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Low income households and food deserts
Food deserts CDC
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Some rural areas, in fact, are considered “food deserts”—areas with limited, if any, grocery stores.1 These food deserts are the collective result of several forces, including the growth in more populated areas of superstores (with a large variety of food products), an insufficient population base to support a wide array of local supermarkets (resulting in the loss or consolidation of these stores), and changes in food distribution channels, shifts that tend to favor larger food retailers at the expense of smaller food stores in rural areas. Filling the void in some parts of rural America are convenience stores and gas stations, which charge a premium for a limited range of food choices, often with low nutritional value. Over the years many have studied about the exisene of “Food deserts”. The major concern about food deserets is that there may be insuffienct quanity and quality of food or systematically higher food prices in certain geographic areas. For example, Lewis, Sloane, et al. (2005) find that there are fewer healthy restaurant options in poor Los Angeles neighborhoods when compared to more affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods. Powell, Slater, et al. (2007), using national data, find that poor and minority neighborhoods have fewer chain supermarkets than do more affluent, whiter neighborhoods. Rose and Richards (2004) find that food stamp recipients who live closer to supermarkets consume more fruit and vegetables. White (2007) reviews numerous studies that examine whether food deserts exist in the United Kingdom (UK). These studies have attracted the attention of policy makers. In the UK, a government commission issued a report a decade ago stating that food deserts were a problem, which in turn led to the introducti... ... middle of paper ... ...(e.g., existing distribution networks). Although there is no universally accepted definition of “food deserts,” one way to approach the concept is to begin with access, or the degree to which individuals live within close proximity to a large supermarket or supercenter. Many perceive such food establishments as offering consumers a wider array of food choices at relatively lower costs. Map 1 identifies those counties in which at least one-half of the population lives more than 10 miles from these large food stores, counties that we define as “low-access” places. The largest concentrations of low-access counties are in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions of the country. Low access is also prevalent in select areas of the Deep South and in the Appalachian region of Kentucky and West Virginia. All told, 803 counties are low access areas in the United States.
Many in the U.S., today, try to eat well,balanced, meals to order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They do so by purchasing their food at farmers markets or making their own meals, so their food isn’t processed or genetically modified. Even though people are trying to maintain health in order to live long lives, without medical complications, many don’t have the opportunity to pursue life like this. In “Research shows food deserts more abundant in minority neighborhoods,” the author, Kelly Brooks, portrays an anecdote and logical reasoning, from Kelly Bower’s research, to thoroughly describe the food deserts in poor minority neighborhoods and how this issue needs to be repaired.
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
Though not the only country plagued with this issue, some of the United States’ most well-known cities, like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore, are home to food deserts, which are “characterized by the combination of very few food outlets and high poverty in a given geographic area” (Kato, 2014). Detailed in the Baltimore Sun article, “Baltimore to Give Tax Break to Attract More Grocery Stores”, are the efforts to be rid of food deserts in the western part of the city of Baltimore in Maryland. By implementing a lowered tax incentive for grocery stores, grocers are encouraged to put stores in food deserts, like the Save-A-Lot that was instated in West Baltimore. More grocery stores in such areas is an aid to the elderly and disabled in the community, who have difficulty traveling long distance to get healthy food, and for the community as a whole, which has a large concentration of individuals who are low-income and have trouble paying for high food prices at most grocery stores and a twenty-year life expectancy difference from its wealthy counterpart (Wenger, 2015). This article relates to chapter two of the Tice/Perkins text, specifically the feudalistic views of the poor, namely
What’s the difference between a Walmart and a farmers’ market? What causes these differences? And, what are we more partial to? Tracie McMillan delves into the intricacies and complications of our nation’s food industry in The American Way of Eating. Specifically, as McMillan integrates herself into the farming and grocer/selling aspect of the industry, it is evident the food system has been extremely successful in offering ‘abundance, accessibility, and affordability’ to its consumers.
A major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014).
Ploeg, M. ver; Breneman, V.; Farrigan, T.; Hamrick, K.; Hopkins, D.;Kaufman, P.; Lin, B. H.; Nord, M.; Smith, T.; Williams, R.; Kinnison, Access to affordable and nutritious food measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences : report to Congress ([Rev. Sept. 3, 2009] ed.). (2009). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
“Food Deserts” are arears where people have a hard time finding affordable, healthy food. These places are usually low-income neighborhoods that do not have any supermarkets nearby but have convenience stores that sell junk food and fast food places around them. Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener, lives in a “food desert” in South Central Los Angeles. He plants fruit and vegetable gardens to help nourish his community with healthy eating. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It,” Margot Sanger-Katz states that “merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood doesn’t make a very big difference” because the diets of the residents living in those neighborhoods did not change. I think “food deserts” are only a part of the bigger problem in America because obesity is everywhere, not just in low-income
In the article “The Fight Over Food Deserts: Corporate America Smacks Its Way Down”, Eric Holt-Gimenez provides answers to the food desert epidemic the United States faces. 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 the food desert problem and how the big box companies are looking to take advantage of impoverished neighborhoods (Holt-Gimenez 525). Gimenez then 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).
Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.
According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...
This means the majority of the residents in the metropolitan area live 10 miles away from a grocery store selling fresh produce. So, many of the occupants opt for whatever food is available, whether it be fast food or pre-packaged food. If this were to change, McAllen’s whole dynamic would be improved.
The United States Department of Agriculture has reported that approximately 23.5 million Americans currently live in food deserts, including 6.5 million children (Shannon 248). Food deserts have left Americans without the option to provide fresh food resources for themselves and their families. As a result of the lack of food provided for Americans, obesity and illness rates have increased for people living in these areas. Food deserts have created a negative effect on people by causing a rise in obesity and illnesses, and causing difficulties in families. In order to fix this issue there needs to be a movement that will include placing supermarkets in food deserts and these markets should provide a variety of fresh food sources.
Mari Gallagher, one of the leading researchers in this area, defines ‘food deserts’ as ‘areas with no or distant grocery stores and limited access to nutritious food options.’ The term ‘food desert’ is typically used to describe geographical areas of food imbalance, defined as a place in which the average distance to a full service grocery store or supermarket is greater (sometimes by as much as a factor of three) than the average distance to a ‘fringe’ location, such as a gas station, liquor store, pharmacy, convenience store, or fast food restaurant.1 This lack of healthy options leads to higher rates of obesity and hypertension which are two diseases which easily can be prevented with the availability of healthier food options in low income, urban areas. The solution is not to produce more supermarkets in these areas, because with supermarkets comes more opportunity to purchase processed foods which will not only be a waste of citizens money, but also their community’s
Knox, Paul, and Sllie Marston. "Chapter 8 Food and Agriculture." In Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context. Glenview, Il: Pearson, 2013. 266-298.
This peer review will analyze the second draft of “Are Food Deserts Learning Deserts?” by Kimberly Jordan based on the following questions: (1) Is the thesis or research question clearly stated? (2) Does the writer hook the reader with an interesting opening? (3) Does the writer justify the thesis or question? (4) Is the literature review appropriate and thorough? (5) Are the methods clearly explained? (6) Were there any breaks in the logic of the argument, the flow of the paper, the transitions between sections? (7) Is the author using appropriate citations? (8) Is the writing clear and free of common errors? (9) Are there any other suggestions you can make to help the author improve his or her work? This review aims to make supportive suggestions