Annotated Bibliography
Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: Report to Congress. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 2009. Print.
This book concentrates on the extent of areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, identifies characteristics and causes of such areas, considers how limited access affects local populations, and outlines recommendations to address the problem. The book uses a variety of analytical methods and data to assess the extent of limited access to affordable and nutritious food and characteristics of areas with limited access. In conclusion, data on time use and travel mode show that people living in
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That is just in America alone. This website discusses what defines a food desert. It goes on to explain that these food deserts are a very common thing in America, along with the effects that come into play when one is living in an area defined as a food desert. The main methods of this source focus on the use of statistics. In summary, the United States Department of Agriculture state that “Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food.” Further explained is that the effects of food deserts correlate to higher levels of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimates that twenty three and a half million people live in food deserts and that more than half of those people, thirteen and a half million have a low-income. This source is considered to be credible because the website is a .gov website which means an official government agency created the site. This source is also credible because the information was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture an official government agency. The website is similar to an article titled “Four Community Initiatives for Urban Food Deserts, When Supermarkets Fail” in the fact that both mention what a food desert is. However, they are different in ways such as that the website focuses on how these deserts affect people while the article discusses solutions to this problem. This source specifically supports how common and how dangerous this issue
Many in the U.S., today, try to eat well,balanced, meals to order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They do so by purchasing their food at farmers markets or making their own meals, so their food isn’t processed or genetically modified. Even though people are trying to maintain health in order to live long lives, without medical complications, many don’t have the opportunity to pursue life like this. In “Research shows food deserts more abundant in minority neighborhoods,” the author, Kelly Brooks, portrays an anecdote and logical reasoning, from Kelly Bower’s research, to thoroughly describe the food deserts in poor minority neighborhoods and how this issue needs to be repaired.
Cities are becoming more proactive about dealing with food deserts, mainly by giving tax breaks, as in Baltimore, to grocers that are willing to come to low-income, desertous areas. Pushes from environmental groups are also taking an impact on the cause, as the fight for healthy food has become a hot topic in that arena as well. Communities themselves are also taking a stand against food deserts, by doing their own growing of food and creating urban farms, starting up community markets, and starting programs to bring fresh food to deserts (Block, Chavez, Allen, & Ramirez,
For example, with Erika Nicole from the article No Myth Here: Food Stamps, Food Deserts, And Food scarcity, said “ Poor urban neighborhood in America are often food desert.” What she says that food deserts are in areas where money isn't the thing they have most and being able to afford a car may not be an option. With urban area people not having an income to afford a car, they happen to go to closer areas to get their food like liquor store, fast food joints, etc. Also, having to take a huge amount of food on the bus will be very difficult to even dangerous because of the chance of being
America is by far one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations worldwide. But to be such a powerhouse and beacon of some much opportunity, The United States is struggling to provide families with the sufficient amount of food. The parts of the country that lack adequate food supply are known as food deserts. The term food desert can be used when describing areas with limited resources and little to no access to fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products. Affordable and nutritious food is almost impossible to gain access to in food deserts. Approximately 2.3 million of Americans live over a mile away from a supermarket and do not have a car. This equates to about 2.2 percent of all U.S. households. These statistics are according the data provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. The reports also indicate that some of these areas include vast, rural parts of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, as well as urban areas like New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The people residing in majority of these food deserts are predominantly African Americans.
Although the two authors do not refer to each other directly in their works, both their perspectives share a common ground that no enough income make people eating less healthy. Pinsker argues that the actual barrier that stops people from eating healthy is the lack of income (129-130). He uses studies to show that poor families choose processed food because children like those tasty processed food (Pinsker 129-134). Whereas poor families cannot afford the waste if children refused to eat healthier but less tasty food parents provided (Pinsker 129-134). Cortright also suggests that income matters the most to why people do not eat healthy. He even further discusses income as the most influential limiting factor by addressing that other factors such as physical proximity to local food sources do not cause people to eat less healthy (Cortright 135-138). The two authors, in general, reach a consensus and mutually prove that income plays as the biggest limiting factor for people to have healthy
Food deserts are places where healthy foods are not produced nor sold. Unfortunately, Chicago is filled with food deserts. Approximately 600,000 people reside in areas that consist of food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Nearly 200,000 of those people are children. These children do not have the opportunity for healthier options, which shows an increase in obesity rates (News One Staff, 2011). There are 77 Chicago communities and out of that 77, 23 are food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Chicagoans-particularly the black communities- are forced to live off the accessible food that is near them. The food deserts are in Austin, North Lawndale, Armour Square, Near South Side, Fuller Park, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park, Woodlawn, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Ashburn, Auburn Gresham, Beverly, Washington Heights, Morgan Park, Roseland, Pullman, South Deering, Riverdale, South Chicago, and West Pullman (Grossinger, 2007). The communities are usually served by junk food- filled corner stores, which do not offer an abundance of healthy foods. The communities are in desperate need of change.
