Advanced Container Technologies, Inc, said that GrowPods – the company’s unique Controlled Environment Farms – can help eliminate food deserts across the nation.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in urban areas, a food desert is an area with no ready access to a store with fresh and nutritious food options within one mile. In rural America, a food desert is defined as 10 miles or more from the nearest market.”
Unfortunately, food deserts are not few and far between. It’s estimated there are more than 23 million people, more than half of them low-income, living in food deserts.
Also Read: Vermeer Selects Syncron to Enhance its Global Aftermarket Parts Pricing Operations
“Lack of access to healthy foods and consequent poor diet leads to higher levels of obesity and chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease,” Newsweek reported. It’s not that food is not available, it’s that healthy choices are scarce. “It’s about overwhelming access to really-bad-for-you foods,” says Mark Swanson, a social anthropologist at the University of Kentucky. “People tend to buy and eat what’s available.”
ACTX wants to change that. The company’s GrowPods can produce about an acre of food in a transportable, scalable, automated system that yields ultra-clean crops, year-round, virtually anywhere.
GrowPods can be placed right in the middle of a food desert and provide a steady stream of healthy produce, year round.
There is often funding available from the USDA, faith-based groups, non-profit organizations, and local businesses.
According to The Guardian, communities across the US are using federal stimulus money to bring grocery stores and healthy food to food deserts, as the pandemic and rising costs put nutrition further out of reach for many.
In Toledo, Ohio, for example, local activists have urged the city to use $1m of the federal infrastructure funds to help attract healthy food to a low-income neighborhood.
Doug Heldoorn, CEO of ACTX, said GrowPods allow communities to grow fresh food locally, right where it’s needed.
“GrowPods allow communities to cultivate ultra-healthy food, year-round,” he said. “These highly-efficient systems are simple to operate and offer a real chance at improving health in hard-hit areas.”