food-related illnesses like diabetes and heart disease are now epidemics. our life expectancy is declining, and health care costs are soaring. >> $1.4 trillion is the impact to our economy. >> the truth is that this isn't completely our fault. our diet has been hijacked by processed foods loaded with salt, sugar, fat, calories and chemicals. if you had to catalog the world's least healthy foods, this is what they have. >> there is a whole section of the country that can't make a good choice because they don't have a good choice. >> why is this happening? and what can we do to eat our way back to better health? >> our belief is you either pay the farmer or you pay the doctor. ♪ ♪ >> i'm andrew zimmern. story teller, chef, world traveler. that's delicious. i'm exploring our country looking at the biggest social and political questions of the day looking at our food. there is no one solution. hearing some amazing meals along the way. >> mindy hot and fresh. >> and trying to figure out -- >> holy moly. >> what's eating america. ♪ ♪ every day in grocery stores across america, shoppers make choices that will directly affect their health and wellness. >> hey, guys. >> hello, hello. >> how are you? are you guys ready to shop? >> we're ready. >> absolutely. >> excited to be here. >> are you ready? i got this stuff down. trust me. julie hendrick son, husband david and their three children are a dual-income american family. >> did we lose one? we did. >> is that a regular thing, child lost in the market? >> pretty much, right. do i see some easy mac right there? we have to grab that. >> julie works as a real estate agent, and dave manages an ambulance service. when it comes to food, like a lot of families, they believe they need to choose between fresh food and convenience. >> with our busy life-style and hockey and sports, we're very into the carbs. those do last a little longer. >> this is the struggle. >> right. >> this is the struggle america has. they're luckier than most. they have the resources to buy anything they want here. but to help save time in the kitchen, they rely on quick and easy to process foods. >> look, dunkin' donuts milk. >> today i'm inviting them to take a partner cooking lesson and challenge. can i make a meal roughly in the same amount of time they make a meal from a box? of course, i can. but i want to show them they can, too. what's dinner tonight for you guys? >> we are going to do hamburger helper. we got a double pack. >> skillet dinner, easy peasy. >> so i need you guys to pick what flavor. taco. beef. okay, bacon cheese burger. >> i'm shopping for a different kind of skillet dinner built from fresh produce and chicken. >> oh, oh, lots of mozzas. they love the lots of mozzas. you like the white bread, right. ♪ ♪ >> see you at your house. >> thank you. >> how long is all your stuff going to take you? >> what's the box say? >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> hamburger helper, or in this case turkey, is a 25-minute meal. i'm making my skillet dinner with chicken, a bit more prep than theirs, but the same amount of time on the stove. i call them brown and braze recipes, which i think are sort of the easiest. your hamburger helper in a sense is a brown and braze. i'm using chicken thighs dredged in flour and crisped, and diced tomatoes. >> i'm just watching you. i'm going to learn. like the cooking shows i watch with my mom, but in real life. >> look how pretty that is. >> he's really pretty, too. don't hurt his feelings. >> wong-wong. >> my skillet dinner cooks in half an hour. i use that time to make a salad with plums, feta cheese. >> if we want to be healthier, got to use new recipes. who has time for that? >> my dad used to cook all the time. i love doing it, but time doesn't permit. >> i was trying to think the last time we cooked at meal together. >> i can't recall. >> i judge no one. you guys have to make a decision for your family life what's too much and find that balance. >> how you're eating and everything can be a little bit of a reflection of like what's going on in your life, too. >> totally. [ laughter ] >> it's not easy. while we debate the issues of time poverty, the boys sneak a box of snack cakes. >> we bought brownies. >> empty calories, loaded with sugar, not the most appropriate advertiser. i want you to be healthy, your kids lives to be food rich. >> looks great. >> same amount of cooking time, two very different meals. well, here, let me. >> thank you. very nice, thank you. >> i'm going to do a little bit of that. hold on, because you need a shallot. you want to try a bite? it's good? >> i want this one. >> what did you say? it's good? >> yeah. i like the chicken right here. >> wow. >> left untouched, the turkey helper. >> do you like the plums in the salad? it's kind of like a nice thing. did you know they were plums? >> no. i thought they were like beets or something. >> i would not do that to you. that is a low blow. >> you like beets, don't you, leo? >> i like money. [ laughter ] >> is that a hint, like for $5 you'll eat the snap pea? >> make it 20. [ laughter ] >> thoughts, take aways from today? >> well, i think we have a great day. >> do you feel inspired? re: i d >> i do. >> i think you used a lot of ingredients. as long as we can make the kids sit still, we can make a living out of this for sure. >> we know we want to get better. ignite his love of cooking and get me cooking more. getting together as a family. >> it's cool. you got