Food Desert Problem

985 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Food deserts in low income communities

In America , the existence of food desert , which means an area where people can’t afford fresh food conveniently , is causing many health problems such as overweight for the low income Americans.

Rationale for Researching this Problem:
People’s diet is one of the most important factors that could affect physical health . The diet health problem in America , however , is actually severe and “usually the result of individuals eating too much or eating the wrong things rather than eating too little” (Price, 2017) . Enormous quantity of people have to eat the wrong things just because they live in a wrong place : approximately 23.5 million Americans living in a food desert (In Depth Briefing: America's "Food Deserts", 2013) . Though food …show more content…

Such a food desert could easily form by a closure of a single store or supermarket in a low income community because these communities are usually not attractive target for corporations , and the closure of only fresh food resource in a community might make a long-term vacant of healthy food .(Pick 'n Save closing to leave 'food desert' on south side ,2017 ) Many factors could stop a supermarket to enter a food desert : some area are far from the corporation’s deliver route , and some don’t have enough consumers to support a supermarket ( Ploeg, M. V. 2013). For the smaller stores another problem rises . They must compete with fast food restaurants , which have lower price , faster serve and , for some people , better taste . On the other hand , poor people lack both time and money , so it’s unlikely for them to go miles away just for a dish of green salad while there may be several children waiting to be cared and several jobs waiting to be done . Some families also lack corresponding knowledge , make them even more tend to choose unhealthy food.
Though the food desert problem and its effect to residents’ diet is unquestionably exist , some researchers still doubt its importance and ponderance . One opinion …show more content…

(2013). In S. C. Hunnicutt (Ed.), At Issue. Is the Western Diet Making the World Sick? Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from The Week, 2011, August 12) Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010849209/OVIC?u=psucic&xid=6391fcba

Belsie, L. (2017, April 11). 'Food deserts' sprout groceries that nourish people - and communities. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489172030/OVIC?u=psucic&xid=3f80335

Ploeg, M. V. (2013). Residents of "Food Deserts" Lack Access to Nutritious Foods. In S. C. Hunnicutt (Ed.), At Issue. Is the Western Diet Making the World Sick? Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Access to Affordable, Nutritious Food Is Limited in 'Food Deserts', Amber Waves, 2010, March) Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010849208/OVIC?u=psucic&xid=73611302

Price, T. (2017, July 7). Hunger in America. CQ researcher, 27, 557-580. Retrieved from

Show More
Related

  • Food As Thought: Resisting The Moralization Of Eating By Mary Maxfield

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).

    Read More

  • Problems with Obesity in America

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Bad Food” – What’s the Best Food? Tax it, and Subsidize Vegetables”, Mark Bittman suggests that the people of America should stop eating unhealthy foods so often. In the article, Bittman tells his audience that people with “heart disease, diabetes and cancer are all in large part caused by the standard American Diet” (page 35). He also states that eating healthy can result in a better health care system, saving millions of lives. The big issue is Americans eating unhealthy every day, but proposing a plan to help stop it from happening.

    Read More

  • Mary Maxfield And Michael Pollan's Escape From The Western Diet

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    The western diet consists of foods high in sugar and fat, as well as a large consumption of red meats and refined grains. As a result, people who consume a western diet face problems with their weight and often have many diseases related to poor dieting. Pollan believes that the food industry and medical community take advantage of this. Pollan claims that the food industry will change their processed food and sell it back to the consumer rather than removing the process food all together. The medical community will treat people’s diseases instead of helping to prevent theses disease by educating people on how to make healthier life style choices. Mary Maxfield believes that these points made by Michael Pollan are hypocritical. She states that Michael Pollan is taking advantage of the consumer the same way he claims that the food industry and medical community are. Pollan would criticize the food industry and medical community but at the same time publish and sell his theories on how to eat

    Read More

  • Food Desert Rhetorical Analysis

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Michael Pollan's Escape From The Western Diet

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the Western world experiences increasing occurrences of certain diseases, society is focusing not only on finding the source of this phenomena but also on finding a solution to the problem. In his essay “Escape from the Western Diet”, Michael Pollan places the blame on the Western diet, arguing that people need only to change their eating habits in order to prevent many chronic diseases. While the author makes a compelling argument, his usage of logical fallacies, his questionable credibility, and his apparent bias weaken his point; nonetheless, I agree with his overall surmise that the western diet should be improved.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Food Deserts

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though not the only country plagued with this issue, some of the United States’ most well-known cities, like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore, are home to food deserts, which are “characterized by the combination of very few food outlets and high poverty in a given geographic area” (Kato, 2014). Detailed in the Baltimore Sun article, “Baltimore to Give Tax Break to Attract More Grocery Stores”, are the efforts to be rid of food deserts in the western part of the city of Baltimore in Maryland. By implementing a lowered tax incentive for grocery stores, grocers are encouraged to put stores in food deserts, like the Save-A-Lot that was instated in West Baltimore. More grocery stores in such areas is an aid to the elderly and disabled in the community, who have difficulty traveling long distance to get healthy food, and for the community as a whole, which has a large concentration of individuals who are low-income and have trouble paying for high food prices at most grocery stores and a twenty-year life expectancy difference from its wealthy counterpart (Wenger, 2015). This article relates to chapter two of the Tice/Perkins text, specifically the feudalistic views of the poor, namely

    Read More

  • People Who Live in Food Deserts in America

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because the people who live in food deserts do not get proper supplements of fruits and vegetable, much of their diets are consisted of mainly junk food, fast food, and meats. As a result of this, today, more than one third of adults in America are obese. In addition to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease can also be results of a lack of healthy food choices, which result from people buying their food from convenience stores that only sell processed foods and from fast food restaurants. This paper attempts to provide readers with a better understanding of the fact that not only do food deserts exists, they are threatening the lives of Amer...

    Read More

  • Food Deserts: Healthy Living In The Black Community

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Food Deserts

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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

    Read More

  • Food Deserts

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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 ...

    Read More

  • America’s Food Crisis, by Bryan Walsh

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.

    Read More

  • Escape From The Western Diet Essay

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.

    Read More

  • Low Income Families Living in Food Deserts

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...Hobbiss, A. Food Deserts And How To Tackle Them: A Study Of One City's Approach.Health Education Journal, 137-149.

    Read More

  • The American Paradox, By Michael Pollan

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nutrition and health have become more popular in today 's society. Our generation is becoming more and more indebted to the idea of being healthy and eating nutritious meals. However, in “The American Paradox,” by Michael Pollan he argues that our unhealthy population is preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy than their actual health. He also mentions the food industry, nutrition science and how culture affects the way we eat and make food choices. While Pollan is right about all these factor that affect our eating habits, there is more to it than that. Convenience, affordability and social influence also affects our food choices making them inadequate.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Michael Pollan's Escape From The Western Diet

    2499 Words  | 5 Pages

    Pollan believes that Americans rely on nutrition science, the study of individual nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and antioxidants, to fix the Western diet because it is the best source that exists. However, scientists have developed conflicting theories that confuse people to conclude as to how the Western diet causes disease, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Pollan disagrees with any type theory and instead blames the food and health industries who take advantage of new theories but do not to fix the problem of the Western diet. In turn, not only does he suggest people spending more time and money on better food choices, but he also proposes many tips to eat better, as well as a rule that will allow Americans climb out of the Western diet: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants (Pollan,

    Read More

More about Food Desert Problem

Open Document