Food deserts are areas where people have limited access to fresh, healthy food and rely on expensive corner stores with limited stock. This is a problem in both urban and rural areas, where grocery stores have retreated to the suburbs, leaving people stranded. Access, financial affordability, and psychological barriers to unfamiliar foods are all issues in food deserts. Solutions include community gardens, cooking classes, low-cost farmers’ markets, and lobbying for affordable fresh food in depressed neighborhoods.
A food desert is a region where citizens have little or no access to fresh, healthy food and the community has a large number of fast food outlets. Food deserts are commonly found in urban areas, where grocery stores and other purveyors have retreated to the suburbs, leaving citizens stranded and relying heavily on expensive corner stores with limited, heavily overworked stock. Food deserts can also be found in isolated rural areas, where people without cars may find it difficult to survive when regional stores close or reduce their stock.
Several factors come into play in a food desert. In urban areas around the world, stores are retreating to the suburbs, leaving urban populations stranded. People typically cannot afford to leave low-income neighborhoods in urban areas, and many people in these neighborhoods lack cars, relying heavily on public transportation. When grocery stores roll out, these people may not be able to access stores in their new locations, and instead turn to corner stores, which often stock limited foods and no fresh fruits or vegetables.
Access is a big problem in food deserts. In many cases, public transport does not reach the areas where the shops move, because they are located in relatively more affluent neighborhoods where people use cars to get around. Urban decay can make a food desert more dangerous or unpleasant, making it difficult to reach nearby shops, especially when they are in awkward or dangerous areas. For people who have busy work schedules, it can be difficult to get to shops when they are open, and people with disabilities may not be able to reach or navigate shops to buy food.
Financial access is also an issue in a food desert. The goods in corner stores tend to be very expensive, as well as being unhealthy, because the store owners know their customers don’t have options to buy. In the event that a full service grocery store opens, people may not be able to afford the products on offer, and likewise with farmers markets, which tend to be more expensive than grocery stores.
People in a food desert also have difficulties with what to do with the food they can access. People in some communities have psychological barriers to eating certain foods, because they are unfamiliar with and may not know how to prepare the foods they can get. When faced with an unfamiliar vegetable or fast food, people may choose fast food because it is familiar, cheap and easy.
The existence of food deserts has been recognized since the 1970s, when researchers in Britain began looking at rural communities undergoing economic downturns. In the 1990s, the problem became more globally publicized, and some organizations made an effort to combat food deserts with things like community gardens, cooking classes, low-cost farmers’ markets, and campaigns to lobby for grocers. with affordable fresh food in depressed neighborhoods.
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