this. choosing between convenient and healthy isn't always easy. but it can be done. >> the hardest thing in the world is to create a home that's filled with love that everyone wants to be in. you have that already. >> yeah. >> that's what it's all about. >> it's tough enough to make a living let alone worry about where you're going to buy your groceries from. >> the odds keep getting stacked against us. tv sports announcer: five seconds left. oh ho! yeah, that's my man there. tv sports announcer: time out. let's go to a commercial. nooooooo! not another commercial! when you bundle your home, auto and life insurance with allstate you could save 25%. in fact, the more you bundle the more you can save. put the other game on if it's important to you allstate can protect it. ...home auto and life insurance you could save 25%. if it's important to you allstate can protect it. what? bundle and save with allstate. click or call for a quote today. you can enjoy the seafood you love from the comfort of home... if it ever makes it there. spend $30 and get free delivery at red lobster dot com. when julie hendrickson and her family shop, they probably don't realize they're being encouraged to buy processed foods by a system that limits choices for all of us. many americans shop for their food in super markets, but how those super markets are laid out influences what we buy and what we eat. my friend monica mills is the former executive director of the nonprofit organization food policy action. >> you'll see all this beautiful fresh food, everything looks so beautiful and fresh and delicious. it is all on the perimeter of the grocery store. >> but the most trafficked part of the store, the center aisles, are filled with cheap fast temptation. >> everything on the cereal aisle is so processed. we have jello. we have easy seasonings for tacos and what in the world, haven't seen these for a long time, mashed potatoes in a bag. >> 70% -- 70 -- of the american diet is made up of processed foods. it's a convenience that comes at a cost. >> there is added sugar, added salt, and added fat. processed food is really made to make you eat faster and to make you eat more. there is something that's almost addictive to it. >> dollar impact of food-related disease is estimated to be what? >> the national association of insurance commissioners put out a study that said $1.4 trillion is the impact to our economy. $1.4 trillion. >> at least full-service grocery stores like this give shoppers options. not everyone is so lucky. we are what we eat, and yet the stores that are multiplying like rabbits are the dollar stores. there are more dollar stores in america than all the starbucks and walmarts combined. the largest of all the dollar store chains is dollar general, with more than 16,000 stores in 45 states, and with nearly $28 billion in annual sales. these kinds of markets land in lower-income neighborhoods and towns with struggling grocery stores. okay. hello, dollar store. this is the dollar general in moville, whiowa. there are $2,100 generals. they did not give us permission to film in this location. i found chips and candy, more chips, more cookies. frozen pizzas. okay, they have cheese, eggs, bacon and milk. sugary cereals, canned goods. if you had to catalog the world's least healthy foods, this is what they have. when i ask another customer if i can find fresh food here -- >> they don't have lettuce or tomatoes here, do they? she gets me a couple of tomatoes from her car. >> oh, my gosh, you are so -- >> they don't get any fresher than that. >> you are so sweet. movi moville used to have a full service grocery store. the dollar general opens up couple hundred yards behind me and within a short amount of time, the local grocery store, the one local grocery store, is out of business. and that grocery store was located right here. >> this is our grocery store. >> this looks like the produce aisle. >> produce was here. they had bananas down there, onions and potatoes were in here. milk was further down. >> so sad. it's an oversized version of what i always thought was the saddest sight in the world which was an empty refrigerator. >> the grocery store began to struggle after the dollar general opened. it closed 18 months later. dollar general says they are not a contributor to america's health concerns. they told us they strive to provide affordable option to under served communities and that their stores are not meant to be full-service grocery stores. >> do you know percentage-wise what the revenue drop was? >> it was about 15 to 20%. >> steve maxwell is copresident of the development group that owns the store. he's trying to attract another store into the space. >> it's like a food desert. you don't have any fresh fruit. >> the closest place you can buy fresh produce is a small grocery store nine miles away in kingsley. a dollar general just opened there in february of 2020. for the residents ever moville, it's the dollar store or nothing. do you shop here a lot for gressel risk? >> every day. >> what are you buying? >> chicken alfredo. >> where do you shop for groceries? >> high v in sioux city. >> how far is that? >> 17 miles. >> when we did have a small grocery store here, a lot of times we'd want something like cilantro or tofu. they might not have it there. hey, april, we got your cilantro. >> it's hard to go each way when i've already worked a 10, 12 hour day trying to provide for my family in the first place. >> they