Though the issue does not specifically address food sustainability, i.e. better healthy options in the industry it does demonstrate a change that was significant in the industry and made McDonalds and other convenience restaurants more aware of the lack of sustainability in their practices, an excellent step in creating a more sustainable built environment.
Marvin, Simon, and Will Medd. "Fat City." World Watch, September-October 2005, 10.
A fascinating study done by a men's fitness magazine is detailed in this work, demonstrating the previously assumed connection between the built environment and the level of obesity that is present in any given community. The health magazine Men's Fitness set out to measure, city by city, "the relative environmental factors that either support an active, fit lifestyle, or nudge people towards a pudgier sedentary existence." Using existing surveys and data, the magazine's analysis ranked the 50 largest U.S. cities according to per-capita numbers or rates of several factors, including gyms and sporting-goods stores, health club memberships, exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol consumption, smoking, television watching, junk food outlets, and recreation facilities. Obesity levels were scored by drawing on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. One result is that, ever since the survey was launched, U.S. cities have been jostling to escape top honors as fattest city." (10) the article clearly demonstrates that institutions and locals, as well as individuals need some impetus, even if it is in the form of shaming, that gives them the desire to change the environment and include healthier lifestyle choices, such as healthy restaurants.
Obesity and the Built Environment." Environmental Health Perspectives 112, no. 15 (2004): 900.
This is a foundational work that attempts to connect the built environment of communities to health. The responsibility of healthier living falling upon the whole of the community, instead of simply the glutinous individual is an important aspect of change in a society that wishes to press for better health. "The built environment encompasses all buildings, spaces, and products that are created or modified by people. It includes homes, schools, workplaces, parks/recreation areas, greenways, business areas, and transportation systems. It extends overhead in the form of electric transmission lines, underground in the form of waste disposal sites and subway trains, and across the country in the form of highways. It includes...
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