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Food Deserts

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Food Deserts
Tanjin Minar CWP 102 4/14/13 Brad Romans Food Deserts There is growing trend of cities across the United States that do not have access to food such as places in Buffalo, Baltimore, or Detroit. According to the USDA, a food desert is to qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract 's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles). You can even look up a food desert locater on the USDA website and it will provide you areas where it is hard to buy broccoli or carrots in red marked areas. Going to the supermarket is a 30-minute bus ride if you live in the east side and many people do not have the money either to buy expensive organic produce as well. Thus, living in a stratified society today, people who live in food desserts region are prone to have an adverse effect on their health because of the proximity of food co-op, farmers market or organic supermarkets. Food deserts are places or regions in the United States that people do not have access to healthy food, which then contributes to obesity and adverse health conditions. There is a direct link in how food deserts have adverse affects on health. For example, cities like Buffalo, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington D.C or even New York City have African Americans with a ratio of obesity related illnesses because of the lack of healthy foods near them. Many parts of Buffalo do not have resources to healthy food such as parts in the East Side in Bailey Ave. opposed to Williamsville in Buffalo. Wegmans is known as Buffalos supermarket that has various types of food, which is organic and healthy. Many stores in Buffalo such as Tops or Shop Rite despite the fact they are cheaper in food but the quality is not too bad. In America, there have been several studies done


Cited: Cummings, E. (2011,). The "greening" of America 's "food deserts". Afro - American Red Star. Retrieve fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/902798424?accountid=7259 Douglas, Deborah. The War against obesity. Crisis (Baltimore,: 2003) 117.2 01 Jan 2010: 26. fffffffCrisis Pub. Co. 02 Apr 2013. Dreier, Hannah. OASES IN 'FOOD DESERTS '. Contra Costa times 21 Sep 2011: A.1. Lesher ffffff Communications, Inc. 02 Apr 2013. Kolata, Gina. "Studies Question the Pairing Of Food Deserts and Obesity." The New York vvvvTimes. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2013. Mayes, Eric. "First Lady Sees 'Food Desert ' Solution." Chicago Citizen: 1. Feb 24 2010. vvvvProQuest. Web. 2 Apr. 2013 . Raja S., Ma C., Yadav P. 2008. “Beyond food deserts: Measuring and mapping racial disparities in neighborhood food environments.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 27 (2008): vvvv459-82 Schafft, Kai A. Food deserts and overweight schoolchildren: evidence from Pennsylvania. Rural fffffffsociology 74.2 01 Jun 2009: 153. Rural Sociological Society. 02 Apr 2013. Walker, Renee E., Christopher R. Keane, and Jessica G. Burke. “Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature.” Health & Place 16.5 (2010): 874. Walker, Renee E. Do residents of food deserts express different food buying preferences compared to residents of food oases? A mixed-methods analysis. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity 9.1 2012: 41. Biomed Central. 02 Apr 2013.
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