How can we solve food deserts?
Food Desert Solutions
- Establish bus stop farmers markets.
- Support community gardens.
- Improve public transportation options.
- Implement dollar store restrictions.
- Consider food co-ops, nonprofits, and government-run supermarkets.
What categorizes a food desert?
Low-income census tracts with a substantial number or share of residents with low levels of access to retail outlets selling healthy and affordable foods are defined as food deserts.
What groups are affected by food deserts?
Generally speaking, food deserts are more common in areas with: smaller populations; higher rates of abandoned or vacant homes; and. residents who have lower levels of education, lower incomes, and higher rates of unemployment.
What is an example of a food desert?
The closure of a grocery store in Macon, Georgia, is just one example of how food deserts are continuing to develop in today’s world. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation, nearly 2 million Georgia residents, including about 500,000 children, currently live in a food desert.
Why is it important to eliminate food deserts?
Eliminating food deserts could improve diet either by providing access to healthy foods for individuals seeking those foods but with prior poor access or by generating demand within communities that had limited exposure to healthy foods.
Do food deserts exist?
It tells us that firstly, food deserts do exist in many urban and rural areas of the U.S. They are a reality for many people who live in disadvantaged circumstances, either in low-income communities or other kinds of communities that might have poor access to neighborhood resources.
What causes a food desert?
Food deserts are attributed to food apartheid and have root causes in food insecurity, racial segregation, proximity to supermarkets, access to a vehicle, and various other social factors.
What are benefits of food deserts?
Experts suggest that living in a food desert may put people at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related conditions. Community Food Projects are working to improve food systems in food deserts. Their overall aim is to help increase residents’ access to healthful foods.
What does desert mean in food?
Food deserts are regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food. Without access to healthful foods, people living in food deserts may be at higher risk of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
What are the causes of food deserts?
Causes of food deserts
- Food apartheid. Apartheid is an enforced form of racial segregation.
- Food insecurity.
- Social determinants of health.
- Racial segregation.
- Transportation and proximity to supermarkets.
What are the benefits of food deserts?
Who is most affected by food deserts?
Just as African-Americans are statistically more likely than other populations to live in food deserts, heart disease kills more blacks every year than whites (despite the fact that whites make up almost 80 percent of the total US populace, and blacks comprise slightly more than 13 percent).
How many people live in food deserts?
About 23.5 million people live in food deserts. Nearly half of them are also low-income. Approximately 2.3 million people (2.2% of all US households) live in low-income, rural areas that are more than 10 miles from a supermarket.
How do food deserts form?
Food deserts occur when there is not a grocery store within convenient traveling distance . This can be due to a lack of grocery stores, lack of public transportation, lack of financial means, or a combination of these factors. Food deserts are more common in communities of color and low-income areas.
When did food deserts start?
Most knowledge of food deserts has come from studies of the United Kingdom and the United States. In fact, the term food desert was introduced in the early 1990s in western Scotland , where it was used to describe the poor access to nutritious foods experienced by residents of a public housing development.
What are food deserts?
Food Deserts Explained. Food deserts are areas that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet.