From a geographical standpoint, stores that sell healthy, nutritious food are located in high income areas where one can see by simply observing, the stores are placed to not only add to a certain image an area maintains (Bower, Roland, Rhode, and Gaskin 2013) . It is also obvious that an incentive exists to also benefit people with the available funds to spend oh high quality food in stores such as, Whole Foods and Trader Joes in suburban areas, wheres in more urban areas, there is lot of apathy with accessibility of residents to stores such as these because people assume urban residents will not shop there due to their incomes. This apathy automatically robs some urban residents of convenient healthier options as well as an opportunity to …show more content…
2013) . Throughout time, a as Census records revealed that neighborhood poverty increased, it was noticed that the number of supermarkets in the area decreased continuously, while the grocery and convenience stores increased, regardless of the ethnicity of the consumers they were attracting . Research revealed at each level of poverty within the data retrieved from the census, that African Americans had the fewest supermarkets ( Bower et al. 2013) . On the contrary areas populated with many Caucasians had a wide variety of stores that were accessible, aside from this factor, integrated areas had intermediate access to grocery stores. The study also revealed that within the Hispanic community, the census data presented that there were the largest amount of accessible grocery stores, regardless of the poverty level. Additionally, within more rural areas, race or income did not factor into the accessibility of stores; however it is suggested factor of distance was an issue since they were only a select quantity of stores for every individual in the area ( Bower et al. 2013) …show more content…
It is almost like setting people in economic cages, they see their neighborhood and surroundings and notice the type of stores available unto them then notice how the other side flourishes. This strategy adds to the misconception that because one is of lower close, they need to stay within their means regardless of their health being at stake, while others can indulge in the options of much better quality instead of processed food and junk food (Nayga 2017) .The wealthy and rich are pampered with a large selection of services and goods meanwhile the struggling and poor are subjected to much lower forms of such.Lower income areas are bombarded with fast food stops, Dollar Generals, sometimes a Walmart, but mainly cheap quick fixes for the appetite of the low income part of a community (Nayga 1997) . Whereas middle to higher income are graced with higher end stores such as Lowe's food, Harris teeters, which contain roughly 85% of fresh organic and local foods, including the produce(Bower et al 2013) . Those with fixed or low incomes are focused on pricing rather than nutrition, their strategy is to get the most out of their dollar, so snacks, frozen foods, and fast food are typically a common choice since it is suitable for the budget.Packaged foods such as
“Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” is an essay written by Robert Paarlberg for the May/June 2010 edition of Foreign Policy magazine. Foreign Policy was originally founded in 1970 with the intention of providing views on American foreign policy during the Vietnam war and does more or less of the same today. Paarlberg’s purpose in this essay is to convince an educated western audience that the Green Revolution was not a failure and improved life everywhere it took place, organic food having advantages over non-organic food is a myth, and the solution to food disparity is investing into agriculture modernization. With logos as the main mode of appeal, Paarlberg’s organization effectively sets up his points throughout the essay with consistently
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
More and more health-conscious individuals are scrutinizing the source of the food their family consumes. However, even the most conscientious consumer is not fully aware of the exhaustive efforts and struggle to get a juicy, ripe strawberry or that plump tomato in the middle of winter, even in Florida. These foods are harvested and picked mostly by seasonal and migrant farm workers. Migrant workers hail, in large part, from Mexico and the Caribbean, and their families often travel with them. Migrant farm workers must endure challenging conditions so that Americans can have the beautiful selection of berries, tomatoes, and other fresh foods often found at places like a farmer’s market or a traditional super market. Seasonal and migrant farm workers suffer a variety of health problems as a result of their constant exposure to stress, the elements, and chemicals such as pesticides. They are paid minimal wages and are expected to work long hours of strenuous labor for pennies on the dollar per piece or per hour. The migrant families are expected to live in substandard quarters and transported to various work sites in unsafe transportation. The fresh fruits and vegetables consumers purchase with little thought reach supermarkets at a cost that is not reflected in the retail price. This cost is ultimately absorbed by farm workers in Florida and other areas throughout the country, who are among the poorest of American workers.
What’s the difference between a Walmart and a farmers’ market? What causes these differences? And, what are we more partial to? Tracie McMillan delves into the intricacies and complications of our nation’s food industry in The American Way of Eating. Specifically, as McMillan integrates herself into the farming and grocer/selling aspect of the industry, it is evident the food system has been extremely successful in offering ‘abundance, accessibility, and affordability’ to its consumers.
