As a young, fat, didn't care what he put into his body type of person back in the day I was glad that I picked Columbus as my college town.  Lots of good artery hardening stuff there.

So you're saying you've never ski'd Mt. Haleakala.

It was very short but fun and no we do not have a vegetable garden although the rest of the state around us is one big corn/soy field.

I have an acquaintance that is in the biz of designing high dollar green roofs in Manhattan. I respect what she does, but it occurs to me that the big box friendly Midwest is where things like that would be more effective and special. The investment would be huge, but a city that really made something like that a priority would be an amazing place. My hope has been that some of the demolished homes will turn into urban gardens. I doubt it'll happen. It amazes me in a state like this how difficult it is to get fresh, local produce at a reasonable price.

Do you have allotments as well as community gardens?  We seem to have community gardens for the exposure to gardening (but also for selling on at small markets) as well as the allotments for your own personal use (and they seem really popular at the moment).  I'd be surprised if 30% of people over here had veg gardens, but then again, it depends what counts as a veg garden.  And yes, comparing gardens (veg or otherwise) in an urban v rural setting is kinda dumb.  

I'm not sure where most fast food places are here...but apparently we eat a lot of burgers and kebabs when we go out (not that I can actually be bothered to read whether it's actually a vaguely realistic article...the fact it's in the daily mail probably suggests it isn't).

Grass roofs etc don't seem to have taken off that much here, you see them on enviro homes but not so much in city settings.

Do you have allotments as well as community gardens?  We seem to have community gardens for the exposure to gardening (but also for selling on at small markets) as well as the allotments for your own personal use

I read about allotments in Germany.  I have never heard of such a thing in the U.S.  I was so jealous when I first heard of them.  I would love to have my own tiny piece of land.  I have thai peppers growing on my windowsill.  Doesn't quite quench my desire to get my hands dirty.

Wait, did that say less than half Americans eat fruits and veggies? What do they eat? Is it really that hard to chop lettuce or wash off a piece of celery?

They eat "food".

I remember as recently as 2003, when I was living on $100/month after rent, used car payment, and utilities.  That had to cover gas, food, and ALL other expenses.  I bought the cheaper fruit, tomatoes when they were cheap, a lot of other veggies were simply too pricey and perishable.  If I bought them in quantities small enough to consume before they went bad, I would have had to spend more on gas getting to the store.  So I had a bit when I got to the store, then was out of veggies the rest of the week.  Or, when I was dating the crazy art student chick, I was driving from Ann Arbor to Buffalo every month so I could not afford them at all.

IIRC a staple of my diet was to buy generic Hamburger Helper or Tuna Helper imitations....then double the volume of noodles with cheap generic noodles, and double the volume of meat using venison that I had shot and processed myself for cents a pound.  I could make one box of this "food" into dinner for 4-5 days...maybe a couple lunches too.

I have a garden and have also been known to eat Hamburger Helper sometimes.

I actually enjoyed the stuff.  With two working parents, I grew up on the stuff.

As soon as my future wife was living with me, she banned it from the house.  Occasionally I think of a clandestined one night stand with it...but damn....my wife is a good cook...