In a Policy Forum article published in PLOS Medicine, Jason Block and S V Subramanian, from Harvard University, United States, stated that the self-motivation to put an end to food deserts in low-income, geographic communities that do not have access to a large grocery store, may not have an effect on enhancing dietary quality or lessen the great difference in the diet quality.
Reducing food deserts has been regarded as more important in federal and state governments, many times through public-private partnerships, as well as international groups, such as the specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health - World Health Organization.
However, in the article by Jason Block (faculty at the Harvard
In terms of governmental involvement in the management of food deserts, we argue that very little has been done legislatively by the Metro Nashville and Davidson county government. Despite the fact that several areas in the Davidson County have been identified as food deserts by the USDA, little to no legislation has been created to combat the problem and its effects on the health of its citizens. Edgehill has been put on the USDA map of food deserts, because it qualifies “as a “low-access community,” [where] at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles)” (USDA). However, the
In Eric Holt-Gimenez’s article, “The Fight over Food Deserts: Corporate America Smacks Its Way Down”, the author provides answers the food desert epidemic facing the United States today. A food desert is an area in which fresh and nutritious food is not readily available to the masses. Whether it be because of economic or geographic reasons, the fresh ingredients are often scarce and expensive. Gimenez first addresses the corporate aspect of food desert problem and how the big box companies are looking to take advantage of impoverished neighborhoods (Holt-Gimenez 525). Next, Gimenez states a solution to the problem; improving wages for the working class, not providing big business with more money to move into local areas(Holt-Gimenez 526-527). While I agree with Gimenez that having the government fund the big chain stores is not the solution; I do not think that raising the minimum wage is the answer. To solve the food desert problem, the farmers and local grocers need to be funded by the government.
These food deserts are often found in low-income, inner-city communities and rural areas with low population density (Gallagher). The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service states that in food deserts, fast-food and convenience stores are the most readily available source of food as opposed to markets and grocery stores with whole foods. There are an estimated 23.5 million people living in food deserts in the U.S. with nearly 14 million of those considered as low-income (AMS - Creating Access to Healthy, Affordable
Food deserts continual existence comes from the fact that nobody really has an awareness of its existence. Speaking from my own experience, I did not know anything about food deserts or what a food desert was until I started doing research. The government must fix this difficult situation and steps have been taken already, “in 2010 U.S. Pres. Barrack Obama has proposed the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), which encouraged retailers to bring healthy foods to impoverished urban and rural communities” . However, with the government dealing with many other problems, the food desert problem doesn’t seem to be a main priority at the current moment for them. Consequently, this puts us in a position where we have to step up. People need to become more aware of this situation and how it greatly affects the people living in these communities in a very unhealthy way, “food desert resides thus face both geography and selection limitation, which could push consumers toward less healthy fare” .
The United States has struggled with the health of their population for decades. The fight has been against an ineffective health care system with rising rates of inactivity and obesity. These two states increase the likelihood of chronic diseases from occurring. There have been many debates in the political arena on how this issue needs to be addressed. In order for a solution to be effective, we must look upstream. We must look at why people are eating poorly and why people are more sedentary than decades before. I believe the main culprit is an access issue. If people are not provided basic necessities, such as healthy foods, then no policy will be beneficial. In this paper, I will be discussing the issue of food deserts in Nevada including
In Sarah Whitley’s “Changing Times in Rural America: Food Assistance and Food Insecurity in Food Deserts” the causes and effects of food deserts in rural communities in the western United States in observed. Whitley states that, “Food insecurity and hunger are especially important to research in the rural setting because transportation issues and increasing food prices may affect rural food-insecure Americans significantly differently than their urban or suburban counterparts.” Rural America has been changing so drastically in recent years because its largest population is aging and retiring and the younger people that grew up in this rural setting are leaving to go to larger cities. With a declining population, rural areas are experiencing
Obesity rates in the US are rising due to food insecurity. One in six people in the U.S. are food insecure, while two-thirds of adults and one-third Americans are overweight or obese.14 Studies have found that wealthy districts have three times as many supermarkets compared to the poor.15 Kevin Conocannon of the USDA noted in an interview that people in poorer areas sometimes have narrower variety of food options.16 SNAP recipients face barriers to achieving nutritious diets due to lack of availability in their neighborhood. Healthy food often comes with higher costs, so most people with lower income result to eating foods with lower cost and higher calories. According to a 2009 report by the USDA, as many as 23.5 million Americans live more than one mile from a supermarket with limited access to a vehicle.17 Food Deserts are particularly prevalent in low-income communities.18
Obesity-related conditions and health disparities are attributed to food deserts among underserved communities. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers. The term ‘food desert’ was not used when I was growing up, but it applied to my neighbor as well. There are some similarities between myself and Erika Nicole Kendall in “No Myths Here: Food Stamps, Food Deserts, and Food Scarcity.” The first similarity we share is our grandmothers making sure we didn’t go hungry, but during the week we rarely saw a vegetable on our plates.
