Food Deserts: Poverty In The United States

The ground is dry and cracked, soil is nonexistent, and anything verdant or lush is nowhere to be found. These attributes are applied to deserts, where precipitation rarely occurs. While most life in a traditional desert is on a desperate search for water, another type of desert exists where this desperate search is for healthy food. These are known as food deserts. Food deserts are areas that lack sources of fresh food, such as grocery stores and farmers’ markets (Gallagher). Instead, food deserts only have stores that sell cheap, unhealthy food. As a result, people living in food deserts are much more likely to be obese due to this prevalence of unhealthy food (“Diet and Obesity”). With all of these health problems arising from food deserts, how should the problem of food deserts

When asked about the hunger problems in America one would imagine a homeless person asking and begging for food in the streets. However, what we fail to understand is that hunger is closer to us than what we think. A fellow co-worker or perhaps even the next door neighbor may be an example of someone who suffers from food insecurity. Food insecurity is when a person does not know when or where the next meal will come from. Food insecurity is most likely to develop in food deserts, a place where there is little to no fruits, vegetables and whole healthy foods. The documentary, A Place At The Table, is attempting to shed light on the argument that many Americans suffer from food insecurity because of low income and as result those individuals face various complications.

Those residing in food desert communities are left with a small hand full of options when they do not have a car of their own. They have no choice but to use private cars, such as taxis, or to travel several miles on foot, or use public transit to get to healthful food stores. People without cars become dependent on food sources in their nearest proximity. In rural urban food desert areas, the distance to healthful, nutritious food access is near impossible on foot. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 2.4 million families in the United States are more than a mile from a grocery store and do not have access to a vehicle. The physical distance from full service grocery stores leaves people in these food deserts to be more likely to purchase food

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.

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

Food deserts are location that have very little to no access to fresh and nutritious foods. There has been a major jump in the number of area they are classified as a food desert. The Department of Agriculture has mapped out thousands of locations across the country where residents have very limited access to fresh foods. Food deserts are very high in lower income areas. Residents that live in these “are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”

Food desert defines a specific urban area, which lacks affordable food or fresh selection of food such as fruits, vegetables, and meats. Research proves that a food desert does not only occur in poor communities around the world as assumed but can also be found in upscale communities as well. Specifically what distinguishes a food desert is the distance between a local grocery store and one's home residency. Food desert is occurring all over the world which results with 2.35 million Americans live in a food desert and 6.5 million children suffer from food desert community. Food desert is a serious issue that impacts individuals.

Food deserts are “Neighborhoods and communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.” (Illinois Advisory Committee, 2011, p.4). Food deserts are mostly comprised of areas or communities that do not have equal access to healthy food as do other communities, but, however, have many unhealthy options instead. People affected by urban food deserts are mostly minority groups such as African Americans and Latinos. Many single mothers and children are also often affected by urban food deserts. According to Mari Gallagher, the founding president of the National Center for Public Research, major health risks for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are predominantly found in food deserts. Urban food deserts are a crisis in Chicago that needs to be unraveled. To eradicate the existence of Chicago’s urban food deserts, city officials must recognize food insecurity as a civil right concern, work to promote the establishment of grocery stores in impoverished communities, and sponsor nutrition campaigns to better educate residence on the importance of healthy living.

The issue of food deserts and its related problems such as, obesity and malnutrition, underlie the problem of food security. Lack of food security can be mostly found in impoverished areas, it is due because there is a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy affordable food providers. Food deserts have become a problem that is not only affecting this generation, but the next generations to come. Food deserts matter, because about 23.5 million Americans are living in a food desert, and nearly all of these people are also low income, according to DoSomething.org. People who face

Factors that attribute to the obesity crisis include increased consumption of sugary sodas, high-fat and high-calorie foods, an increase in sedentary activities, inadequate and poorly implemented physical education programs in schools, and unhealthy food options in the school systems (National Institute for Health Care Management, 2017). Children in low-income communities also have fewer resources, such as recreational programs or parks, and less access to full-service grocery stores, which has a significant impact on America’s rising childhood obesity rate (University of Michigan Health System, 2016). Food deserts are areas within the United States that do not have sufficient amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy whole foods, lack farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers (American Nutrition Association, 2012). The population most impacted by such food deserts are the impoverished, and their only solution to obtain food is through the purchase of food at convenience stores. The food that is often available at such facilities includes sugary, high-fat, and high-calorie foods, all leading to the obesity epidemic (American Nutrition Association, 2012).

