In the United States, food deserts are common descriptions of the conditions people live in. Approximately 23.5 million people live in a food desert with about 2.3 million of these people being low-income. As defined by the USDA, a food desert is, “an area that is vapid of fresh fruit, vegetable, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas.” (site USDA/Nutrition digest). With such a high number of food deserts in the United States, organizations and groups have set out with the goal to increase food sovereignty and healthy food access for the communities living in hunger stricken areas, but what is really being done in these areas and what programs have truly been successful in strengthening the idea of food sovereignty?
History and factors of food deserts
Food deserts have been around for many years and a huge majority of them are in low-income areas with predominantly minority populations. These neighborhoods afflicted with food insecurity are historically underserved and under resourced, and cannot keep up with the surrounding populations. Studies on food deserts have shown that areas with higher poverty rates, either in rural or urban areas, are most likely to be a food desert. Along with these studies, areas with a higher population of minorities is also most likely a food desert.
In urban areas where people live more than one mile away from a supermarket and do not own a car, they are considered to live in a food desert while rural areas it is a ten mile radius that categorizes them. For most Americans, a mile seems like nothing, it is a quick drive down the road that people thousands of people do everyday. However, if you do not own a car or have a disability, one mile is a great feat. It is also extremely difficult to travel a mile away to a grocery store and back, with bags full of groceries. Another great issue with traveling to a grocery store is public transportation. If someone cannot afford public transportation, they cannot travel to places farther than walking distance, and most times, public transportation is crowded and unreliable which could turn a quick trip to a grocery store a day long adventure.
Grocery Stores
In most cases, if people can make it to a grocery store, the store is typically outdated or dirty with produce that is expired or nonexistent. “Once you go inside the store, the first thing
you noticed was the smell. It wasn't so much that “something had died” odor, but more the scent of something that rotted and was never fully cleaned up,” (site Mark Winnie). Mark Winnie, former executive director of the Hartford Food System also said that, “The iceberg lettuce, already suffering from a 3,000-mile journey by truck, looked like the victims of a mass beheading. The rest of the produce case, from mushy apples to brown bananas, displayed a similar lack of life.” (site Mark Winnie).
Food deserts make it extremely difficult for people to eat healthy, fresh food at an affordable rate. Without the access to fresh, affordable foods, people living in low-income areas are forced to buy whatever they can at their closest convenience store. A convenience store is defined as “small stores that are open for long areas and offer a small variety of goods. Convenience stores stock on goods that a person might require in an emergency and would not like travelling long distances for.” (site difference between). In convenience stores, the typical food for purchase consists of bagged chips, donuts, candy, soda and canned foods that are high in sodium.
A supermarket, or a grocery store is “a large self-service grocery store that offers customers a variety of foods and household supplies. The merchandise is organized into an organized aisle format, where each aisle is numbered or labeled and has only similar goods placed together.” (site difference between). Grocery stores in higher income areas are completely different than the local convenience stores in the low income areas. Stores such as Publix, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, etc., are fully stocked each week with beautiful and colorful produce of any kinds. There are dairy products, whole wheat products, fresh meats and many options for a person to choose from. These grocery stores are cleaned often, restocked often and have great customer service that is a major difference in grocery stores in the lower-income areas.
Although these grocery stores are expensive, the convenience stores that people in the food deserts are shopping at are also expensive. “Convenience stores charge 11 percent more than grocery stores for the same good.” (site aba.com American Bankers Association). Since the convenience stores are much smaller and have a smaller customer base, they have to raise their prices in order to make a profit to operature their store. So even though people are not shopping at the expensive and nice grocery stores, they are shopping at high priced convenience stores with limited choices.
Health Factors/Rates
Constantly consuming unhealthy, processed foods is not healthy for anyone’s body. Populations living in a food desert have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (site the national academic press). Obesity is a major issues in terms of health, and a majority of people living in a food desert are reported to be obese. The reason why so many people are obese in food deserts is because the only foods they are eating are high in sodium, sugar and extra chemicals that do not benefit the body. Most of the people in food deserts also do not know how to cook healthy meals either, so they often resort to convenient canned meals or frozen meals from their local convenience store.
Along with obesity, there is high risk for type 2 diabetes. “Diabetes is a problem with your body that causes blood glucose (sugar) levels to rise higher than normal…If you have type 2 diabetes your body does not use insulin properly.” (cite the american diabetes association). Diabetes can be dangerous for people and can cause even more health risks in the future, but if a person of low-income is living with diabetes and already cannot afford to buy healthy food, how will they be able to afford health care for themselves? Living in a food desert is a vicious cycle of having to do what is best for yourself based off of your means, with ultimately not positive result.
The leading cause of death in the United States is Cardiovascular disease and over one-third of US adults have some form of it. (site food is power). People with diabetes are already at a high risk of obtaining this disease which is linked to poor diets. Cardiovascular disease is a classification of different diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels, it includes coronary artery diseases and can also include stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease and so many other issues. (american heart association). These issues can be caused by things such as, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood cholesterol, poor diet and excessive alcohol consumption…to name a few.