learn what it's like firsthand what it's like to have fewer healthy food choices. those choices may get fewer for those who rely on government help through assistance program or snap. in 2018 the department of agriculture proposed replacing some of that snap money with a food ration called the harvest box. >> the administration claims the box will somehow improve beneficiaries' nutrition and slash costs to the tune of $12 billion a year. >> there is absolutely no fresh fruits, no fresh vegetables, nothing that is fresh in this box. >> using a usda list of potential harvest box offerings, monica put together a sample. it's a box of processed foods with a long shelf life. >> we have instant nonfat dried milk. pear halves, apple juice. >> sure. peanut butter, cheese. >> spam. >> then monica filled the second box with foods people can already purchase with their snap dollars for about the same cost. >> lean ground beef, fresh tomatoes. >> picking the box is a no-brainer when they're snap participants or not. >> all of this is fresh produce and everything here is canned and box. >> this one looks like has fresh produce. i would take this one. >> my oldest son has a dairy-free, gluten-free diet. >> could you even use a lot of this stuff? >> most likely no. >> the harvest box idea has so far been rejected by congress, but a plan to shrink the snap program is underway. starting april 1st, a new usda rule will eliminate snap benefits for nearly 700,000 people. the first part of a larger effort to trim the program by 3 million recipients. what do you think of the trump administration's plan to cut snap? >> i think it is a travesty. i think it is harming the poor for being poor. >> processed foods cost less and last longer on the shelf. cuts to snap may mean many low-income shoppers will be left with no choice but to buy less healthy options. >> that means i buy two boxes of corn flakes because that will last longer than a package of chicken. this administration wants to cut food stamps. they want to cut programs that help the poor. they want to make it harder every step of the way for those who struggle the most. >> so there's 21 out of 30 kids have chocolate milk? >> that's the most popular. >> and conveniently loaded with 18 grams of sugar. berty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ everything was so fresh in the beginning... but that plug quickly faded. luckily there's febreze plug. it cleans away odors and freshens for 1200 hours. breathe happy with febreze plug. unlike ordinary memory wsupplements-neuriva? 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[squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ less than half a mile from the dollar general in rural moville, iowa, is the local public school. woodbury central community school teaches up to 625 children every day. its cafeteria provides lunch and breakfast, too. how many of you had breakfast here at school this morning? did the rest of you have breakfast at home? >> yes. >> gotcha. >> i had frog legs. >> you had frog legs? >> ewww. >> now, hold on, don't knock them till you've tried them. they're really, really good. while childhood obesity and dee bites are at record levels, kids consume 50% of their daily calories at school. >> do you think he wants to join us for lunch? >> yeah. >> i would love to join you for lunch. >> first we have to show him how kindergartners lineup. >> i can't wait to see what these kids are eating and why. ♪ i'm going to do oranges. >> all right. >> chocolate milk. >> that's the most popular obviously. >> and conveniently loaded with 18 grams of sugar. ♪ so there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21 out of 30 kids have chocolate milk. do you want some help? i'm a certified dad. it's okay. not the first cookie pack i've opened in my life. >> how did you do that? >> magic. >> today's lunch, chocolate milk, chocolate chip cookie, a thin slice of pizza, raw carrots. i have to tell you, old dried carrots that are almost expired do not taste great. >> it's no wonder that the kids finish their cookies and sweetened milk before anything else. these processed foods taste better. >> processed food industry still very much has a foothold in our cafeterias. >> betina is a mom and author. her popular blog, the lunch tray, has become a leading voice in the school lunch debate. >> they don't have the infrastructure for scratch cooking. we're not paying them enough. >> every school service provided is paid for by local tax dollars. most school lunch programs are purchased by funds for meals. the school lunch program is 29% of the kids here atwood bury, the federal government pays the school. >> school districts are given a certain amount of money based on the economic status of the kitd who comes through the line. free lunch 3.50. little less for reduced price and the full paying kid pays the fee. >> in other words, most school cafeterias are kind of like restaurants. >> out of that money, they are supposed to cover everything associated with the meal program. the payroll, the lights, the trash collection. so they really want participation. >> kids in the door grabbing trays. what's your favorite food at the school? if schools want to sell more food, they have to appeal to kids' taste buds. but the national school lunch program also sets nutritional and caloric standards for reimbursable meals. those standards can make food healthier, but with less salt, sugar and fat, they can be perceived as