The concept of a Food Desert is not new, “British politicians introduced the idea of food deserts in the mid-1990s… suggested a link might exist between distance to a grocery store and the diets of poor people” (Gilligan, 2014). It took many years before the idea of a Food Desert was recognized in the United States of America but it is now estimated that, “About 23.5 million people live in food deserts” ("11 Facts About Food Deserts | DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change," n.d.). The inability to obtain healthy food choices leads to, “people in low-income communities [suffering] more from diet-related diseases like obesity and diabetes” (Truehaft & Karpyn, 5, n.d.). The existence of these Food Deserts is a factor that works to keep those in poverty down and makes progress even harder for them to
One huge problem that the United States faces today are the large numbers of food deserts. A food desert, according to the United States department of Agriculture, is a neighborhood that has a difficult time getting quality and affordable food to their home. This means that people are not properly being fed and getting the nutrition needed for a healthy diet. The good quality food that is needed to maintain this balance is not near or affordable for the people living in these areas. Food deserts affect many people across the United States, especially those that are on the lower end of the social economic spectrum and live in rural areas. Many of these low-income families do not have the means to get to the supermarket and get the right products they need so they settle for lower quality but more cost efficient foods. A great example for a food desert would be the great city of Chicago who is ranked in the top two worst food deserts in the United State according to newsone.com.
Hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans live in what’s known as a food desert. A food desert is in an area of focus that is short on access to fresh meat and produce. These areas are usually over populated with packaged and processed foods, which are not always healthy. They also have a significant amount junk that you can easily find in convenience stores and fast food restaurants.
In an excerpt from a book about the 100 mile diet by Alisa Smith and J.B. McKinnon, the authors speak to professor Marion Nestle, the former chair of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York university, about people’s concerns about the foods they eat. Nestle says, “it is [not] necessary to eat locally to be healthy… people are not nutrient-deprived.” The largest fight for eating locally is the health benefits, yet eating locally does not mean a person is less healthy and/or nutrient-deprived than that of a locavore
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) atlas on food deserts shows that most food deserts in California are in highly rural (USDA, 2017). Northern California, the Mojave Desert, and the Imperial Valley all have a high prevalence of food deserts (USDA, 2017). A closer look at the map also shows a significant amount of food deserts in urban areas of highly populated cities. Large portions of neighborhoods in urban areas like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento are food deserts (USDA, 2017). In this section, we will discuss the socio-economic characteristics of the people living in both types of food
Food deserts are one of the biggest problems in society, as the authors of Food Justice bring up (Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010). In fact, Indianapolis is ranked worst in the nation for food deserts. So what is a food desert? A food desert is when places are left with the lack of availability of nutritious foods and high rates of poverty. Often times, these are known as grocery gaps because grocery stores move out of the area, normally located in low-income communities. It makes sense that they would move to make more profit, but it leaves those in the community left with essentially nothing. Also, most people living in a low-income community do not have access to transportation, so they cannot get to grocery stores that are outside of walking distance. This is why Gleaners, a local food justice organization, steps in and fills in places where grocery stores have left. The program that works to fix this is Mobile Pantries. As I will explore later, Mobile Pantries allows people who cannot reach grocery stores the ability to get nutritious foods they need. Mobile Pantries give people a sense of going to the grocery store and picking out healthy foods. While consumer choice is limited, as Patel mentions, Mobile Pantries still gives people healthy options (Patel, 2014). Gleaners is a part of the Food Justice Movement because while they are not changing consumer choice, they are providing individuals with the option of healthy foods and working to end hunger and obesity
In order to fix the issue of food deserts, the government has started some initiatives to fix the problem. One of the recently created initiatives is the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services partnered with the Obama administration to create this initiative. It is used to provide aid to communities in lower income areas to develop and equip grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets selling healthy food choices (Let’s Move). The government will use the census to tract and analyze how to split the $35 million budget (US Department of Health and Human Services). The hope of the initiative is to work towards eliminating food deserts within a seven-year span. Other initiatives like