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Food Desert
Food deserts are defined as those counties which do not have access to grocery markets in 10 miles. This situation implies the lack of healthy food available to most people, which would make them rely on fast food near their neighborhoods. In more genuine cases, an entire neighborhood or whole gathering regions don’t have a standard market. That is why people rely on fast food. Reliance on fast food only leads to an unhealthy and unbalanced diet, which could lead to some health problems. Most of these diseases include obesity, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions. Some studies also shows that African- Americans are most affected by the lack of grocery stores in their neighborhood, and therefore, are subject to severe chronic health conditions. The claim that poor people don't want to eat healthy food is illogical because healthy food is not available and affordable for them.
Many of the People living in food desert are people with low-income. These low-income people often rely on unhealthy food because it is all they can afford. Food deserts are “characterized by relatively poor to healthy and affordable food, may contribute to social disparities in diet and diet-related health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease and obesity” (Beaulac et a1. 1). However, food deserts are not only limited to those areas where grocery markets are entirely absent, but exist in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition, people can’t buy their food from different areas, so if they are shopping every week, they may require accessible transportation for a long division. Therefore, many people are not prepared to make their buys, moving to a fast food store or a hotel store. In a cabin store, the price of fries and liquor would cost roughly three times more than what might arrive in a standard market.
Poor people are buying unhealthy food, because they don’t care about the quality of the food, they are just thinking about the price. Also According to Troy C. Blanchard’s article, “Retail Concentration, Food deserts, and Food disadvantaged communities in Rural America” says that “ the creation of food desert in the U.S has occurred gradually during the past 30 years” (3). The reason behind this emergence is the globalization of food retailers. These food retailers offer cooked food, often at low prices which attract people from low-income groups to prefer them over uncooked vegetables, as they might not have the time and energy to put a meal together. As time-saving as cooked food might be from the globalized food retailers, it might not be healthy and may lead to chronic health diseases.
Local businessmen don’t want open a grocery store in poor neighborhood, for this reason; they know that poor people can’t pay more to buy healthy food. If the people don’t buy the healthy food then businessmen will lose his business, that why they don’t open one. Marianne Bitler and Steven J. Haider are of the opinion that “ The most basic determinants of supply are the input costs to running a retail food outlet, which include labor, land capital, transportation costs, and wholesales product costs”(2). This showcases the problem of building grocery stores. However, the same is required for running fast food outlets, which are available in food deserts, but not grocery stores. Probably because grocery stores are usually run by local businessmen, who may or may not have capital to invest in the fast food chains. Therefore, the chances of opening a grocery store in a poor neighborhood declines, not just because of the investment in this business, but the possible low income generated through selling healthy food, in an area where low-cost, fast food is readily available.
Some of the poor people try to walk for couple miles to purchase healthy food, avoid the high prices. Moreover, “In a study of the effects of the presence of Wal-Mart in 14 Missouri counties, Keon et al. (1989) found that the number of retail stores in counties with a Wal-Mart declined during the 1980’s” ( Troy C. Blanchard 5). This decreasing scale in the local retailers when a global retailer opens in the neighborhood shows not only the decline of business for local people ,but would impact the eating habits of the people in the surrounding area, who would most probably prefer cooked or ready-made food, available in global food retailers. On the other hand, the majority of the low-income population in the Delta journeyed 30 or more miles to buy groceries at superstore as “to avoid high priced smaller grocers and inadequate quality food sold at convenience stores and gas stations” (Blanchard 2). This shows the flip side of the coin that people travel more to global food retailers, or superstores, such as Wal-Mart, to purchase good quality food, which is otherwise unavailable in local grocery stores.
It shows that in either case, economically disadvantaged neighborhoods are likely to suffer from local stores who sell substandard quality food, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grain. For this reason, those people belonging to low-income groups might have to resort to traveling to globalized supermarkets. On the other hand, there might be local grocery stores which provide good quality food, but might not be affordable for low-income groups. This situation would lead such people to get food from their nearest fast food retailers. A group of researchers conducted a survey in North and Central Brooklyn and East and Central Harlem to gauge:
While areas with a higher percentage of blacks/African Americans and Latino residents had a slightly higher percentage of fast food restaurants than areas with the lowest percentage of blacks/African Americans and the lowest percentage of Latino residents, areas with a higher percentage of white residents and residents with higher incomes had a slightly smaller percentage of fast food restaurants than areas with the lowest percentage of white residents. (Gordon et al. 699)
The results of this survey suggest that the globalized food retailers focus on opening their franchises in Latino and African-American neighborhoods, as it is expected that these groups will have lower incomes as compared to white residents. This speculation leads the food retailers to open their branches in their areas, so they could benefit more from the socioeconomic salaries of this group. It is expected that this group might have the time, energy, or the resources and facilities to cook their food. It is also suggested through the results of the research by Gordon et al. that when this low-income group relies heavily on fast food, then they are at a high risk of contracting chronic health issues over a period of time.