less flavorful. it's a difficult balance for schools. >> we really put this tremendous pressure on them and then there is the processed food industry with the answers. >> this is the super bowl of school food. the annual conference of the school nutrition association or sna, a lobbying group that represents the people who plan school meals nationwide. the big food companies here sell food to america's schools. they also fund half of the sna's total budget. >> can i show you pasta? >> absolutely. >> there are healthy foods here, but also lots of familiar processed food brands. a hot item this year is coffee for kids. promoted here is a revenue generator for school lunch programs. >> the coffee scene in schools and high schools is just really growing very, very fast. >> are these like all muscle? >> these are chicken nugget. >> i'll go with the unbreaded. >> the president of the school nutrition association is gaye anderson. >> wonderful job. >> thank you, means a lot. >> she's also the director of the child school system. >> our tag line is feeding bodies feeding fuel lines. if they aren't well fueled they aren't learning. >> yet it's not clear who the sna represents. they joined the $200 billion dairy industry in supporting the trump 2017 decision to roll back obama era rules that required flavored milk sold in schools to be nonfat. agricultural secretary sunny purdue announced the plan to allow 1% flat flavored milk. >> the kids told me the flavored milk which was limited to nonfat was not as tasty as they would like. >> milk consumption has declined in schools for years. tastier flavored milk could mean a boost in sales for the sagging and federally subsidized dairy industry. >> i watch kids when they go through the line and there's the chocolate milk and the cookie. >> chocolate milk is an important thing, too. >> how so? >> it's a nice thing to have them get that calcium. >> you might roll your eyes at that. who cares if the flavored milk is 1%. what should disturb everyone is there is a scientific basis for the rules and we're not supposed to change the regulations at the behest of an industry. >> the 2010 mandate for fat-free flavored milk was aimed at combatting childhood obesity as part of the healthy hunger free kids act championed by michelle obama. >> children born today will be accustomed to eating healthy food during school day. >> i wouldn't be as big as i am today without chocolate milk. >> sunny purdue's chocolate milk announcement was only the beginning. the usda unveiled additional changes, cutting the amount of whole grains and fruits, limiting the variety of vegetables and dialing back restrictions on sodium. new rules that the union of concerned scientists called a gift to the processed food industry. >> we all know that meals can't be nutritious if they aren't consumed. >> we're happy right now with where we're at with the flexibilities offered to be honest with you. >> you're talking about the roll back of the obama era -- >> not roll back, it's flexibility. >> roll backs. >> flexibility. >> roll backs. there is at least one area where gaye and i certainly agree. hungry kids. there is a plan to cut more than 3 million families in america from the food assistance program, better known as snap. half a million children, 500,000 of them may lose their free school lunch. >> we're very concerned about that. losing numbers like that is huge because already we've seen a downside of the last ten years. we're serving about 2 million less meals a day for lunches. these kids, where are they going to get their meals? >> as disturbing as all of this is, there is a solution. universal school meals. >> there has been more of a movement for universal meals, meaning free meals for all kids, no paperwork. it would just be part of our school day. >> universal meals would help everybody financially in their programs. >> school meals would be like school bus service. something so important to student success that schools provide it for everyone. it's hard to imagine there's anything more worthy of our local tax dollars than our children's health. >> i'm not pretending that could happen overnight or that would be cheap. but what better investment can we be making? >> big ag and big farms are the ones that are getting lots and lots of money. with red lobster to go, you can enjoy the seafood you love from the comfort of home... if it ever makes it there. spend $30 and get free delivery at red lobster dot com. iunlike ordinary memoryre. wsupplements-neuriva? has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. (burke) we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "gold medal grizzly." (sports announcer) what an unlikely field in this final heat. (burke) not exactly a skinny dipper, but we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. so call 1-800 farmers to get a quote. