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Food deserts: Just a mirage?
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Food deserts. If you've listened to this show before, you've heard about them. And they've become the source of some controversy this week. They're places in the country where grocery stores and fresh food are hard to come by.
Just last week actually, Tess talked to actor Wendell Pierce about his plan to open grocery stores in New Orleans Ninth Ward. But there's some new research that says what we think we know about these food deserts is all wrong.
"The problem that we all have, we have this expectation. We've heard so much that if you go into a poor, urban neighborhood, you're not going to find any place to find fresh fruits and vegetables," New York Times' Gina Kolata said to Marketplace Money fill-in host Adriene Hill.
Kolata recently sifted through those studies in a recent article, which concluded there isn't a consistent relationship between obesity rates and the number of grocery stores in a neighborhood. Past studies focus on just one area, and it is impossible to generalize the entire nation's poor neighboorhoods through those studies. Kolata pointed out that her own neighborhood -- affluent Princeton, N.J. -- is technically a food desert; she would have to drive at least 15 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store.
These recent studies -- two national and one California based -- were very rigorous, Kolata said. They measured everything from the size and number of outlets to what is available in them.
The findings of these studies may force researchers and policymakers to re-think how they tackle the obesity epidemic, Kolata said. One researcher she spoke to told her that it's not simply a matter of putting more fruits and vegetables into the neighborhoods. A better -- although impractical -- solution would be remove the junk food that is in them.
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I listened to this segment while jogging in the urban neighborhood I moved to from the suburbs. In the 'burbs, I had five grocery stores to choose from, several less than five minutes away. In the city, I have one. I'm also a vegan and, let's just say, that one supermarket sells more corn syrup than corn.
The studies Kolata cites seem to be more about the relationship between childhood obesity and food deserts. Childhood obesity is a multifaceted problem that can't be solved by simply putting a Whole Foods supermarket in every neighborhood. Your report, however, seemed to dismiss the impact of food deserts on trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Boo.
As a local, I take argument with her detail claiming Princeton as a food desert. Princeton is known for being an extremely pedestrian friendly town, and the majority of residents of the downtown can walk to a full supermarket under 2 miles away.
McCaffreys, North Harrison Street, Princeton Township, NJ
I enjoyed the story's perspective, however I can't stand the use of incorrect facts.
I am offended. This lady knows nothing about being poor and is probably paid by companies like the ones who recently published a study showing only 4% of consumers want to get corn syrup out of their diets (they are more interested in getting "food ingredients" like "soda" out of their diets - I wonder if the survey questions were skewed).
She should spend some time travelling the country and living in poor inner city and rural neighbourhoods WITHOUT a car, and WITH only foodstamps/welfare. Then restrict her time to obtain food each day to less than 2 hours. She'll put on 20lbs in two months because McDonalds and 7-11 are the only places she can get to and afford to eat at.
I normally like Marketplace, but this was incredibly bad reporting - FAIL.
I am offended. This lady knows nothing and is probably paid by companies like the ones who recently published a study showing only 4% of consumers want to get corn syrup out of their diets (they are more interested in getting "food ingredients" like "soda" out of their diets.
She should spend some time travelling the country and living in poor neighbourhoods WITHOUT a car, and WITH only foodstamps/welfare. Then restrict her time to obtain food each day to less than 1 hour. She'll put on 20lbs in two months because McDonalds and 7-11 are the only places she can get to and afford to eat at.
I normally like Marketplace, but this was incredibly bad reporting - FAIL.
"Kolata pointed out that her own neighborhood -- affluent Princeton, N.J. -- is technically a food desert; she would have to drive at least 15 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store."
First of all, I don't know exactly where Ms. Kolata lives in Princeton, but there's a very nice supermarket there. Wegmans Princeton (http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreDetailView?langId=...) is located about 4 miles from the center of town.
Almost everyone who lives in suburbia or low density city areas like mine in Rochester, NY have to drive 10-15 minutes to get to a supermarket. If that's the definition then I suspect most Americans live in 'food deserts.' When other writers refer to 'food deserts' I think they're talking about poor urban and rural neighborhoods where supermarkets are miles away and few residents have cars to get there. These folks are forced to use public transportation to do their shopping. This means serious time spent and limits their ability to buy large quantities. Ms. Kolata needs to get out of her bubble!
Dear Marketplace,
I have been living with the question of urban food access for a number of years. Twenty years ago when I bought my home (a 2-flat row house in a middle/working class neighborhood of a small city (Troy, NY, near the State capital of Albany)), there was a supermarket near the center of town. We also had a branch of the same (local) chain in the north end of town, on the southern edge of town, and just over the bridge in a neighboring city on the other side of the Hudson River. However, shortly after building one of their “supercenters” on the eastern edge of town, Pricechopper abandoned the central store and obstructed allowing any other small supermarket from leasing the space. Eventually a low-end outlet store occupied the space.