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
It is heart breaking to see an obese American on the street,because one instinctively knows that the obese American is not making the best food choices. We are constantly establishing new and innovative ways for improving society in terms of technological advances and transportation, although as stated from Budiansky we are also to be blamed for transportation and environmental consequences. “A single ten-mile round trip by car to the grocery store or the farmer’s market will easily eat up about 14,000 calories of fossil fuel energy.”(8) Growing food locally and consuming food locally will save a trip to the grocery store. Innovative technologies don’t always have to be the case. Agriculture only makes up 2 percent of our nation’s energy usage,which is used for running farm machinery and manufacturing fertilizer. Using these effectively will allow us to avoid processed foods and reduce the obesity rate. Individuals with food allergies are able to ask farmers about how the food was grown or ask chefs at a restaurant what ingredients were used in a specific dish. As most of us we desire social interaction. Going to a local food market, allows us to meet different individuals that may offer favorable advice for selecting food items. Our lifestyles all come down to ourselves,which means choosing foods that are advantageous toward our health. If we are aware of where the food comes from, it is easier to make those choices that will benefit
Maria Andrea Gonzalez, the mother, says that she feels guilty giving her children poor meals, but living on a dollar a day is the reason why they can’t afford food at a grocery store (Kenner). Pollan’s view on income being a factor in the obesity and other adverse health effects seems to be completely valid. Freedman argues that while spending nine dollars on a healthy smoothie seems to be totally unnecessary and basically should not be a thing due to the high cost. Freedman does have a point there saying how high the prices are for healthy products, but having fresh products is going to have a cost to them. Stores like Whole Foods are made to attract more an audience with higher incomes who can afford organic products which may defer people with lower incomes due to the high prices.
That is why over the last year my wife and I have made it our goal to eat healthy to ensure that we are able to avoid becoming a statistic. This task has not been easy and has been very expensive. In the area that we live there are approximately seven stores that provide groceries with an adequate amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. They range from the large super stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, Meijer, and Sam’s Club, to smaller chains like Pete’s Fresh Market, and Strack &Van Til. Out of all the stores listed my wife and I shops mostly at Strack & Van Til and Meijer due to the
... reside in those neighborhoods do not get grocery stores such as Mariano’s. When one walks around a predominately black community and or lower income, it is not easy to spot an organic healthy store. But if one was to walk around a higher income community, he can find a store who produces and or sells healthy food items. Because of the stores that is parallel to the obesity people see in their own neighborhood. The obesity rates have been rising according to the Illinois Advisory Committee. According to the New York Times, there has been a rise in food deserts because of the closing of the Dominick’s grocery store. People are having to take two buses to get to the nearest store that sells quality food. That is an issue of its own. It is not fair that people who need these stores are getting it taken away from them with no replacement. There has to be another way.
In addition to this, predominantly white communities have about 4 times as many grocery stores as predominantly black ones do. Studies also show that grocery stores in African-American neighborhoods are usually smaller and have less options when it comes to the selection of foods. Research proves that low-income families will shop wherever the food prices are lower, and generally cannot afford to pay for healthful foods. In comparison to the residents of higher income communities, low-income households normally have diets that are higher in meat and processed foods and often have low intakes of fruits and vegetables. Research suggests that people with low socioeconomic status spend up to 37% more on food.
Brook speaks about a woman named Kelly Bower and her suggestions for solving this problem in low-income neighborhoods. One of Bower’s suggestions is having local policymakers find ways to convince supermarkets and grocery stores to locate in “food desert” areas. According to Sanger-Katz’s article, policymakers have relocated the supermarkets to improve the health of poor neighborhoods but people are still choosing the same foods. People still choose the same unhealthy food because they prefer to eat that kind of food. Obesity is becoming a big problem in America and Finley says that “drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys” because there are more fast food restaurants than there are grocery stores. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access,” Sanger-Katz talks about a man named Brian Elbel, who did a study with grocery stores, and he states “improving access, alone, will not solve the problem” of food
In providing help to people who find themselves in food insecure households, people can be found who are skeptic of their true need. One of biggest myths of the disadvantaged is that they have poor shopping habits or shop in convenience stores where prices are extremely higher than compared to those in grocery stores. Another ...
American citizens economic standing plays a role in the what foods they buy, where they buy, and their accessibility to buy. According to the United States Department of Agriculture an estimated twenty-three and a half million people live in a “food desert”. which is an urban or rural community that has little to no access to fresh food distributors such as a supermarket or farmers market. A lot of times these communities only food options are convenience stores and fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds and 7-Eleven, that...
Poverty is regarded as the major cause of food insecurity. A household food security depends on access to food. America has access to good healthy food. However, a family too poor to buy them do not enjoy food security. Rosenbaum and Neuberger (2005) report that each year the number of people using government food assistance programs grows. “Food stamps are targeted to those with the greatest need for help in purchasing food… [and] helps to lessen the extent and severity of poverty (Rosenbaum and Neuberger 2005)”.
argue against, which is the position that the dietary choices of the poor are a reflection of availability, not of internal orientation. Jetter and Cassady conducted a statistical analysis of the food baskets of Americans in different income groups and found that individuals on food stamps purchase, on average, $36 per week less of food than individuals who shopped in a grocery store in a wealthier neighborhood, and who did not use food stamps. Jetter and Cassady used these data to reach the conclusion that what they construed as “healthier foods” (that is, the foods more likely to be available in the upscale grocery store) are more expensive, and therefore that the poor cannot afford to eat well. This result is specious, because (a) it failed to control for the actual contents of the test subjects’ baskets and (b) it conflated the cost of grocery baskets with the healthiness of food. Jetter and Cassady were attempting to lend empirical credence to the claim that food deserts force the poor to buy less nutrition food. In doing so, however, Jetter and Cassady failed to consider basket contents. If, for example, an individual on food stamps spent $200 on eggs, chicken breasts, beans, rice, and fresh fruit and vegetables, then surely such a choice would be healthier than an individual who spent $200 on candy bars and soda. Jetter and Cassady’s logical fallacy was to assume that the contents of the