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ hi, richard lui with the hour's top stories. president trump has activated the national guard in california, new york and washington state. a mass quantity of respirators, gowns and face shields will arrive in those stays within days. a vote to advance the stimulus bill failed in the senate. republicans needed 60 votes to move forward on the bill, but democrats say they are dissatisfied with worker protections among other concerns. for now, back to "what's eating america." ♪ ♪ >> texas, the lone star state, 127 million acres are devoted to farming, making it the largest agricultural state in our nation. ♪ >> thank you. meet the frazier family, texas farmers. >> do you guys always cook together as a family? >> definitely on weekends. our weeks would be busy. >> i love a sunday supper like this. >> curl your fingers like a crab. homemade bread. fresh vegetables. oh, yeah, look at this. steak, of course. and the rare experience of sharing a meal with four generations. the frazier family farm covers 5,000 acres. so, tell me what you farm here. >> we farm cotton, grain and corn primarily. some years we have a little wheat. here we go, come ton. come on, girls. it's okay. most of what we grow is going to go to livestock feed. >> what's up, ladies? and gents. sorry, didn't see you there. he grows some corn for human consumption. >> pretty good corn for south texas. >> beautiful. >> compared to some of the midwest guys, what we grow is a crop failure to them. for us it's pretty good corn. >> i live in minnesota. we take our corn really seriously. >> sure. that's actually an ear of food-grade corn, what the folks like when they make corn chips. >> starch, content, other technical things, yeah. nearly 92 million acres of corn were planted in 2019, making it america's largest crop. it's also a key ingredient in processed food. >> less than 10% of the corn grown in the united states is actually for human consumption as corn. the rest of it is used for processing of corn, corn syrup, all of the other things that corn is in. and this high fructose corn syrup is in everything. >> corn farmers get help from the federal government in the form of cash subsidies to protect against crop loss. american taxpayers spend $20 billion a year on corn, soybeans and other crops used by the processed food industry. hand-picked crops like apples or kale don't receive as many as federal dollars. for many farmers it simply doesn't pay to grow them. >> everyone's vision of the farm in america is a mom and a dad, an old combine, and kids with a little stand on the side of the country lane. but that's not really the reality. >> that's a tough business. the fruit and vegetable guys in the valley, their inputs per acre are much greater than mine. >> yeah. you see, it's all about inputs. the more water and the more labor that you need to grow something, think hand-picked strawberries. the more expensive it is for the farmer the more money you and i are going to pay for it at the store. corn like this? that's very inexpensive. one farmer can handle 4,000 acres easily. cheap to produce, cheap to buy. but those low returns, well, that means the farmer has to grow a lot more to make more money. the recipe for farming success? find a cheap crop that's heavily subsidized and grow as much of it as you can. it's what people in agriculture call farming the subsidy. >> big ag and big corn farms are the ones that are getting lots and lots of money. the bigger your farm, the bigger your payment. so this goes to this whole concept of why farms are so big, why you cannot switch crops, because if you switched you would lose your benefit. >> it pays to grow cheap corn. more cheap corn means more corn syrup, and an increase in cheap processed foods in the average american diet. >> that goes to issues around who is eating well and who has to go with the cheap, high caloric, highly processed convenient food. >> and the biggest losers are the vast majority of americans that don't have access to fresh produce and vegetables. >> you can't really blame individual farmers for raising the crops that make the most money. they have businesses to run and families to feed. there are alternatives to farming the subsidy. scott is experimenting with sorghum. a flowering grain that originated in africa. it's a gorgeous cluster. >> a unique crop. that's why we're trying to learn to use it, get people to eat it. gluten free, so all these folks worried about gluten in their diet, good crop. >> so good for you, delicious popped, great ground into a flour, and an amazing sweetener. i have to tell you, i'm kind much obsessed with sorghum. >> pretty good, isn't it? >> well, cheers. >> cheers. >> thank you for being so hospitable. congratulations. you have a lovely family. >> thank you. >> i got a long way to go. >> dude, give yourself some credit. >> right. ar insurance so you only pay for what you need. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (groans) hmph... 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(vo) we're relentlessly committed to the network. so in times like this, we can all stay connected to work, school, and most importantly, to each other. i need all the breaks, that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ on any given day, more than a third of americans eat fast food. >> can i take your order? >> i get it. food like this is cheap, highly processed, and loaded with empty calories. >> medium fries. >> exactly the type of diet that can lead to the chronic disease afflicting as many as 28 million americans. type 2 diabetes. where i live in minnesota, nearly 9% of adults have been diagnosed with diabetes. matt leaf is one of them. >> my journey, relearning how to eat, if you dig hard enough, you can find good options. but we still go back to that meat and potatoes fried food kind of thing just because it's what's comfortable. >> as an academic dean in brooklyn park, matt says his busy schedule and frequent travel make it difficult to eat a healthy balanced diet, especially when confronted with an array of processed food options and very little else. reuben's corn dog, chicken alfredo pizza to me is like the crack of food. >> this is not unlike what we see all over the place as options. but then over here, i would go to one of these salads, it's primarily iceberg lettuce. not a lot of nutritional value. the problem is i'm going to be hungry around 2:00. i'm going to try the salad. >> meat and vegetables. >> if you want something to drink, here's the other issue, the sugary beverages. >> 77 grams of sugar. 