Because I work 22 miles from home, I have the option/luxury of shopping at any of several “supercenters” on my way home from work. However, once the store on Hoosick St. closed, I realized there were many times I found myself halfway down a stretch of interstate highway at 7:00 pm and remembering I forgot to stop for bananas or an ingredient for a recipe I was planning to make and there were no other good options to stop at before I got home. Inconvenient, yes. Life-threatening, no. Similar situation on weekends, wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning with a food craving or recipe inspiration but find that there is an ingredient missing (or not as much in the jar as one thought).
My classic story of the straw that broke this camel’s back was needing more molasses for baking. I walked the block and a half to the corner store to my north and scanned the shelves. Didn’t see any molasses. I asked the nice man behind the counter (probably of Indian or Pakistani origin) if they had any and he replied, “What is molasses?” OK, back down the street a couple of blocks in the other direction to the nearest outlet of a local chain of small bread & butter shops and gas stations. Scanned the shelves, asked the sweet young blond teen at the counter if they carried molasses. She gave me a blank look and said, “What’s molasses?” I walked back home, got in my vehicle, drove the 2 miles to the closest supermarket, bought a jar of molasses and came home. Blew over an hour of time, 4 miles worth of gas, and a lot of patience. I also wondered what people who didn’t have the option of driving themselves to fill the gap did. Probably they don’t cook from scratch.
And that’s my point. If you have to walk, or take a cab or a bus to the nearest food outlet, you are less likely to get a good variety of products or be adventurous in your shopping. That means grabbing fast & easy food (even if it’s more expensive in the long run) than buying ingredients and making things from scratch. You will buy a can of baked beans instead of a bag of beans and the ingredients to make a larger, less expensive and more nutritious batch of home-baked beans (which, oh by the way, take longer to fix with ingredients which may not be available. “What is molasses?”)
I am delighted that people are drawing attention to the problem of finding fresh produce in the corner stores (get your beer, soda, cigarettes, lottery tickets, cold cuts, chips and some expensive out-of-date canned goods here!) which serve many urban neighborhoods. I am also delighted to see some effort to meet this need in my fair city. We have an active community garden organization and they have worked to make affordable fresh produce available with their Veggie-Mobile and an arrangement where their “urban farm” supplies produce to stores. We also have a wonderful, year-round Farmers’ Market every Saturday.
However, this still doesn’t solve the problem of supplying all the other ingredients one needs to make nutritious food at home affordably (flour, sugar, herbs & spices, dry beans, grains, etc. - some available, some not and no way of knowing which are available closest to you).
We had the real luxury of a food co-op in the heart of downtown for a year. Unfortunately, it opened during the peak of the global economic meltdown and while many people were devoted fans, it didn’t have the capital to sustain it until it found a wider base.
It appeared to me that lower income people were put off by the higher end items available (in spite of conventional grocery items being stocked at the same prices they were sold for at the corner convenience stores), and more affluent shoppers were too used to the glitz of the supercenters. I quickly became addicted to the convenience of being able to park closer to the door than I could have at any supercenter (in spite of perceptions about downtown parking), the ease of grabbing everything quickly & being back in my vehicle in less time than it would have taken me to hike from the entrance to the back corner of the supercenter, and the good selection of both natural and “conventional” foods they stocked. Prices weren’t super low, but reasonable. Especially when one factors in how many miles I would have had to drive to get to one of the supercenters.
And that’s the main factor of the “food desert” situation. It’s not just fruit & veggies, it’s convenient, affordable access to ALL ingredients. It’s can you buy a big batch of toilet paper for a lower unit price and get it home, instead of buying expensive single roll after expensive single roll at the corner.
Your researcher was right, a yup-scale neighborhood of gourmet coffee shops and gelato joints is as much a food desert as the poorest urban neighborhood. The difference is the residents of the yup-scale neighborhood have the option of DRIVING to anything else they need. The residents of the lower-income neighborhoods need to own a vehicle, or have a ride or be able to afford a bus or cab, and be able to manage the logistics of coordinating those schedules with their work schedules, their childcare needs and a host of other details.
Oh by the way, I did a little research the other day. One of the supercenters which is “right on the way home” for me requires a half-mile drive from the entrance of the shopping plaza to the parking area closest to the entrance of the store. Every time I “pop in on the way home”, I add a mile to my commute. At $4 a gallon, even that is something to consider these days. I’m grateful I have the resources of a job, vehicle, etc. but as a mid-grade State employee I am also paying more attention to these details these days.
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