“Food Deserts” are arears where people have a hard time finding affordable, healthy food. These places are usually low-income neighborhoods that do not have any supermarkets nearby but have convenience stores that sell junk food and fast food places around them. Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener, lives in a “food desert” in South Central Los Angeles. He plants fruit and vegetable gardens to help nourish his community with healthy eating. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It,” Margot Sanger-Katz states that “merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood doesn’t make a very big difference” because the diets of the residents living in those neighborhoods did not change. I think “food deserts” are only a part of the bigger problem in America because obesity is everywhere, not just in low-income
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013, September ). Household food security in the united states in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155/report-summary.aspx
“Food Deserts” as defined by the CDC, 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” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). In simpler terms, a food desert is a community with little to no grocery stores. Many reports show that neighborhoods with less access to neighborhood grocery stores have a higher risk for obesity and unhealthy diets unlike neighborhoods where residents have better access to neighborhood grocery stores. The “USDA estimates that 23.5 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income areas that are than one mile from a supermarket. Of the 23.5 million, 11.5 million are low-income individuals in households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty line. Of the 2.3 million people living in low-income rural areas that ...
Alviola IV, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr., and Michael Thomsen to learn more about what food deserts and how they impact the society around them. I believed that this was a good source because it went into what food deserts are and how they might be connected to the increase of obesity. I learned that a food desert is an “area where access to healthy foods is limited or constrained” (Alviola 106). I also learned that studies have shown people who live in food deserts “are likely to pay higher prices for food and have limited options in terms of purchasing healthy foods” (Alviola 106). After reading this article I have realized that Xavier may also be in a food desert because the closest grocery store is Kroger whose produce is almost always non-fresh and does not look edible to eat which encourages people to leave and resort to eating fast food for every meal. Needing more information about the effects of Food Deserts I started to look at an article called, “The Effects of Food Deserts on the Weight Status of South Dakota Children”, written by Emily Niswanger, Elizabeth Droke, Suzanne Stluka, and Kuo-Liang Chang. I believed that this was a great next source to look into because the name of the article was exactly what I wanted to get more information about. The source was about one study that was made in the state of South Dakota to discover if food deserts do have an effect on
According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...
Ploeg, M. ver; Breneman, V.; Farrigan, T.; Hamrick, K.; Hopkins, D.;Kaufman, P.; Lin, B. H.; Nord, M.; Smith, T.; Williams, R.; Kinnison, Access to affordable and nutritious food measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences : report to Congress ([Rev. Sept. 3, 2009] ed.). (2009). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
Food deserts low income areas, where people don’t have access to healthy and fresh foods for them to; in most of these areas there are no local stores or supermarket. Not having these things really affects the health of the people in these communities. In the article ‘The Origins of the Food Desert: Urban Inequality as Infrastructural Exclusion’ they state that these are, “Places without supermarkets—what many call “food deserts”—lack affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, as remaining corner stores are unable to procure and preserve wide varieties of fresh foods” (Deener). This shows that even though there may be some places to get food in these areas, there are only corner stores that do not provide the right types of food or there are fast food places. The places that aren’t there but need to be are supermarkets and places for people to get food that is healthier, than the food that they are already eating. These food deserts can lead to people’s health being affected badly; they may end up with weight issues, diabetes and other serious issues that can affect them in the long run. Food deserts came to be in the 1950’s-60’s when supermarkets became a “suburban phenonium”, this was not good for corner stores in the cities; it then leads to the corner stores in the cities failing, which then lead to the start of the food deserts. Over the past couple of years people and groups have been trying
For economists and politicians, there are a few things that still are not considered, and the missing answers are only piling up; someone always has to win or lose out. Food policies are one of them. Bringing urban agriculture to cities is an incomparable move. When community food growing flourishes, the consumers seem to be healthier and smarter about what they eat, less p...
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.