The poor people don’t have the ability to reach the asset that they need in their daily basis such as cash and transportation to feed themselves as wealthier people. As the book, The meaning of sociology by Charon and Viglinat indicates, “Having a high rank implies that one can impact the monetary and political request more consistently than people who have a low rank or live in need” (67). An area with a richer salary would be able to access the assets they require every day to feed themselves, as opposed to a lower wage group that does not have the cash to aquire average assets. According to Charon and Viglinate book, the section of imbalance in a general public says “… one thing we think about the poor in all social orders in that they weaken to control the predetermination of their economies, depend on others for survival, and have no effect on the title of the monetary and political request (67). The wealthier you are, the more influence you have to implement an improvement and a family with lower salary would not have the capacity to do much about the circumstance in which you find yourself.
Social class can enormously impact many individuals. For instance, a wealthier community like Steetervill has grocery stores close-by, where they can get their new conveyance and meat. Two or three miles from each other there are Dominick’s, Treasure Island and Lake Shore Grocers. This is a wealthy neighborhood. A family around that neighborhood can afford the cost of transportation because the supermarket is close by as opposed to a neighborhood with lower wages. For example, in Pullman, there are very few supermarkets. These areas do not have a wide range of assets that should have the ability to reach these supermarkets, for example, cash and transportation.
Instead of this argument, another research’s results focus on the obesity in students in food desert areas. “ The percentage of overweight students in food- desert districts increased by 2.34 percentage points between 1999 and 2001 as contrasted with the nonfood-desert districts which also experienced increases in overweight students, but only by 1.08 percentage points” (Schafft et al. 167). The results of this research reflect on the plight of people, especially young people that are forced to consume unhealthy diets because supermarkets are too far or too expensive to buy healthy food. Obesity leads to some other diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer.
Beaulac et al. have listed specific measures which could “decrease price disparities between healthy and unhealthy foods” (5). To do so, government intervention is required as they could pass bills to purge the differences between high-income and low-income groups. This difference will only increase in fee market policy, as the global food retailers will focus more on opening franchises in low-income neighborhoods. Therefore, the government should facilitate “the entry of supermarkets and other food stores into low-income areas, [and] encourage the development of local grocery cooperatives” (5). Other than these strategies to bring equal opportunities for healthy food to low-income groups, which are accessible to the high-income groups, general awareness programs could be launched. Also, encouraging the “advertisement of healthy foods” would enable the low-income groups to comprehend the danger of consuming unhealthy food as a routine (Beaulac et al. 5). The general awareness programs may also help these groups to locate grocery stores nearer their home, and might advise them about developing good eating habits combined with regular exercise, which is necessary to keep a healthy body.
To date, the government has also employed several measures to eradicate the rise of obesity, as seen in food desert areas. “ The US Department of Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Treasury joined together to develop the healthy food financing initiative (HFFI) to improve access to healthy, affordable foods’ in food deserts (9), committing US$ 50 million in federal money for HFFI” ( Block et al. 3). Apart from these policies, certain models have been analyzed which gauge the effect of taxing unhealthy food. However, this report also suggests that though it might lower the demand of consuming such food, it has not shown “no greater decline in overweight and obesity rates among low-income individuals” (6). The government still need to encourage the poor people, till they don’t eat the unhealthy food, and also awareness them about the cause of unhealthy food.
This research brings to light the definition of food deserts and the economic group which is targeted through this food segregation. It has also highlighted that lesser number of grocery stores operates in low-income groups as compared to high-income groups. Also, globalized food retailers or fast food chains open their franchises in low-income group areas which are usually food deserts. It is interpreted that this is because of the economic disadvantage of the low-income group that they can only afford cheaper, ready-made meals form these food chains, rather than cooking for themselves. This research essay also shows a positive link between unhealthy, ready-made food with obesity. The latter is lead to various heart disease and obesity. Lastly, this research essay points some of the measures which the US government is taking to eradicate food deserts.
Works Cited
Beaulac, Julie, Elizabeth Kristjansson, and Steven Cummins. “A Systematic Review of Food Deserts, 1966-2007.” July 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722409/pdf/PCD63A105.pdf
Bitler, Marianne, and Steven J. Haider. “An Economic View of Food Deserts in the United States.” Policy Brief, 23 October 2010, http://www.npc.umich.edu/publications/policy_briefs/brief23/policybrief23.pdf
Blanchard, Troy C. “Retail Concentration, Food Deserts, and Food Disadvantaged Communities in Rural America.” Mississippi State University, n.d., http://srdc.msstate.edu/ridge/projects/recipients/02_blanchard_final.pdf
Block, Jason P., and S. V. Subramanian. “Moving Beyond “Food Deserts”: Reorienting United States Policies to Reduce Disparities in Diet Quality.” PLOS Medicine, vol. 12, issue 12, 8 December 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672916/pdf/pmed.1001914.pdf
Charon, Joel M.; Vigilant, Lee G. The Meaning of Sociology. 2008
Gordon, Cynthia, Marnie Purciel-Hill, Nirupa R. Ghai, Leslie Kaufman, Regina Graham, and Gretchen Van Wye. “Measuring Food Deserts in New York City’s Low-income Neighborhoods.” Health & Place, vol. 17, 2011, pp. 696–700. https://sci-
hub.cc/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.12.012
Schafft, Kai A., Eric B. Jensen, and C. Clare Hinrichs. “Food Deserts and Overweight Schoolchildren: Evidence from Pennsylvania.” Rural Sociology, vol. 74, issue 2, 2009, pp. 153–177. /https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227735225_Food_Deserts_and_Overweight_Schoolchildren_Evidence_from_Pennsylvania