A food desert is an area, typically of low income and minority residents, that lacks access to nutritious and affordable food. Food deserts are places where there are not enough supermarkets, thus the population is deprived of whole foods such as fruits and vegetables. On the contrary, an area with many grocery stores and an abundant supply of affordable and healthful food, is known as a food oasis. In 2010 the United States Department of Agriculture reported that roughly 18 million Americans live in food deserts. These food deserts are defined by residents living more than one mile away from a grocery store in urban or suburban areas, and more than 10 miles away in rural areas (Lee, 2017). The food desert areas put those families and and individuals who are already at a disadvantage, and puts them in a position of greater disadvantages. Food deserts are a social problem for they have detrimental effects on society, and exacerbates the instability and inequality within a community.

Food deserts are an active problem influenced by economic, demographic, and transportation shifts in rural and urban areas. An article in the Huffington

Food deserts are defined as areas of relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food. This phenomenon is thought to contribute to social disparities in diet and diet-related health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease and obesity (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). The term “food desert” reportedly originated in Scotland in the early 1990s to describe poor access to an affordable and healthy diet (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). Although food deserts can mean a literal absence of retail food in a defined area, studies of food deserts more commonly assess differential accessibility to healthy and affordable food between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged areas (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). In other words, food deserts can simultaneously be areas saturated by access to unhealthy food (e.g., fast-food, convenience stores) and nonfood (e.g., gas stations) venues, “characterized by calorie-dense, high-sugar foods” (Brown & Brewster, 2015). As such, people living in these areas are at a clear disadvantage to how they obtain food. Over the last decade, research on food deserts has become increasingly common. Despite the burgeoning interest, there was no systemic review until Beaulac, Kristjansson, and Cummins (2009). This article addresses the gap by assessing the evidence for food deserts, specifically in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Food deserts in these places are arguably of more concern because a process of “deprivation

Throughout the noteworthy stories of impoverished communities within the United States of America, A Place at The Table attempts to illustrate the ordinary, yet demanding confrontations encountered by America’s disadvantaged class of citizens. Indeed, omnipresent statistical information, accompanied by the unfortunate inhumanity portrayed, demonstrates to the advantaged few and enlightens to the many, that there exists an alternative America and another alternative collection of Americans: the depressed, underfed, fruitless Americans attempting to make the bare minimum to continue living. Despite the United States being the wealthiest country throughout the free world, the United States ranks last in food security in the advanced economic countries list of the IMF. As consequence of all the aforementioned woes, ordinary hardworking citizens suffer the results of failed agriculture and farm policy, and three all too common enemies known amongst the impoverished: hunger – which encompasses the deficiency of food confronting the needy; obesity – the leader in the cause of rising health concerns in America, and poverty – a factor in determining just how much quality food products one can secure.

Canton had many restaurants and markets and supermarkets and food sources, but Madison had just a couple corner stores and one “supermarket”. Combined with the data we gathered from research that half of Madison residents do not have access to cars, we identified that Madison might be a “food desert”. A food desert is a place where it is exceedingly difficult to find food, and harder to find healthy hood, and even more expensive. The people in Madison have very limited options in terms of access to food, and are thus forced to spend comparatively more of their resources in order to access the food they need. I thought the “day in the market’ initiative put on by Johns Hopkins University was an important first step, but I am not sure if it does enough to meet the needs of the