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Editor's Notes
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The USDA’s definition of a food desert is a low-income neighborhood with limited or no access to a grocery store. A common misconception is that food deserts are only in urban areas. There are rural food deserts as well. Some people in rural areas have to drive great lengths to get to a grocery store. Alternate Stakeholders, such as food issue author Anna Lappe define a food desert as a low-income area with limited acces to nutritious food. This takes the stress off of grocery stores, because she does not feel grocery stores are the ultimate solution to ending food deserts.
This is a man standing in front of a corner store in West Oakland, California. In this neighborhood there are 25,000 people living within 8 miles, 53 corner stores, and no commercial grocery store.
The USDA has a food desert locator online. You are able to click on the red area to see if the name and population size of the food deserts. There is also a search function, which allows you to search for a neighborhood to see if it is a food desert. The USDA has determined that 23.5 percent of Americans live in food deserts today.
There are several causes to food deserts, but one is that grocery stores risk loosing profit by moving into low-income neighborhoods. Whole foods, which generally moves into higher income neighborhoods had a 3.69 percent profit in 2010, while Supervalu, which moves into lower income neighborhoods had a .67 percent profit.
This means that on average, for every dollar that Whole foods made, they made a 36.9 percent profit. The rest of the costs on that dollar factor implicit and explicit costs of running the business. These include things like rent, wages, and supplier costs.
For every dollar Supervalu made in 2010, there was a .67 percent profit made. This is significantly less than Whole Food’s average profit per dollar.
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative has set a goal to end food deserts in seven years. The organization proposes to do so by moving Wal-Marts into low-income neighborhoods in inner cities. In July, Wal-Mart signed a proposal to move 12 Wal-Mart Express stores into Chicago, IL.
This is a picture of Wal-Mart Express opening in the neighborhood Chatham in Chicago. The express stores are small, test-versions of Wal-Mart, to see how well they will do in these neighborhoods.
A lot of people are opposed to Wal-Mart because of the historically low-paying jobs. These are protests in San Fransico and Chicago this year.
Nutritional education is the most important solution, but also the most long-term solution, since changing people’s mindsets can take a long time. If someone was used to eating junk food their whole lives and then were given the option of eating blueberries, they might still pick the junk food because that is what they are used to. Nutritional education has to make healthy food an appealing choice.
Green Youth Farm in Chicago, IL is a feasibleshort term solution. At the farm, people from low-income neighborhoods without access to nutritious foods can come and learn about how to grow food. The idea is that they will take their knowledge home and grow nutritious food.
In Chicago, the Fresh Moves mobile produce bus distributes fresh produce to people living in food deserts. In New York, there are Health Bucks, which can be used to pay for food at Farmers markets.
The USDA has implemented programs to help new farmers get loans and grants so they can provide nutritious foods for the rural food deserts. There are currently 43 programs which aim to end rural food desert. One of the most famous is the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative.
Food deserts are a complex issue. There are multiple causes and solutions to this issue.
