USDA
DCL
Have you ever wondered what factors influence the types of foods you choose to purchase or why different regions eat more of certain foods? Well, now the USDA is providing some insight with a fabulous new web tool called Your Food Environment Atlas.
Your Food Environment Atlas is a new interactive web tool that allows users to find local farmers' markets, farms, and other local producers. But it goes much deeper than just local providers. It's a great way to explore the food resources in your community.
The Atlas allows you to explore how food environmental factors, such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics, impact food choices and diet quality in each individual community. By simply selecting an indicator from an extensive list, a user can create an interactive map showing the variation of diets and food choices throughout the country, across a state, or even within a particular county. The Atlas can currently map 90 indicators of the food environment.
The Atlas is just one part of a large push by the Obama Administration to educate the country about food and diet choices. The White House is hoping that the information in the Atlas can be used by parents, educators, government, and businesses to create dietary changes across the country.
Educating communities so that the individual can get in control of their health in this country is no small feat when you consider that two thirds of adults in the U.S. are currently considered obese. That's a travesty for our nation's healthcare system.
"The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake," said Mrs. Obama. "This isn't the kind of problem that can be solved overnight, but with everyone working together, it can be solved."