77. ideally we're eating about 25 grams of sugar a day. those sugars should come ideally from fruits and things like that. poor eating habits most often start in childhood, laying the foundation for how we eat as adults. >> i had very supportive parents, but health and eating and wellness was never part of our vernacular. >> matt felt the true impact of his lifetime of unhealthy eating when he and his wife trisha were expecting their first child in 2014. >> we started shopping for life insurance and i didn't pass the health exam to get covered. i didn't even get a high rate. i got no because my blood sugar was so high. i don't know anything about this. what are you talking about? i went to my doctor. he's like, okay, diabetes. i'm like, okay. he goes, it's an epidemic. >> it is an epidemic. >> at that point it was just like he handed me a ticking bomb and i was just going to go off. >> type 2 diabetes is essentially a diet-related illness. so matt blamed himself. >> i kept it to myself for a long time. i was kind of like a mental illness type stigma that you don't want to talk about it because they don't want to be judged. >> there is so much stigma and guilt and shame built around this. >> absolutely. because i mean, it's always looked at as because it's weight related that it's my fault. but, you know, there is some family history in my family that it's running in there. we had no idea -- i had no idea about it. >> i'm 58 years old and i'm carrying 25, 30 pounds that, i mean, just has been up and down, up and down my whole life. my whole life. and if i don't address it now, when? i'd like to have those extra ten years tacked on to the end of my life to spend with the people i love. we've seen how challenging it can be to look after your diet when you're also looking after your career and your family. for matt, regular clinic visits -- >> hey, matt. >> hey, connie. >> how are you doing? >> a glucose monitor and insulin injections help him manage his diabetes. >> i know you've had to do these before. >> yeah. >> but please do the food diary. >> treatment goes hand in hand with eating better and losing weight. efforts that start at home. >> i got him. i got you. i got you. we've really cut down on having the temptations at home. i'm going to the gym. >> you've been dealing with this for roughly six years. >> um-hmm. >> what was your weight then, what's your wait noeight now? >> i think 325 was my highest. i'm around 280 now. >> good for you. >> i have a long way to go. >> dude, give yourself some credit. these diet-related d diseases h a component built into them that has a mental health component. you don't have a disease, it's not a gushing wound. nothing hurts. >> not in a sling. if it was cancer i'd be dealing with it right away. >> right away. >> the positive for me is i found out at a young age about this, so i can deal with it before i set the bad example for my kids. >> it's crazy to me that we talk about health care without talking about food. our belief is you either pay the farmer or you pay the doctor. yes! yes. yes. yeah sure. yes yes. yeah, yeah no problem. yes. yes, yes a thousand times yes! discover. accepted at over 95% of places in the u.s. billions of problems. sore gums? bleeding gums? painful flossing? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy, there's therabreath at walmart. tv sports announcer: yeah, that's my man there. tv sports announcer: time out. let's go to a commercial. nooooooo! not another commercial! when you bundle your home, auto and life insurance with allstate you could save 25%. in fact, the more you bundle the more you can save. put the other game on if it's important to you allstate can protect it. ...home auto and life insurance you could save 25%. if it's important to you allstate can protect it. what? bundle and save with allstate. click or call for a quote today. a lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesn't get everything clean. i tell them, it may be your detergent... that's why more dishwasher brands recommend cascade platinum... ...with the soaking, scrubbing and rinsing built right in. for sparkling-clean dishes, the first time. cascade platinum. we can't fix the broken health care system in this country if we don't change the way we eat. the good news is that there are visionaries trying to help us do just that. >> i would like to have the corpus borg, no cheese no, spuds. >> breakfast is the most important meal of the day. >> it is? >> avocado and egg to me. that combo is like, wow! >> my friend, four time james beard award winning chef on became a pioneer in the good food movement after his son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. >> i was changing the way my family was eating at home and wasn't reconciling with the way i was feeding tens of thousands in my restaurants. i couldn't sleep at night. >> is that where wholesome wave was born? >> that was the glimer in my eyes. >> wholesome wave is his