AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)- According to the CDC, more than two in five adults in this country are obese, and obesity is a major risk factor for diseases like cancer.
One AU researcher is making it his mission to fight back against this unhealthy trend.
Dr. Malcolm Bevel is the is the creator of the micro farm inside the Georgia Cancer Center.
“In the year since we’ve had this micro farm, we’ve grown 402 pounds of viable food to grow. It’s organic produce. So we can’t say it’s 100% certified organic for the state of Georgia, but it is organic in that the fact we don’t have any pesticides or any harmful chemicals, everything is organic that we add to the system, including organic nutrients and everything, and just a lot of love so that we can make sure to feed the community that we that we want to serve,” said Bevel.
Some downtown residents live more than a mile away from the nearest grocery store and where they shop may not always offer the best food choices.
“Food swamps where you don’t have any grocery stores and where you have more pro-inflammatory or unhealthy food items. So your corner stores, convenience stores, fast food stores, liquor stores. And so in order to combat food insecurity behind me, we have the Harvest HD Micro Farm funded by our baseline grant to be able to combat food insecurity within the Augusta and Greater Augusta area.”
So far he has been donating to the community, like basil and mustard greens. Now he’s looking to expand across the CSRA and further.
“It’s a synergistic relationship that we have with the community. The way I was trained was the community based two story research approach, and so it’s equitable footing between researchers like myself and community stakeholders and members and things of that nature. And so it’s been a really great relationship with our expansion, not only with Walton options, but then even as far down to Savannah, Georgia.”
Dr. Bevel is looking to get more grant funding so he can expand his micro farms to feed more and more people.
Photojournalist: Dania Alawir
