Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted the economic opportunity provided by strong local and regional food systems for America's farmers and ranchers while touring Blue Ridge Produce, a regional food hub that aggregates, markets and distributes locally grown fruits and vegetables for sale to wholesale customers in the region surrounding the nation's capital. 

Members of Congress are used to having their votes graded. Dozens of interest groups, from the National Rifle Association to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, keep score, grading lawmakers on how they vote on issues ranging from gun control to legislation that would repeal laws that make marijuana use illegal. A coalition of food policy, environmental and antihunger groups, called Food Policy Action, unveiled its own scorecard to grade Congress on how it votes on issues related to food and farm policy. The coalition includes individuals from organizations like the National Black Farmers Association and the international antihunger charity Oxfam.

Like a missionary, Michael Bailey, a county health worker, spends his days driving his beat-up Nissan around this city’s poorest neighborhood, spreading the word in barber shops and convenience stores about the benefits of healthy diet and exercise. “Mr. Bailey believes that food is slowly killing his community here, and signing people up for a program to prevent heart disease is his way of saving souls.

It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents.

Hunts Point Produce Market, located in the South Hunts Bronx, receives premium fruits and vegetables daily from 49 states and 55 countries, and provides 60 percent of New York City's produce. Every day a fleet of trucks delivers the market's fresh food throughout the five boroughs, yet only a miniscule amount gets distributed to the South Bronx, a community underserved by traditional supermarkets and green grocers. This article discusses several city programs that are improving healthy food access in areas like the South Bronx and suggests improvements for greater impactful change.

Actor and humanitarian Wendell Pierce talks about his new fresh and wholesome grocery store named Sterling Farms in a radio interview with blackamericaweb.com. Located in his hometown of New Orleans, Pierce is hoping to revitalize the local economy and bring the community together. 

New evidence is confirming that the environment kids live in has a greater impact than factors such as genetics, insufficient physical activity or other elements in efforts to control child obesity. Three new studies, published in the April 8 Pediatrics, land on the import of the ‘nurture’ side of the equation and focus on specific circumstances in children’s or teen’s lives that potentially contribute to unhealthy bulk.

The Circle Food Store, a New Orleans landmark heavily damaged in Hurricane Katrina, will be coming back. A groundbreaking ceremony was held to dedicate the rebuilding of the famous store.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Growing Power, a leading local urban agriculture organization, announced the launch of Farmer’s for Chicago, a new program that will make available up to five acres of City-owned vacant lots for urban farming activity, and help expand the supply chain for local neighborhood-level food production and wholesale. The city lots will be prepared for local nonprofits that will be able to install food growing equipment, and train up to 20 people in urban farming and skills

Michele and Erich March, part-owners of the March Funeral Homes in Baltimore, are taking a 180-degree turn to ready a new business venture in East Baltimore: a grocery store called Apples and Oranges.It will offer fresh fruits, veggies, meats and fish, and an array of freshly prepared, healthy foods made daily by a chef who said he knows what it is like to grow up in a community where sodas, French fries, lake trout sandwiches and fried chicken boxes have ruled for years.