Boston group turns to farms to fight fat problem

By Scott Malone

LINCOLN, Mass. (Reuters) - In a country where a majority of the adult population is classified as overweight or obese, it is hard to imagine that access to food is a problem.

But experts contend that is one of the problems facing America's inner cities -- where fast-food restaurants are plentiful but fresh fruits and vegetables are harder to find.

One group is working to change that on a 31 acre (12.5 hectare) organic farm about 18 miles outside Boston.

"I used to eat a lot of fast food and now I try not to," said Kadeem Herry, 17, of Roslindale, Mass.

"I might sneak in a burger now and then, but I eat more vegetables."

Herry spoke as he finished a morning of harvesting at the Food Project, a Boston-area nonprofit group that runs the farm in Lincoln -- a mile from Walden Pond, made famous by Henry David Thoreau's 19th century paean to simpler times.

Each year the group sells about 25,000 pounds (11,340 kilograms) of fresh produce at a farm stand in Dorchester, one of Boston's poorer inner-city neighborhoods.

"When you talk about urban deserts where there just aren't grocery stores around, so people don't have access to ... healthy food, we are an option for people who want that," said Jen James, the group's associate director.