What do Jim Crow & fast food have in common?

As interest in organic, sustainable food grows across the United States, many are referring to "Food Justice" as the new frontier of civil rights. According to the CDC, one in three African-American children will be diagnosed with Type II diabetes by age 18, with almost equally dismal rates for Latino youth. In fact, the CDC now predicts that the youngest generation of U.S. citizens will be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents, something Food Justice advocates attribute to our "toxic food system" and something that disproportionately affects minority, impoverished youth. 
     

Access to healthy and affordable food is especially problematic for the urban poor, a sector often predominantly African-American. Many live in proverbial "dead zones" stranded far from any food source besides fast food or convenience stores. Even those with access speak to the struggle to find fresh fruit or vegetables, the difficulties of the food stamp system, and the way their environment conditions poor food choices (for example, the high incidence of working single parent households in these communities makes idealized family dinners all but impossible). Moreover, many children in these neighborhoods rely on school lunch/breakfast programs, programs that are often woefully inadequate and lacking in nutritional value. 
     

There is no easy solution to this problem, however. On one hand, this issue is often dismissed as an issue of laziness, stupidity, or lack of family values, assertions that echo the dismissive white attitudes of the mid twentieth century. Thus, although Food Justice is becoming more and more accepted as a very real problem, a problem that urgently needs to be fixed, even those who strive to fix it often have trouble gaining support for programs that engage with the community and incorporate them into decision making. Top-down change, particularly change instigated through government institutions like schools, is favored. Exacerbating this is an unwillingness to link Food Justice (a picturesque, palatable cause involving little kids) with broader social ills plaguing urban, minority neighborhoods, meaning that interrelated problems cannot truly be solved. 
     

This top-down attitude is worsening perceptions of Food Justice advocates as uppity, elitist, and condescending. By focusing on blame rather than the actual issues at hand and by refusing to involve the community, many Food Justice organizations actually foster increased racial tensions. The disconnect between governmental initiatives/charities and preexisting community efforts to revitalize their food sources (e.g. student-led efforts at high schools, locally-created community gardens and farmers markets) has unfortunately hindered much positive change and is actually strikingly reminiscent of the tension between civil rights activists and the 'official' channels of change. 
     

What do you think? Do you think Food Justice can be fit into the narrative of civil rights? How do you think this problem ought to be resolved? Is this a racial issue or merely an economic one?