Food Deserts Essay Sample

Food deserts are areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food. Such places tend to be inhabited by low-income residents with low mobility, making them undesirable places for large supermarkets to open. Every business locates in a place where they can maximize the threshold and range, and low-income, low-access markets cannot satisfy either criterion. As a result, these communities consume processed, high sugar, and high-fat foods, leading to conditions such as obesity, diabetes, lactose intolerance, hypertension, malnutrition, and even cancer. Although food deserts are somewhat of an issue in countries around the world, they are a particularly large problem in the United States. In 2010, the USDA reported that 23.5 million people in the US live in food deserts. This generally poses an issue for governments because it is their responsibility to ensure that their citizens are in good health. Many studies have been conducted to test various solutions, and while there is no perfect one, the ideal way to reduce the number of people living is to retail more healthy, cheap food via smaller shops, farmers' markets, etc as well as improve health literacy. 

As aforementioned, the primary causes of food deserts are a low-income population and low access to fresh food retailers. The USDA has also noted that “prices affect the shopping and consumption behaviors of consumers.”  In rural areas, food deserts often occur because of large supermarket stores moving in and pushing out smaller, more accessible businesses. In urban areas, socioeconomic status is the main cause. Low-income households tend to not have access to transportation and sometimes lack nutritional knowledge. Additionally, smaller grocery stores in low-income areas can be more expensive than large chains. The cons of time and cost make people gravitate towards cheap, non-nutritious fast food restaurants or unhealthy snacks sold at convenience stores and pharmacies. Most interestingly, food deserts tend to be located in areas with a high proportion of people of color. Studies have shown that low-income areas dominated by African Americans and Latinos have fewer supermarkets or chain stores. Additionally, the distance to supermarkets is farther for those living in low-income areas and for areas with a high proportion of African Americans. 

Many would think that the simple, plain solution to reducing food deserts is opening more supermarkets. However, Professor Steven Cummins notes that “It can improve perceptions of food access, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into a behavior change.” Social or cultural reasons can also lead people to shop elsewhere, even if a new supermarket opens near their neighborhood. Prices for healthy foods also tend to be much higher than for unhealthy ones, so people still find the latter more appealing. Pharmacies, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants are in high concentrations in these areas. However, it is feasible to ameliorate the food sold in existing stores in a community and make healthy foods more accessible and affordable. For example, the Food Trust worked with corner stores that children purchase snacks from in North Philadelphia. Refrigerated coolers with fresh fruit were set up, attracting sales from children. As a result, kids are purchasing items with less fat and fewer calories, and their knowledge of healthy eating is becoming better. Another way to upgrade food offerings in a food desert is through farmers' markets, which are becoming increasingly attractive to consumers of all incomes in the US. New York City began to distribute “Health Bucks” in 2005, which are two-dollar coupons for purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables. The program became very successful, and additional Health Bucks were distributed in 2007. Consumers benefitted from purchasing healthy foods, and farmers were able to generate large profits. An additional step to take would be increasing the health literacy of communities in food deserts. Some initiatives that can be taken are teaching people to use and read food labels more frequently, or some basic math concepts to compare labels and prices. 

Critics might still reasonably argue that the root cause of food deserts is racial inequality. The real problem would be “food apartheid”, rather than food deserts. Due to the New Deal, which was introduced in 1933 after the Great Depression, there has been a strong correlation between food deserts and race. The intent was to positively impact the issue of food insecurity through the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which imposed production limits on certain crops and livestock and led to artificially raised prices for these products. Farmers received subsidies for reducing production. Farm owners would halt production to gain the subsidies, leaving black farmers who still practiced sharecropping with no income. The increased prices of food made accessibility even harder. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) also led minority families to be crammed into urban housing projects, heightening the inequality compared to white residents. This segregation was further intensified as urban areas continued to develop, leading to today's predominantly minority-occupied food deserts.

Overall, the topic of a food desert is complex- they emerge due to a variety of factors. Pricing, low incomes, limited access to transportation, and social issues, among many reasons, all play a role. It is noted that simply opening a supermarket will not do the job. Instead, initiatives like improving the dietary quality of food sold in shops that individuals in food deserts frequent or setting up farmers’ markets are possible solutions. More importantly, these individuals need more education regarding nutrition and health. Food deserts are becoming an increasingly major public health concern, and it is evident that governments recognize them as well. In recent years, the United States has developed several food programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and partnered with the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) across many states. It is in our best interest to eliminate as many food deserts as possible, or inequality will only continue to ensue.