The food systems in New Orleans, specifically the Lower 9th ward, are not regenerative. The nearest grocery store, which so many Americans rely on, is located 3.5-4 miles away from families and communities within the Lower 9th ward. With a lack of transportation, it creates a lack of access to healthy and nutritious foods. Ross notes, “The Lower 9th Ward has a history of direct food acquisition from the local environment, and a tradition of community activism”. In attempting to restore the surrounding environment we can see the intersecting goals between restoring the environment and food systems in New Orleans. Food security needs can be met, while also achieving goals of long-term environmental restoration.
Hunger and poor nutrition caused by food insecurity has a significant negative influence on communities, especially households with children, as it draws focus away from basic necessities. Many communities are not educated enough on how to correctly use the land for their benefit, let alone on what foods should be consumed for proper nutrition and diet. It doesnt help that the diets of many Americans today are made-up of highly addictive processed foods, leading to more health disparities. Properly educating on what healthy nutrition is and how to safely and regeneratively farm the land, will inspire a demand and create a supply of healthy foods.
In the article, Community gardening and governance over urban nature in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, it states “Urban gardening activities in marginalized communities still recovering from the social disruption of Hurricane Katrina need to be seen both as countering practices of neoliberal abandonment and disaster capitalism, and as attempts to reclaim space and identity” (Passidomo). After natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, systems of power like the federal government failed to rebuild what was destroyed and left that to the people of New Orleans to clean up and rebuild for themselves. Using practices like community gardening fight against the neoliberal abandonment that communities experienced, and helps reclaim land for personal use and benefit.