute food to help New
Mexico families, however, there is still a large amount of the population that
is not receiving the nutrition they need to survive. The many programs setup
to help make nutritious food more widely available helps elevate the problem
but there are still many residence of New Mexico still do not have access to
healthy food options.
The first and most important variable in making healthy food more
universally available may be found in governmental subsidies such as corn
subsidies. When farmers are encouraged to grow crops like corn which
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provide very little nutritional value, it hurts our community. It is these

subsidies and abundance that make products like chips, sugary foods, and
other junk food so cheap for consumers. According to EWG New Mexico
farmers received 129,778,625 dollars in corn subsidies between 1995 to
2014. This high amount of subsidies is almost 7 billion a year to ensure
farmers are over producing corn products. This drives corn prices down
making it extremely cheap for companies to use in products. The high prices
on healthy food products is a major contributor to the inaccessibility of these
products to New Mexico residence. Lara Donnelly explains that a diet of
healthy foods is three times the price of a diet reliant on junk food. People
may choose to get junk food or fast food because of time and money
constraints. According to the article by Laura Donnelly a diet comprised of
healthy foods cost an average of 7.49 compared to diets of junk food like
pizza, donuts, and burgers cost an average of 2.50. According to Dreaming
New Mexico about 97% of actual food is estimated to be imported from
outside the state. Having such high reliance on imports increases product
prices and lowers accessibility. To lower the price of healthy foods for more
New Mexico families this reliance on imports needs to be lowered.

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corn subsidies have been given to New Mexico farmers to encourage and
lower the price of corn production. To make healthy food options more
available this would be an important area that would need to be changed.
Current programs are successful however, with so many still not having
access to healthy foods; it is
apparent that these
programs need more
funding.

Suggestions
There are multiple things
that can be done to help
alleviate lack of nutritional
foods and make it more
universal for all New
Mexico Residence.
Reducing the cost for
producing and purchasing
healthy food would be a major step in resolving this issue. By reducing
production cost this will increase abundance and reduces the final cost of
these goods. This can be accomplished in three main ways. Once this has
been accomplished it will be important to build upon current programs to get

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these products to New Mexico residence that are still unable to afford the
lower cost of these healthy products.
STEPS FOR INCREASING HELTHY PRODUCE

First step: Change subsidies for corn to more nutritious crops. By

encouraging farmers to grow more organic vegetables and fruits it will
cause and increase in these crops production. By having a larger
supply and lower production cost these fruits and vegetables will be

cheaper to obtain and also more profitable for farmers.

Second step: Reduce New Mexicos reliance on imported foods.
Importing goods can be expensive and often contain more pesticides
and herbicides than local organic produce. By increasing production in
New Mexico; the need for imported goods will be reduced and this will

also cause produce prices to decrease.

Third step: Promote educational programs to increase purchasing from
local farmers. This will cause higher demand for healthy organic foods
and encourage farmers to produce more of the products. This increases
profitability for farmers and decreases the cost for consumers.

STEPS TO INCREASE AVAILABILITY OF HEALTHY PRODUCE

Increase funding for current programs like SAPP that provide food to

children and elderly citizens.

Increase the amount of programs and expand to more demographics to
include all New Mexico residence in need of food assistance.

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Final recommendations
It is the recommendation based on the research results that increasing
supply and distribution incentives could increase the availability of healthy
foods to all New Mexico citizens. Further research into implementing and
preparation is recommended. Re-evaluation of current agriculture policies
need to be a top priority. Lowering price of production for healthy foods will
increase supply and lower price for this produce. Additionally, encouraging
and building new programs to help expand programs for healthy food
assistance. Making healthy food produces more universal for all New Mexico
families should be our first priority. Nobody should ever have to starve or be
forced to rely unhealthy food products. I would like to thank you for taking
the time to read this recommendation report. It is my hope that you have
gained valuable knowledge from the research in this report.

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Citations
"Helping Food-Insecure Households in New Mexico Afford Healthier Choices
through the SNAP Double Up Food Bucks Program." Helping FoodInsecure Households in New Mexico Afford Healthier Choices through
the SNAP Double Up Food Bucks Program. N.p., Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Nov.
2016. https://nmhealth.org/publication/view/plan/411/
"Corn Subsidies in Curry County, New Mexico Totaled $37.0 Million from
1995-2014." EWG's Farm Subsidy Database. EWG, 2015. Web. 21 Nov.
2016. https://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=35009&progcode=corn
Donnelly, Laura. "Healthy Diet Costs Three Times That of Junk Food." The Telegraph. Telegraph
Media Group, 08 Oct. 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11149644/Healthy-diet-costs-three-times-that-of-junkfood.html
Linthicum, Leslie. "Updated: Hunger in New Mexico Is for Real." Hunger in
New Mexico Is for Real. Albuquerque Journal, 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 21
Nov. 2016. https://www.abqjournal.com/278640/hunger-really-doesexist-in-nm.html
"Enough Food & Healthy Food." Enough Food & Healthy Food Dreaming New Mexico.
Dreaming New Mexico, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.
http://www.dreamingnewmexico.org/food/ff-healthy
"SOLVING HUNGER TOGETHER." Roadrunner Food Bank, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2016.
http://www.rrfb.org/wp-content/upload/General-RRFB-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Polis, Carey. "Eating Healthy vs. Unhealthy Will Cost You $550 More Per Year, Study Reveals."
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.

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