nonprofit. it is wholesome rx program treats food as immediate swin participating doctors writing prescriptions for specific fruits and vegetables. >> see the doctor. get the diagnosis. give the prescription to the patient. the patient goes to the participating grocer or farmer's market and buys their stuff. >> we literally can't afford not to make these changes. >> we're spending $1.4 trillion to treat the top four diet related diseases and the lost productivity that comes along with them. so you've got that savings opportunity. >> $1.4 trillion. when wholesome rx began in 2010, the prescribed food was paid for by foundation grants. a measure of the program's success is that congress included $25 million for produce prescriptions in its latest farm bill which passed in 2018. >> it is in our interests to pick our neighbors back up and have them remain engaged as strong part of the economy moving forward. >> arcadia sfarms 54 acres of paradise half an hour outside of washington disease. farms like the are another important step in fixing our fractured relationship with food. >> we grow a mix of 30 different vegetable crops. squash, cucumbers, scallions, greens like kale and collards. >> those are sun peach. >> look at how stunning those are. the color. there is something about a perfect piece that you harvest by hand. >> oh, yeah. farm art. >> i'm so sorry. i can't stop. >> the food grown here is sold at ten mobile markets in washington, d.c. neighborhoods where people don't have easy access to fresh food. pam is the executive director. sandy live on capitol hill's washington ward six. in my neighborhood i have 13 full service grocery stores, plus farmers markets, at least three days a week. but there is a whole section of washington, a whole section of the country that can't make good choice because they don't have a good choice. >> which is true of every big urban area in the country. it is true in rural populations as well. you lay down that ma'am overlay and you can literally circle where the higher rates of food-related disease are. >> that's exactly right. >> a third of the residents of bellevue in washington, d.c.'s ward 8 live below the poverty line. here and in neighboring ward 7, there are only three grocery stores for nearly 150,000 people. so a fresh food store is coming to them. this is one of arcadia's mobile markets. >> so every $5 check is worth $10. >> government stags dollars are worth twice as much here so shoppers can double up on vegetables. >> what are you going to with egg plant? >> i'm going to fry them. >> our mobile market has seen a 500% increase in demand. the first year we sold $44,000 worth of food. this year more than $200,000 words of food. >> i'm trying to see what he wants. >> great to see where all the sprou going. it is a big part of why we do it. >> i want to say for the people watching, thinking people don't want this food. people do want this food. it just has to be affordable and available. >> we use that bed for garlic, the one there for sage. >> they're growing more than food at arcadia. they're growing farmers. >> i'm a 12-year army veteran. i entered the military in 1990. >> thank you for your service. when you left the army, did you ever think in your wildest dreams this is where would you wind up? >> absolutely not. >> marcus roberson is a full time water treatment plant operator and one of 77 u.s. military veterans who have gone thank you one-year farm training program at arcadia. >> now you have a functional plot of your own. >> let's say semi functional. we're in our second year thfl last year we made about $1. this year hopefully we'll make $2 so hopefully we can make growth. i already saw the squash bugs are trying to move in. as soldier training for combat, we prepare for the under expected. we're trying to make peace with our situation and with the earth and water and the land. >> you have a smile on your face. you're emanating calm. there's something magical going on. maybe the benefits aren't just measured by how many pounds of produce you pull out of ground. >> i call it good earth therapy. when i'm out here at 5:45 in the morning, the fog is thick and it is peaceful and quiet, it is another world. at the same time, we're contributing something to arcadia's program. >> every single veteran that comes through fixing us, they don't need me to fix them. they'll fix the food system. the nation needs 700,000 new farmers to take up the plow over the next 20 years. that's how many farmers in 20 years are going to die or age out of profession. it's crazy to me that we talk about health care without talking about food. you pay the farmer or the grocer. it supports the local economies and your health. >> this is how food should be done. on a macro level, on a micro level, community farm, small farms. if everyone tried growing something, we would be in a different places all together. >> a place where people like that he who love to eat can go. a place where food can save us. one person at a time. one flavor at a time. >> thank you. our great republic has stood test of time. >> in living color -- >> for two and a half centuries, we've done a lot to be proud of. >> our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security. >> we've been prosperous, powerful -- >> the cold war days are over. >> ambitious. >> the internet in your pockets. >> but tolerance hasn't been our strong suit. it never has. >> racism

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