Essay On Food Insecurity

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Food Insecurity in America
Food insecurity is a serious problem for those in poverty. Depending on whether an area is urban or rural, a food desert is considered an area where residents must travel between one and in some cases over twenty miles to access a grocery store. 23.5 million Americans live in areas considered food insecure (Blumenthal, 2013.) The inability to access proper nutrition plagues the poor with obesity and a multitude of other negative health conditions that follow. With a growing rate of obesity and poor health in the United States, we must take seriously the issue of food deserts and analyze its origins in pursuance of an effective and sustainable solution.

Indicators
Obesity Rate
Many factors contribute to obesity, including level of fitness, caloric intake, food choices, and stress (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013.) Struggling to provide necessities for a family often puts stress on each of these factors. The American Diabetes Association gathered census data from 2010 to determine a correlation between obesity and poverty. Figure 1 section A shows that among 3,139 United States counties, those with high incomes experience low rates of obesity while counties with higher incidents of poverty experience higher rates of obesity. Additionally, section D shows a strong positive correlation between poverty and diabetes, which is a result of obesity and unhealthy eating habits. (Levine, 2011)

Prevalence of Food Deserts in Poor Areas
The United States Department of Agriculture has produced an interactive map which highlights areas of low income and low access to healthy food. As you can see in Figure 2, the problem persists throughout the country across cities and rural areas. The map provided as...

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... in some areas. A mayoral initiative in Baltimore called “Power in Dirt” assists residents in adopting vacant lots in low income neighborhoods to be used as community gardens (Power in Dirt, 2014.) Community members are often awarded grants to grow their own produce. Another way in which communities are working towards eliminating food insecurity is through mobile grocery stores. Operating similar to an ice cream truck, a business in Detroit sends a produce packed truck around Detroit food deserts and stops to sell the goods to eager customers (npr, 2010.)

Conclusion
Although efforts currently being made are successful on a very small scale, they are not enough to truly solve the problem of food insecurity among the poor in America. Since poverty inadvertently causes food insecurity and creates a structurally complex problem, government policy should be considered.

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