Produce prescription programs, bodily norms, and federal nutrition policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Food Justice – as a movement and scholarly literature – has necessarily argued for examinations of power and discrimination within food systems. However, much food justice literature has not fully examined the legislative process nor attended to its own anti-fat biases. This paper examines produce prescription programs (PPPs), focusing on key informant interviews with PPP organizers across the United States alongside participant observation at West Virginia PPPs. It argues that PPPs – and recent federal legislation which institutionalizes them – are based on prescribed conceptions of a “healthy body.” The paper considers how incentivization, a focus on chronic diet-related disease, concerns around risk, and the use of biometrics fall within the “weight-centered paradigm” of public health interventions. It ends with a brief consideration of legislation and policies that focus on structural concerns around food and health.